January 10th, 2012 | Tags: broadway, broadway san diego, Broadway Tickets, cats, CATS Broadway, CATS Broadway San Diego, CATS Broadway San Diego Tickets, CATS Broadway Tickets, CATS Musical, CATS Musical Tickets, CATS on Tour, CATS on Tour Tickets, CATS San Diego, CATS San Diego Tickets, CATS Tickets, san diego, san diego tickets, tickets | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Leave a comment

Few shows have touched audiences like Riverdance. A celebration of Irish music, song and dance, the show focuses on the evolution of Irish dance and its similarities with, and influences on, other cultures. The phenomenon of Riverdance draws on Irish traditions and combines the richness of the music with the magic and sensuality of the dance.

Riverdance was originally conceived as a spectacular seven-minute intermission entertainment for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest televised throughout Europe to an audience of over 300 million viewers. Following the success of that performance, producer Moya Doherty, composer Bill Whelan, and director John McColgan, expanded the piece into a full-length stage production.

Riverdance had its world premiere at the Point Theatre, Dublin, in February, 1995, where it opened to unanimous critical acclaim. The show has taken the world by storm and to date, over 20 million people world-wide have seen Riverdance live. In addition, more than 9 million people have purchased video versions of the show, making it one of the best-selling entertainment videos in the world.

Bill Whelan won the 1997 Grammy Award for “Best Musical Show Album” for his original music and lyrics for Riverdance. This extraordinarily unique show, which features an international company, has touched the hearts of millions around the world.

Riverdance will play the San Diego Civic Theatre for the LAST TIME December 2-4, 2011. Make sure to catch it before it’s gone!

December 1st, 2011 | Tags: broadway, broadway san diego, broadway san diego tickets, Broadway Tickets, RIVERDANCE, Riverdance Farewell, Riverdance Farewell Tickets, Riverdance Farewell Tour, Riverdance Tickets, Riverdance Tour, san diego, san diego tickets, tickets | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Leave a comment

Against the Elements

“In Act One, the show deals with themes that are at the heart of a lot of early music and dance, songs in praise of the earth, sun, fire, the moon and other elemental forces that are common to all cultures.” – Bill Whelan

Your journey at Riverdance begins in pre-history, where we worshiped, praised and feared the elements. Written history in Ireland began when monks inspired by St. Patrick, began to record Celtic culture. Before that, the scholar-priests of the Celts, the Druids, looked down upon writing; they kept their histories through oral history; songs, dances, rituals. These were passed down from generation to generation. All cultures sing and speak of this early time, when the earth, sun, fire, the moon and other elemental forces ruled our lives. In Riverdance’s first act, the dancing and music reflect the power of the elements. So the opening dance sequence, “Reel Around the Sun,” celebrates the sun’s great power with a vigorous troupe, in which the beating “thunder” of their feet echoes the power of one of natures’ most dramatic forces. We fear it, but we can’t live without it. In “Firedance,” the lone dancer uses gestures and hand movements to show the beauty and danger of that contradictory element.

Leaving Home

“Act Two tells how the native culture has been forced to emigrate and, by so doing, is exposed to the forms of expression of other cultures, both in dance and music.” – Bill Whelan

Between 1845 and 1850, the time of the Great Hunger, nearly two million people left Ireland for other lands, a great distribution of people and culture. Irish culture spread out around the world, learning new ideas and influencing other cultures. As John McColgan writes, “It is a credit to the Irish that they held their culture heritage so close to them wherever they traveled.”

Most of those who left Ireland during the Great Hunger traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to America. Between the 18^th and 19^th centuries, 7 million people came from Ireland to the United States. Thousands of Irish people already living in America sent money to relatives for boat tickets to come to the New World. Today 40 million Americans can look back on their family tree and see a link to Ireland.

