Hiya Broadway!
Just a heads-up that I’m about to get pedantic on ‘ya about the use of the word “outdated”.
Now, it’s not to criticize the use of the word as “incorrect” or as being wrongfully used, but instead to acknowledge its use as the conduit for welcoming some critical thinking.
To my mind, HAIR is outdated only in the most literal sense of the word (in that the 70s are past and gone). Also, the emotional impact of the word evokes a sense of irrelevance, or no longer necessary; be it a large or small sense.
IMO, the show is a commentary/reflection on/of that specific time period. I think it’s more accurate to think of the show as a snapshot, a photograph, or a time capsule re: how people were thinking and behaving in that “now”.
To alter its text or score is like using PhotoShop to alter an old photo by copy/pasting present-day people/objects into the shot. You can tell it’s not “real” - and it isn't. Interestingly (or ironically), that is exactly what was done to create the poster for the original, Off-Broadway show at the Public Theater in 1967. (https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/hair-musical-poster-original-1967-1801658280)
At the time HAIR was written and produced, there was a very large portion of the American population that was less mature, in both chronological age and physiological, mental development (the Baby-Boomers). I didn’t write “immature”. I wrote LESS mature because scientifically, physiologically and chronologically they just were.
Also (let’s face it), the social commentary in HAIR doesn’t contain a lot of mature or profound wisdom; neither did those baby-boomer hippies. Why did terms like “be-in” seem so clever anyway?
What do you do at be-in? “You BE, man! It’s so groovy!” …reminds me very much of Melania Trump’s slogan, “Be Best”. Both illustrate a lack of mature thought; neither verbiage is clever by half.
And was the nudity really brave, or daring? The original staging practically apologizes for the actors’ onstage nakedness. The lighting was dim, the nudity was viewable for only a few moments, and the entire company would/could not commit to being nude:
“Only those members of the company undressed who wished to do so that night. The play opened on Broadway [i]n the spring, and generally five or ten of the 26 actors and actresses undressed any one night.” (https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/sep/12/hair-musical-nudity-west-end)
As an aside: So yea… No, I don’t think HAIR is any Pulitzer Prize winner. Doesn’t matter though because…
It was also the era of The Counterculture; a LARGE Counterculture.
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.[1][2] A countercultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations of a specific population during a well-defined era. When oppositional forces reach critical mass, countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes. Prominent examples of countercultures in the Western world include the Levellers (1645–1650),[3] Bohemianism (1850–1910), the Non-conformists of the 1930s, the more fragmentary counterculture of the Beat Generation (1944–1964), followed by the globalized counterculture of the 1960s (1964–1974), usually associated with the hippie subculture[4] as well as the diversified punk subculture of the 1970s and 1980s ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture)
When I think about that description of “Counterculture”, it leads me to believe that the (potentially conjectured) changes to the book/score of HAIR that are mentioned in this thread obscure the reasons for why HAIR is still relevant today, even though the “photograph” has aged and faded.
To put this in a more tangible perspective, think about a current play like PASS OVER. PASS OVER shares similar characteristics with HAIR. Both are works of theater that are commenting on current events, politics, social behaviors, injustices, etc. Both (albeit one has chronologically aged) are commenting on the NOW of our America. Both are/were positively appreciated by the public (even if not necessarily critically received).
HAIR is 50 years old. I hope you’ll take a few moments to consider what will/might be said about PASS OVER fifty years from now. Hopefully (prayerfully, longingly), America will be different in 50 years. Hopefully (prayerfully, longingly) America will evolve and change in the same way that the issues, mores, language, ideals, behaviors represented in HAIR have evolved and changed.
What I DON’T hope for is that some production company, 50 years in the future, will change a word of the script of PASS OVER out of fear of offending an audience, or because its content, language, “values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.”
If a company doesn’t have the courage to stage HAIR as written, I say, “Don’t Do ‘HAIR’”. The world will not stop spinning if there is one less production of HAIR in it. Likewise, if an audience member is offended by its content (and after 50 years and a movie, what “spoilers” could there still be regarding the content?), don’t attend.
But, don’t change the piece out of fear of offending. That’s not what theater is about.