It was 55 years ago Saturday (April 29th, 1968) that the counter-culture musical Hair opened at Broadway's Biltmore Theatre. Hair, which had run off-Broadway the previous year, was unlike any other mainstream show, featuring a story line using humor, music and sexuality to celebrate and raise understanding of the problems facing the 1960s baby-boomer generation.
The show, which was created by actors James Rado and Gerome Ragni, centered around a tribe of Central Park hippies, led by a character named Claude — played by Rado — who is eventually is shipped off to Vietnam.
The show was directed by Tom O'Horgan with music by Galt MacDermot. Several of the songs from the play's soundtrack became hits for other artists, including Oliver's “Good Morning Starshine,” which peaked at Number Three in 1969, and the Fifth Dimension's medley of “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In,” which topped the charts for six weeks in the Spring of 1969.
