The Girls Of Hair

Despite the quibbling of a few critics and the indignation of several staid first-nighters, the New York premiere of Hair in April 1968 blew a gaping hole in the Irving Berlin Wall and threatened to demolish the cherished "no-business-like-show-business" conventions of the Broadway musical. Since then, successful productions in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco have made producer Michael Butler's "American Tribal Love-Rock Musical" a left-field, contemporary addition to Old Glory, Mother and Apple Pie. But using itsharmony-and-understanding message as a passport, Hair has also played to enthusiastic audiences in England, France, Germany, Yugoslavia and Australia, issuing a multilingual declaration of independence for young people throughout the world. The cast members, hand-picked in each city from literally thousands of hirsute hopefuls, often develop a communal, mystical group spirit, and collective decisions are frequently influenced by astrological considerations. Having consulted our own star charts, we present this pictorial galaxy of the loveliest, hippest girls of Hair.