Hair

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 11:29pm

I'm reading a book called "The Assassin's Cloak" which is a collection of diary entries from many different people. In a 1971 entry, Cynthia Gladwyn, wife of a British diplomat, went to see the musical Hair in London. Here is what she wrote:

Tonight Gerry [her husband] and I went to Hair. It was ghastly. To begin with, the noise was deafening, as Gerry would sit in the front row, thinking he would not hear otherwise and wanting to see all the nudity. Then it was altogether so squalid and filthy, everybody in the cast looking unwashed and drugged, wearing grubby trendy clothes. The very first thing that happened was when one of the men on the stage made a beeline for me, removed his dirty blue jeans and said, "Lady, hold these for me." I refused to put out my hand, so he dropped them on my feet, later returning for them, when again I did not move, so Gerry had to pick them up. But the worst was when tiny white paper pellets, supposed to be snow, were showered down on to the stage and the first row of the stalls, so that we were covered with confetti which stuck in our hair and went down our necks. We arrived at the Savoy, to the acute embarrassment of Gerry, looking as though we had just been married.

[SDav 10495]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 11:44pm

Haha, I love it. Thanks for posting. It's sort of amazing that Hair had the success it did on Broadway and around much of the world when it first opened, considering so many of the people who went to see it were just like this woman.