Hair the musical at Hope Mill Theatre
Andrew Anderson
Hope Mill might be a small space but it is already making a big sound on the Manchester scene. At the start of October it won a national award for best theatre, while earlier this year its first major musical Parade wowed audiences and won a slew of four-star reviews.
Co-founders Joseph Houston and William Whelton are not shy about their love for musical theatre, so it’s no surprise to discover their next show will be another sing-song extravaganza: Hair. One of the first rock-inspired musicals, Hair is packed full of proper pop songs like Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine and Easy to be Hard. Judged by tunes alone, this should be another success.
But what I really like about Hope Mill’s programming is that they are not picking the easy, cheesy options. As with Parade, Hair deals with difficult issues: drug use, sexual revolution and political protest to name just a few. And while these might not seem so shocking in 2016 as they did when it premiered in 1967 it is still powerful stuff.
In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Hair carries a message we’d do well to remember today: that the people in power might not always have our interests at heart. Oh, and that singing great songs is super fun.