Coming over to the United States was often a horrifying experience. Journeys could last up to twelve weeks, and disease and starvation were rampant. So many ships had people die on route, or were lost at sea, that they were often called “coffin ships.” In Irish tradition, the term “going west” was another phrase for dying. The Irish who sailed westward for the United States were given parties called American Wakes. And those who left Ireland never expected to return again. The American Wake was at once an event of great joy and a release of deep sadness. Many songs were sung, dances were danced, food was eaten and tears were shed. The American Wake was a way to say good bye to your old life and embrace the new.

Later in the 19th century, when steam ships were introduced, the passage across the Atlantic became easier and faster. Toward the end of the 19th century, Irish immigrants in America began to become organized, helping new immigrants and creating political and social organizations. Many of these were created to help preserve Irish heritage in America. They came to escape hunger and poverty. They came with great determination and hope, looking for opportunity. And many did find that dream, but many more found things even harder than it was in Ireland. Many saw the new Irish as invaders, taking away jobs. Many Irish immigrants came with no skills, some speaking only Gaelic, and so were given the lowest paying jobs. Many Irish Catholics came to America and learned that prejudice against them was not confined to Irish borders.

No wonder many Irish immigrants felt that they were not voluntary comers to America, but that the conditions in Ireland had forced them to leave. They saw themselves as “exiles.” They were disillusioned. “Disillusion” is the loss of a dream, and for many, the dream of a new land was dead.

But the Irish prevailed spreading their culture, and re-creating the cultures they encountered. The politician Richard O’Gorman wrote, “There seems to me nothing in the Irish nature to indicate a worn out, a moribund race. The moment it touches this soil, it seems to be imbued with miraculous energy for good and evil, so that something Irish is prominent everywhere, and you have to praise or blame, to bless or curse it, at every turn.”

RIVERDANCE – SAN DIEGO Civic Theatre
December 2-4, 2011

November 28th, 2011 | Tags: broadway, broadway san diego, broadway san diego tickets, Broadway Tickets, Civic Theatre, Civic Theatre Tickets, Irish Dance, RIVERDANCE, Riverdance Farewell Tour, Riverdance Farewell Tour Tickets, Riverdance Tickets, san diego, san diego tickets | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Leave a comment

In 1569, Sir Henry Sydney wrote to Queen Elizabeth about the Irish people: “They are very beautiful, magnificently dressed and first class dancers.”

Throughout Irish history, dancing has been done for pleasure, for performance, for joy and for mourning. At many times during Irish history, the Church tried to condemn or outlaw dancing, saying “In the dance are seen frenzy and woe.” Exactly right: in Ireland, people have danced for every emotion, from great joy to utter sadness. The Druids danced to worship the sun and the oak tree; when millions left Ireland during the Great Hunger, they danced before they journeyed on.

The Gaelic word for dance, “damhsa” shows the mixed quality of Irish culture; its origins are from the French word “danse,” brought over by French—speaking Normans.

Until the 18^th century, most Irish dancing was communal, that is, danced by large groups of people. In a time before television, movies and the Internet, dance parties in houses or at the crossroads were often a community’s sole form of entertainment. Solo steps were first developed by dance masters in the 1900s. Many of the dances you will see at Riverdance—the reel, the jig, the hornpipe—were developed at this time.

THE DANCE MASTER

Dance styles were extended through Ireland during the 18^th and 19^th centuries by traveling teachers and performers known as Dance Masters. Dance Masters would wander from town to town, staying in a village for up to six weeks, sleeping in the kitchen or barn of a kind farmer, teaching the children of the village how to dance. The people of rural Ireland knew the folk dances taught by their parents, but people wanted the Dance Masters to teach them the new dances from far away places like France. It was considered a great honor for a town to host a dance master. Dancing was so popular among peasants and farmers that the coming of a Dance Master was a time of celebration for the whole village.

Flamboyant, colorful characters, Dance Masters wore bright colored hats, knee breeches, shoes with large silver buckles and held staffs while they walked. Dance Masters would usually have their own territories, usually not more than 10 square miles. Often Dance Masters would meet at fairs and compete to see who was the best dancer. The winner would take over the loser’s territory.

