Hair, The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical at The Old Globe. A pleasant surprise with a superb production and outstanding ensemble

 One-week extension due to popular demand. Performances running now until October 3rd 

A blog-view by Alejandra Enciso-Dardashti

I had the opportunity to work on the Broadway Touring Production in the San Diego engagement back in 2011 (wow, 10 years ago)... it was the revival and an amazing show to work on. I brought my dad who is a sixties kid, to one of the performances, and well, emotions flew everywhere so Hair is one of the meaningful ones on my list.

When I saw that The Globe was doing their own production I got very excited and curious. Then the pandemic hit and everything changed. The show instead of debuting in 2020, was set for the "pandemic come back" meaning, the first in-person theatre performance in almost 18 months. They had done a concert series in July and even though the concerts were moving and amazing, you could feel in the air a "maybe it is too soon" vibe.

Not with Hair. Audiences from all over came, gathered, and celebrated the comeback of this emblematic institution at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. The outdoor space that houses Shakespeare each summer. The outdoor space that had not done "other plays" in over 20 years.

I was excited with all these elements at play. But also skeptical. Could The Globe pull it off? I mean, yes it is one of the important ones in the country, an incubator for Broadway and so on... but, I don't know, I had my doubts, go figure.

Tyler Hardwick as Claude in Hair, 2021. Photo by Jim Cox.

What a pleasant surprise. Not only is the production superb, the whole ensemble, one by one is outstanding. That is a difficult task to accomplish. It is like the boy bands, there are one or two singers and the rest are just backup. Not in this production. Everybody shines and that is just wonderful to see. Other aspects that were cool to see were the "local" or "Globe production" touches in the show like a BIPOC (non-White) Claude, played outstandingly by Tyler Hardwick, and a Spanish-speaking Woof (Angel Lozada). Not like Woof would just go off speaking Spanish but there were words and sentences here and there that were thrown. Personally, I felt it to be not as organic, but I appreciated the effort, I think the direction was geared towards the right path.

Andrew Polec's goofy and -in your face- interpretation of crew leader Berger is solid and on point. A really nice surprise is ensemble member Christopher M. Ramirez belting out powerful notes with a comedic twist.

Alfie Parker, Jr. and Delaney Love's dancing graces the scenes throughout the performance. What a joy it was to see their art. 

And of course Nyla Sostre as the powerful Dionne who starts us off and guides us throughout the show with those amazing vocals.

A night out at The Globe to see Hair and under the stars with this stellar cast, is the perfect evening.

You still have a whole month to catch it. Playing Tuesday Through Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Regular tickets prices start at $37.00. and can be purchased here

The cast of Hair, 2021. Photo by Jim Cox.