James Rado, Gerome Ragni, and Galt MacDermot’s 1967 rock musical Hair is a masterpiece of true musical theater. The musical explores the philosophies of the 1960s hippie movement and delivers a powerful message about making peace instead of war. However, the show is also recognized for its highly controversial subject matter. The musical contains dialogue, song lyrics, and musical numbers that relate to provocative themes such as sexual liberalism, drug use, and graphic violence. These themes reveal Hair as an inappropriate production to perform at a local parish chapel. Even if the chapel in question were facing financial hardship, allowing the building to be rented out for such a polemic performance would be ill advised. The chapel could never be used for worship services again once the congregation and the churchgoing community became aware of what graphic activities had transpired within the building’s walls. This is not to say the musical Hair is debased and pornographic, it isn’t. It is simply not a suitable theatrical production for a local parish chapel.
The themes of sexuality and drug use in the musical could prove quiet upsetting to the local community. In the first act, a character named Woof recites a list of taboo sexual practices during a song entitled “Sodomy.” He blatantly sings out controversial phrases such as fellatio, cunalingus and masturbation (Rigsbee, “Broadway Musical Home”). The song is intentionally filthy in order to criticize conservative society’s unhealthy tenacity toward sexual piety. Nevertheless, this song contains many very suggestive words. Language no churchgoing parent would want his or her child to hear. On top of this, at the end of the first act numerous characters appear on stage completely nude and extol the virtues of freedom and love during the legendarily provocative song and dance number “Where Do I Go” (Rigsbee, “Broadway Musical Home”). This dance number, though beautifully conceived and indicative of the hippie movement, is borderline blasphemous when performed in a building used for religious gatherings. Conservative Christian values and promiscuous sexual proclivities do not mix.
The drug use and violence depicted in Hair are also unsuitable concepts to explore while on the inside of a Christian chapel. The first act contains the musical number “Hashish” that indirectly encourages drug use by listing all substances, legal and illegal, which can cause a human to feel “high” when consumed. A character named Claude also inhales a laced joint in a later scene and hallucinates for several dance numbers (Rigsbee, “Broadway Musical Home”). These portrayals of drug use have a purpose within the musical. They are intended to show how drugs can change a person’s temperament and perception. Nevertheless, such references to substance abuse are clearly upsetting to churchgoing families affiliated with the chapel in question. The second act proceeds to criticize the needless violence of war be depicting numerous gross acts of violence on stage. Monks start setting themselves on fire, nuns start killing the monks, astronauts start killings the nuns, so one and so forth (Rigsbee, “Broadway Musical Home”). This macabre violence possesses deeper meaning within the context of the musical, but would appear as blasphemous barbarism in the eyes of a local church leaders and their congregation of Christian families. Overall, Hair is an inspiring work of theater and a time capsule containing the very essence of the 1960s, but this timeless musical belongs on Broadway, not in a local parish chapel.
Work Cited
Rigsbee, Valerie. Broadway Musical Home. Hair: About the Musical, n.d. Web. 18
