[2] Hair tells the story of the "tribe", a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the "Age of Aquarius" living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War.

After an off-Broadway debut on October 17, 1967, at Joseph Papp's Public Theater, and a run at the Cheetah nightclub from December 1967 through January 1968, the show opened on Broadway in April 1968 and ran for 1,750 performances.

[13] In 1966, while the two were developing Hair, Ragni performed in The Open Theater's production of Megan Terry's play Viet Rock, about young men being deployed to the Vietnam War.

[12] Rado and Ragni brought their drafts of the show to producer Eric Blau who, through common friend Nat Shapiro, connected the two with Canadian composer Galt MacDermot.

The lead roles were played by Walker Daniels as Claude, