Michael Mayer Hair Tour: What Happened?

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 6/28/09 at 10:56am

http://www.broadway.com/Michael-Mayer-to-Direct-National-Tour-of-Hair/broadway_news/19993

A while back, there were plans for a national tour of Hair. It was supposed to be directed by Michael Mayer and they were hoping for it to hit Broadway. What happened?

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 6/28/09 at 12:48pm

It's a convoluted history. This production was originally booted about as a commercial tour of the 1999 Candlefish Theatre Company production from L.A., which was produced by Michael Butler, producer of the original Broadway version, and (re)directed in its final weeks by surviving co-author Jim Rado. It was also supposed to be surrounded by an interactive hippie festival setting that recreated Haight-Ashbury and other historical hippie haunts. I don't know what scuttled that, but I've never heard of the HAIR Festival Tour ever being performed.

In the 2000-01 range, Barry and Fran Weissler (via either Reprise! or Encores!, I can't recall which, but both did it at the time) did HAIR in NY, and there were plans to tour it with Lenny Kravitz as Berger, among others, but Butler managed to shut it down because of his prior hold on the show's pro rights (from the dead Festival tour) that Rado violated by signing a deal with the Weisslers.

Finally, in the 2003-04 area, this tour was announced as "the Liberty Tour," and Butler was producing (presumably Rado and MacDermot were back on good terms with him). After the initial announcement, Michael Mayer (due to prior commitments) was replaced as director by Scott Schwartz. Then Rado and MacDermot couldn't work out agreeable terms with Butler, Butler refused to put any of his considerable cash flow into the show, and between his cheapness and their terms issues, it fell apart. Another tour was briefly announced by Richard Frankel's people, with whom Rado presumably had the new deal, and Frankel had a lock on the rights for a considerable amount of time, but whether or not that was anything like Butler's idea is unknown.