Review: Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical at Harris Center

When the moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then Hair will come to Folsom, and love will steer the stars. That’s exactly the vibe the tribe emits in this staging of the iconic 1969 counterculture celebration now at Falcon’s Eye Theatre.

The tribe in this case includes both the show’s young cast members and the enthusiastic, mostly older, audience members—all eager to be pulled into the collective experience of joy and resistance that swept the country in the late ’60s and is being mirrored in current culture and politics.

The audience is greeted by vintage black-and-white news footage of the Vietnam War and unrest stateside, giving context for this group of flower children who’ve decided to drop out and live a life of love, peace, drugs, sex and rock ’n’ roll.

The enthusiasm of the talented cast members is intoxicating, as is the psychedelic set and dynamic production elements, with the live orchestra capturing the magic sounds of the play’s hits including “Aquarius,” “Hair” and “Let The Sun Shine.”

The opening weekend audiences skewed heavily toward the original generation of tribe members, some who showed up in hippie attire, many of whom were the same age as the young actors when Hair first came out (or perhaps when the 1979 Golden Globe-winning film adaptation, by the just-deceased Milos Forman, came out). There are only three more opportunities to catch the tribe vibe.