Review: HAIR, King's Theatre, Glasgow

Set in 1967, Hair is a musical that takes place during the time of the Vietnam War. It centres around a tribe of hippies living in New York and their feelings towards what is happening in the world.

The plot is paper-thin and far too much time is spent establishing that the tribe are hippies. We learn early on that they're all for free love and hallucinogens and then the same sentiments are repeated on a loop for two hours.

The sound is terrible and the band drown out the actors voices for a large portion of the show. There are 40+ songs in Hair and other than the two I knew before going in ("Let The Sun Shine In" and "Aquarius" ) I couldn't comment on the rest as you could barely hear them. The microphones also dip in and out during the brief dialogue.

There's a warning on the booking page that the production contains racist and offensive language. This is the 50th anniversary of Hair so I assume they wanted to stay true to the original production but there's just no need for it. The language is possibly supposed to shock but the dialogue is rushed through and its just distasteful. It seems contradictory to open with an offensive soundbite from Donald Trump and then use similar language themselves.

Act Two is possibly even worse than the first. Things get a little bit trippy in the second half and the thin plot disappears almost entirely. This should be a high energy performance but it feels like the cast are just clunking through the motions.

At the time it was first staged, Hair was seen as a controversial production. It boasted of orgies, drug use and contained full frontal nudity. Even the nude scene seemed muted in this production and didn't really add anything.

The poster quotes boast that this is a joyful and exhilarating production but unfortunately that wasn't my experience of Hair.

Hair runs at the King's Theatre, Glasgow until Saturday 10th August.

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