During this time, places for competitions and fairs were always small, so there was little room for the Dance Masters to perform. They would dance on tabletops, sometimes even the top of a barrel! Because of this, the dancing styles were very contained, with hands rigid at the sides, and a lack of arm movement and traveling across the stage. As time went on, larger places for dance competitions and performances were found, so styles grew to include more movement, more dancing across the sage as you see in Riverdance.

TYPES OF IRISH DANCING

Step Dancing

This lively, agile dance is perhaps the most well known Irish dance. First seen at the end of the 18^th century, Step Dancing was created by the Irish Dance Masters. The emphasis in step dancing is on foot percussion or battering, and a rigidity in the upper body. Breandan Breathnach writes in his book, Folk Music and Dances of Ireland, “A remarkable feature of step dancing was the control or restraint which underlay the vigor and speed of the performance. The good dancer kept the body rigid, moving only from the hips down and with arms extended straight at the side…the good dancer, it was said, could dance on eggs without breaking them and hold a pan of water on his head without spilling a drop…”

Types of Step Dances:

1. REEL – Danced in 2/4 time, the word “reel” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “rulla,” or “to whirl,” and the motion of the reel is indeed a whirling, spinning dance.

2. JIG – Danced in 6/8 time, in a jig, the feet serve as percussion instruments, creating a drumming rhythm on the dance floor. This is called “battering.” As Carol Leavy Joyce, Irish Dance Coordinator for Riverdance, says, “That’s the type of dance that Riverdance is best known for – 30 kids rattlin’ out this rhythm…”

3. SLIP JIG – Danced in the unusual 9/8 time, the slip jig has a lighter step, with hopping and sliding motions. The Slip Jig is usually danced by two couples. The dance is alternated by a procession around the stage, returning to the beginning again when the music indicates. In Riverdance, the dance called “The Countess Cathleen” features 8 girls dancing in slip-jig time.

4. HORNPIPE – Danced in 2/4 time, the solo dance is usually done by a lone man.

CEILI DANCES

A ceili (pronounced kay-lee) is a grand party, a celebratory dance event. Communal dances adapted from group set dances and French quadrilles, set to Irish music that were danced at these events became known as “ceili” dances.

SET DANCES

About 150 years old, Set Dancing is a form of social dancing in which four couples in a square make up a “set” – usually 3-6 parts of the dance separated by pauses. Set dancing comes from French dances called quadrilles – brought to Ireland by English troops during the 19^th century. The Irish Dance Masters adapted these dances and made them their own. You’ll see an example of set dancing in Riverdance in the dance “American Wake.”

RIVERDANCE Plays the San Diego Civic Theatre for the LAST TIME December 2-4, 2011.

November 17th, 2011 | Tags: broadway, broadway san diego, broadway san diego tickets, Broadway Tickets, River, RIVERDANCE, Riverdance Farewell Tickets, Riverdance Farewell Tour, Riverdance San Diego, Riverdance Tickets, san diego, san diego tickets, tickets | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Leave a comment

FRANK SINATRA

Frank Sinatra, long acclaimed as the world’s greatest performer of popular music, is the artist who set the standard for all others to follow. Sinatra was, of course, more than a singer – he was an actor, recording artist, cabaret and concert star, radio and television personality and, on occasion, producer, director and conductor.

A beloved entertainer for six decades, Sinatra’s achievements earned him three Oscars, two Golden Globes, 10 personal Grammys (and a total of 21 including those for his albums), an Emmy, a Cecile B. DeMille Award, a Peabody, and he was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983. A generous charitable contributor, one of his most prestigious awards was the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1971. In the United States, Sinatra was also awarded the Presidential Medal Of Honor and the Congressional Gold Medal (Congress’s highest civilian award).

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra decided to become a singer after hearing the music of his idols, Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday. His big break came in 1939 when he became Harry James’ band vocalist. He went on to join Tommy Dorsey and later struck out on his own, appearing on radio’s “Your Hit Parade” and his own program, “Songs By Sinatra” among others. Sinatra was also recording hit songs for Columbia records from 1943 to 1952.

