A little more than a year ago, the Paramount Theatre in Aurora couldn't officially announce that "Hair" was going to conclude its first professional season of self-produced Broadway musicals. Officials had to wait until the national tour of the 2009 Tony Award-winning revival (then playing at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre) left town.
The contractual stipulations seemed silly at the time, but in hindsight they make sense. If suburban audiences knew they could have waited a year to see a stellar production of "Hair" — with less-expensive ticket prices and without the hassle of Chicago traffic — the national tour might have experienced a box office dip during its Windy City stint.
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"Hair"
★ ★ ★
Location: Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena, Aurora, (630) 896-6666 or paramountaurora.com
Showtimes: 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday; through April 1
Running time: About two hours and 30 minutes with one 15-minute intermission
Tickets: $34.90-$46.90
Parking: Nearby pay garages and metered street parking
Rating: For mature audiences; includes profanity, drug use, nudity, sexual situations and racial epithets
In just one season, the Paramount Theatre has proved that Aurora is a prime destination for Broadway-caliber productions featuring loads of local talent. And boy, does "Hair" play off the Paramount's initial gamble of mounting its own season of shows.
More of a pop song revue than a strong plot-driven musical, "Hair" now exists as a period piece documenting and embodying the cultural tumult of America in the late 1960s. Vietnam War protests, the sexual revolution, the Civil Rights movement, hippie communes and other pushes for social change are all rolled up in this messy time-capsule of a show.
Director/choreographer Rachel Rockwell masterfully harnesses the show's easily distracted and irreverent energy, making "Hair" groove along from number to number.
Rockwell also doesn't flinch in depicting the brief nudity and other contraband activities onstage that would turn a conservative's hair white (signs are posted at the auditorium doors warning audiences what to expect).
Rockwell and set designer Kevin Depinet stage their take on "Hair" in what looks like an abandoned warehouse where integrated hippie members of "The Tribe" gather and celebrate. Mike Tutaj's animated projection designs and the vivid lighting work of designers Jesse Klug and Gregg Hofmann also cleverly visualize the psychedelic and starry chemical trips taken by the tribe throughout the show.
The large and multitalented ensemble is bursting with energy and amazing pop vocalizing. The only drawback is that you occasionally get the sense that some cast members are actually squeaky clean kids who are only playing countercultural hippies rather than fully embodying their societal dropout characters.
But you can shrug those quibbles aside and relish the great vocals from the likes of Bethany Thomas singing "Aquarius," Donica Lynn leading the trio "White Boys," Skyler Adams as Claude trying to pass himself off as a British rocker in "Manchester, England" and the whole ensemble as they conclude the show with a mournful "The Flesh Failures" (aka "Let the Sunshine In").
Paramount Theatre's "Hair" is vibrant and full of life, and emblematic of the troubled era of American history that spawned it.
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