The country was at war, the federal government was viewed with fear and suspicion, and a new youth culture was emerging that, to many adults, seemed insidious, frivolous, and perverse. From this tumult arose a unique theatrical idea: A musical about this emerging youth culture that spoke directly to the most fundamental issues, and did so with an openness and humor never before seen.<\/p>\n
It had the rather shaggy title, Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical<\/span>, and premiered off Broadway in 1967. Although the critics weren’t thrilled, audiences were. Eventually, it made its way to Broadway, and ran for 1,750 performances before moving to London, where it had nearly 2,000. <\/p>\n Aside from its anti-war, free love, sexual liberation, communist, counter-culture themes, audience involvement, and the storied bit of optional nudity at the very end, it was the songs that really connected with the larger culture. ‘Aquarius,’ ‘Let The Sun Shine In,’ and ‘Good Morning, Starshine’ became blissed-out anthems for people looking to shake off their worries. <\/p>\n Today’s youth may not truly understand what it was like back then. Fear of the draft, strict dress codes in school, racial tensions, homosexual intolerance, Women still struggling for equality: All these things were overcome through the fearless, and often misguided, efforts of the ‘hippie’ generation. <\/p>\n While Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical<\/span> may seem a bit dated and hokey to some, it still carries within it a powerful, and perhaps more importantly, relevant message. <\/p>\n The University Players are presenting a production of Hair, Directed by Dr. Joanne Gordon. The show opens tonight. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30PM, Fridays at 8:00PM and Saturdays at 2:00PM and 8:00PM. The University Players perform in the Studio Theatre, CSULB South Campus. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $12 for seniors and students (with valid ID). For tickets and information please call (562) 985-5526 or visit www.csulb.edu\/depts\/theatre<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5972"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5972"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}