In late 1942, Sinatra made his historic appearance at the Paramount Theatre in New York’s Times Square, where the headline artist was Benny Goodman. Sinatra made his movie debut the following year and went on to star in over 50 films, winning an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his role in “From Here To Eternity,” and a special Oscar for a short film against racial prejudice, “The House I Live In.”

From 1953 to 1961, Sinatra recorded more than 17 albums for Capitol Records. In 1956, Frank Sinatra was the first artist to record in the newly built Capitol Studios at Hollywood & Vine in Los Angeles. During Sinatra’s years with Capitol, he pioneered and perfected the idea of the “concept album” by recording and sequencing songs on his LPs to strike and complete a specific mood. Albums such as “Come Fly With Me,” “Only The Lonely,” “Songs For Swingin’ Lovers!,” and “In The Wee Small Hours’ are considered classics.

In 1960, Frank Sinatra formed his own record company, Reprise. At Reprise, he would record many of his signature hit such as “Strangers In The Night,” “My Way” and “New York, New York.”

Frank Sinatra has been called the most popular entertainer of the 20th century, and many would also label him as one of the most generous philanthropists as well. During his lifetime, he donated more than one billion dollars to charities throughout the world.

Frank Sinatra passed away on May 14, 1998. As one of the 20th century’s most iconic entertainers, Francis Albert Sinatra made an indelible mark on the world. In the years since his passing, Sinatra’s legacy not only endures but also continues to grow in stature.

November 4th, 2011 | Tags: broadway, broadway san diego, broadway san diego tickets, Broadway Tickets, Come Fly Away, Come Fly Away Broadway, Come Fly Away Broadway San Diego, Come Fly Away Broadway San Diego Tickets, Come Fly Away Broadway Tickets, Come Fly Away on Tour, Come Fly Away on Tour tickets, Come Fly Away San Diego, Come Fly Away San Diego Civic Theatre, Come Fly Away San Diego Civic Theatre Tickets, Come Fly Away San Diego Tickets, Come Fly Away Tickets, san diego, San Diego Civic Theatre Tickets, san diego tickets | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Leave a comment

A FAMILY TRADITION CONTINUES! MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER WILL PERFORM AT THE SAN DIEGO CIVIC THEATRE FOR A ONE NIGHT ONLY APPEARANCE ON DECEMBER 6TH

Mannheim Steamroller continues to be America’s favorite Christmas music artist with their spectacular and beloved holiday show. The group will perform live for a one night only performance at the San Diego Civic Theatre on Tuesday December 6th at 7:30. Tickets go on sale October 28 at BroadwaySD.com, through Ticketmaster, and on location at the Civic Theatre. Grammy Award® winner and mastermind behind the group, Chip Davis will direct and co-produce the performances with Magicspace Entertainment. There are now two tour ensembles of Mannheim Steamroller to meet the continued and increasing demand for the annual holiday celebration.  The shows will feature the favorite Christmas music of Mannheim Steamroller along with state-of-the-art multimedia effects in an intimate setting. In 1984, Mannheim Steamroller released Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, an album that changed the entire music industry. Already a multi-platinum recording artist through its Fresh Aire series, founder Chip Davis decided to record an album of Christmas music combining the group’s signature mix of Renaissance instruments with rock & roll beats. The resulting album was a runaway hit and not only propelled Mannheim Steamroller to become the biggest selling Christmas music artist in history, but also one of the top 50 biggest selling musical acts ever (they’ve sold almost 40 million albums). The group’s annual Christmas tour has become a tradition right along with decorating the tree, exchanging presents and spending time with friends and family. While Mannheim Steamroller is known worldwide, the story of founder Chip Davis is a true-life tale of a modern day “Renaissance Man.” From founding his own record label American Gramaphone, which has been ranked by Billboard as the #1 independent label, to creating the Mannheim Steamroller “lifestyle” of food, apparel and other products. Chip’s accomplishments have been extraordinary. His latest achievement is creating a cutting edge psychoacoustic technology that is being used in major medical institutions such as Mayo Clinic and is also being studied by NASA for potential use in space.

