Eric Grode will read from Hair: The Story of the Show that Defined a Generation, followed by a discussion and performance by members of both the 1968 and 2009 productions of Hair.
For more than 40 years, the musical Hair has shocked and delighted millions, exposing the world to the radical hippie counterculture that was then synonymous with New York’s East Vilage.
Hair: The Story of the Show That Defined a Generation is the authorized history of the musical, from the 1967 off-Broadway production to the smash 2009 Broadway revival. Eric Grode chronicles the events that inspired the show’s creation, its little-known failure before reaching Broadway, the dramatic changes it underwent along the way, the inevitable backstage turmoil and the seismic impact it had in dozens of international productions.
Through more than 200 stunning photographs, some of which have never been published before, and dozens of new interviews, including several with the show’s creators and original cast members, this book also explores the social history that informed and influenced the creation of Hair. Here at last is the untold story of the musical that changed Broadway, terrified the establishment and defined a generation.
Eric Grode was the chief theater critic for the New York Sun from 2005 to 2008 and has written about theater for the New York Times, New York magazine, the Village Voice and Time Out New York. The former vice president of the New York Drama Critics Circle, Grode currently sits on the advisory board of the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at Syracuse University.
Hair: The Story of the Show That Defined a Generation
by Eric Grode
Running Press, 2010. Cloth: $29.95
