Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Mercury Theater's stirring, soulful production of Gerome Ragni, James Rado, and Galt MacDermot's "tribal love-rock musical" captures both the celebratory and elegiac aspects of this landmark work, a secular rock 'n' roll passion play about a group of teenage "flower children" whose leader, Claude, has just been drafted into the Vietnam war. Firmly grounded in the time and place (1967 New York) in which it was written and is set, the show also resonates for our moment, with its portrait of young rebels and outcasts striving to create a utopian alternative to America's historical legacy of violence and racism. Director Brenda Didier and musical director Eugene Dizon have assembled a terrific young ensemble, with passionately compelling performances coming from Liam Quealy as Claude—the Aquarian hippie messiah—and Michelle Lauto as his antiwar activist disciple Sheila. (Interesting to note that Claude proclaims himself to be "Aquarius, destined for greatness or madness." He's the spirit of his generation. That's the generation—16 to 25 years old in 1968—who are today in our mid-60s to mid-70s. Donald Trump's generation. Were we destined for greatness? Or madness?) —Albert Williams