ABOUT MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER Mannheim Steamroller is the #1-selling Christmas artist of all time and one of the top fifty best-selling artists of the last two decades, outselling prominent artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Sting, REM, Barbara Streisand and Bon Jovi. Composer and creator Chip Davis started Mannheim Steamroller more than 30 years ago with his Grammy Award-winning Fresh Aire series. With almost 40 albums sold, an annual Christmas tour that is consistently ranked as the best selling of any artist, a successful Mannheim Steamroller gourmet food line, and a new audio technology that helps hospital patients in the recovery process (Ambience Medical), Chip Davis is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the music industry.

October 21st, 2011 | Tags: broadway san diego, broadway san diego tickets, Mannheim Steamroller, Mannheim Steamroller Broadway San Diego, Mannheim Steamroller Broadway San Diego Tickets, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Music, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Tour, Mannheim Steamroller on Tour, Mannheim Steamroller San Diego, Mannheim Steamroller San Diego Civic Theatre, Mannheim Steamroller San Diego Civic Theatre Tickets, Mannheim Steamroller San Diego Tickets, san diego, San Diego Civic Theatre, San Diego Civic Theatre Tickets, san diego tickets, tickets | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Leave a comment

Dear Theatregoer:

The return of the iconic American Tribal Love-Rock musical of the ‘60s brings back a flood ofmemories for me, even though I was barely oldenough to remember those times (I wish). It is a time when I had a full head of hair; I remember when I went to the (then) Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood to see the first tour of HAIR in the late 60’s. I saw the show again when it played the Civic Theatrein the 70’s. I remember listening to the radioand hearing numerous hits from theBroadway musical top the popular music charts, with versions of songs from Hair by The Cowsills (Hair), The 5th Dimension (Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In) Oliver (GoodMorning Starshine), and Three Dog Night (Easy to be Hard). Never before had so many hit singles comefrom one Broadway show.

Joe Kobryner (the nearly bald one)
Vice President

Dear Theatregoer:

HAIR and I have a very linked past. The movie version and I were both born in thesame year – 1979.
I stage managed a production at USD (yes,we did a production of HAIR at a Catholicuniversity), while celebrating my 21st birthday. Even though the show is over 40 years old and takes place in a very specific time, it is just as relevant today as it was then. Since the 1960’s, while many social and civilrights barriers have been broken, we are stillfighting many of the same battles to this day. Plus, the music is simply phenomenal.

So, if you are an Aquarius (destined forgreatness or madness), from Manchester(England, England), or just Walking in Space, sit back, relax, take a deep breath, and becomefully immersed in the experience that is HAIR.

Joe Ries (the one with the long, beautiful hair)
Operations Manager

October 18th, 2011 | Tags: Hair, HAIR Broadway San Diego, HAIR Broadway San Diego Tickets, HAIR on Broadway, HAIR on Tour tickets, HAIR San Diego, HAIR San Diego Tickets, HAIR ticket, HAIR tour | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Comments (1)

A chance meeting on a train led to the show’s first production. “Jerry was coming back to New York from Yale, and Joseph Papp happened to be on the same train,” says Rado. “Jerry had the script with him and asked Joe to take a look at it.”

Papp, the visionary who founded the New York Shakespeare Festival, had begun a summer tradition of free performances of Shakespeare in Central Park in 1957. He was about to open the Public Theater downtown, where he planned to champion innovative and original works in a multicultural venue. Hair intrigued him. He told his biographer, Helen Epstein, “The thing that struck me was that it had to do with the loneliness of young people. I thought, ‘I want to do something that comes out of the times we are living in.’”

“Joe called about a week after he ran into Jerry, and said he was very interested in opening his theater with our play,” says Rado. “We still didn’t want to be off-Broadway, but when Joe made the offer, we were very excited. He had a great reputation, and we thought it would be wonderful to open a new theater. We looked at it like an out-of-town tryout. We thought we could get the show on its feet, and after a run of six or eight weeks, move it uptown.”

Gerald Freedman, director of the original production, hired a very young, largely inexperienced cast. “He liked the idea of kids onstage,” says MacDermot. “But by casting that way, he didn’t take in the seriousness of the piece. He also wanted very young musicians, and I didn’t want to work with kids. When we moved uptown, I was able to get a much better band, and it made a huge difference. It gave the show power.”

In keeping with the iconoclastic nature of the show, the casting process was sometimes unconventional. There were, of course, the usual auditions. But people were also found in unusual ways. “We were looking for people with long hair, especially guys,” says Rado. “If we saw somebody on the street that we thought looked right, we would go up to them and say, ‘Excuse me, do you sing?’ We went everywhere and dragged these people in. Even if they didn’t sing, we’d say, ‘You look very right for the show. Come in anyway.’ And we found a couple of people that way.”

Hair received mixed reviews, but young audiences flocked to see it and the show quickly sold out. But when the limited engagement ended, Hair did not head to Broadway. It wound up at a discotheque called the Cheetah, co-produced by the Public and a neophyte producer named Michael Butler. “The people at the disco didn’t even realize we were doing a show,” says MacDermot. “The show would be on, the people were just wandering around.”

The stint at the Cheetah was a disaster, and when the Public’s option on Hair ended, Papp walked away from the show. But Butler remained enthusiastic, and wanted to move the production to Broadway. This time, Rado and Ragni said no. “We’d done a lot of rewriting, and we wanted to start from scratch,” says Rado. “We wanted to re-cast it, we wanted a new director, and we wanted our new script and new songs. Mike came around and agreed to do all the things we wanted.”

What they wanted most was the avant-garde director Tom O’Horgan. “He worked in a way that corresponded with the experimental theater aspect of Hair,” says Rado. “He was very adept at putting a group of people through a sensory experience, which opened them up to a new way of approaching a play.”

For the Broadway production, Rado took on the leading role of Claude, who’s torn between burning his draft card and reporting for service. Ragni, as he did at the Public, portrayed the rambunctious Berger. Thirteen new songs were added. The loosely woven plot got even looser, although according to MacDermot, O’Horgan brought more of a political conscience to the material. Interaction with the audience, which occurred on a limited basis at the Public, became integral to the show. And the famous nude scene was instituted for the first time. “We wanted to do a nude scene at the Public, but we were not allowed to,” says Rado. “We had a reason for the scene. It was based on reality, on a wonderful moment when two guys in Central Park took off their clothes at a be-in. It was shocking and amazing and exhilarating. The police were on horseback, and somebody told them what happened. And as they moved in, the crowd turned to them and chanted, ‘We love cops’ – and the two guys disappeared into the crowd. We thought it was great theater.”

This time, Hair received enthusiastic reviews. Despite the show’s success 40 years ago – it was also a hit in London, and around the country – Rado never stopped working on the script. “I’ve been trying to make things clearer, better, funnier, and more dramatic,” he says. “The original script put a little more emphasis on the triangle of Claude, Berger, and Sheila, and we’ve returned to that in this latest version. Sheila’s character has been deepened. Certain scenes have been added that explain the passage of time, or explain what’s at stake. Jokes have evolved.  Diane Paulus, who worked with me on the book, has brought a clarity to the show. She also has a real caring and compassion for the period and this group of people. She’s a gifted director.

“The piece is now in the hands of real actors, who are well trained and very disciplined,” Rado continues. “They are not people off the streets who may not sing well. They’re magnetic and appealing, and you believe them. They really get behind the message and the feel of the piece, and they embody their parts better than anybody before them. I think the show has even more impact now, because things that were supposed to change haven’t really changed. Young people are coming to see Hair, and they’re loving it and relating to it. To me, Hair has gone to new heights.”

HAIR Plays the San Diego Civic Theatre October 18-23, 2011

September 29th, 2011 | Tags: broadway, broadway san diego, broadway san diego tickets, Broadway Tickets, Hair, HAIR broadway, HAIR broadway on tour, HAIR on Tour, HAIR on Tour San Diego, HAIR on Tour San Diego Civic Theatre Tickets, HAIR on Tour San Diego Tickets, HAIR on Tour tickets, HAIR San Diego, HAIR San Diego Civic Theatre, HAIR San Diego Tickets, HAIR tickets, san diego, San Diego Civic Theatre, San Diego Civic Theatre Tickets, san diego tickets | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Leave a comment

The roar heard at the Biltmore Theatre on April 29, 1968, was the zeitgeist of the ‘60s infiltrating Broadway. The occasion was the opening night of Hair. Clive Barnes, theater critic for The New York Times, enthusiastically called the show “the first Broadway musical in some time to have the authentic voice of today rather than the day before yesterday.” He was alluding to the fact that this self-described “American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” reflected the taste of the young generation; the score sounded like the popular music being played on the radio. What the groundbreaking show didn’t sound like was any other Broadway musical.

It’s almost incomprehensible today, when rock musicals are so much a part of the fabric of American culture, that there was a time, not terribly long ago, when the idea of a rock musical on Broadway seemed outlandish, implausible. But when James Rado and the late Gerome Ragni, who wrote the book and lyrics for Hair, initially tried to interest Broadway producers in the show, no one wanted anything to do with it. It wasn’t just the sound of the show that was different; it was the very essence of the very unstructured material: a tribe of hippies singing, sometimes profanely, about their dreams and fears and concerns – not to mention sex and drugs – seemed out of place on Broadway. And that was precisely why Rado and Ragni set their sights on Broadway. “We wanted to reach the uptown crowd and shake things up,” says Rado. “The subject matter was unlike anything that had been done on Broadway.”

Through an agent, they sent the script to a number of producers. There were no takers. Those same producers likely regretted their decision, as the original Broadway production of Hair played 1750 performances and ran for more than four years. And the show’s timelessness was validated when the recent production, directed by Diane Paulus, won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The characters onstage may be hippies, but their experiences and emotions speak to all generations, and resonate powerfully in these uncertain times.

The revival is considerably different from the original Broadway production, which was quite different from the first off-Broadway production at New York’s Public Theater. The premise and the characters have stayed the same, but the details have changed. “The idea was to write a show about hippies, about the ‘peace/love movement,” says Rado. “The hippie movement was largely a white movement, but we wanted to have an integrated cast. So we decided to bring in black characters and address the civil rights aspects of the day. Jerry and I weren’t hippies, but the show reflected our experiences, what we were going through in observing and mingling with the counterculture, with protest marches. We found the theater of the streets so exciting that we wanted to bring it to the stage.”

They wrote the book and lyrics over a three-year period. It was only after they had a completed script that they found composer Galt MacDermot, introduced by a mutual acquaintance. “A lot of our stuff was free form,” says Rado. “We knew Galt could handle that. We knew he’d figure out how to find the structure.”

MacDermot, a Canadian, was already an established composer, known  mostly for his jazz music. “Broadway didn’t interest me much,” he says. “I had done some theater in Montreal, writing songs for a revue, but I was more interested in jazz. I knew nothing about musical theater. The Broadway shows that I’d seen didn’t knock me out. But I met Jim and Jerry, and I liked them both. They were determined to have rock and roll singers in their show, not Broadway types. And I was involved in rock and roll at that time. They showed me the script, and I started writing.”

Check back for Pt. 2 of HAIR HISTORY.

HAIR plays the San Diego Civic Theatre October 18-23, 2011.

September 28th, 2011 | Tags: broadway, broadway san diego, broadway san diego tickets, Broadway Tickets, Hair, HAIR broadway, HAIR Broadway San Diego, HAIR broadway tickets, HAIR broadway tour, HAIR on Tour, HAIR on Tour Broadway San Diego, HAIR on tour broadway tickets, HAIR on Tour San Diego, HAIR on Tour San Diego Civic Theatre, HAIR on Tour San Diego Tickets, HAIR on Tour tickets, HAIR San Diego, HAIR San Diego Civic Theatre, HAIR San Diego Tickets, HAIR tickets, san diego, San Diego Civic Theatre, San Diego Civic Theatre Tickets, san diego tickets | Category: From Broadway/San Diego Staff | Leave a comment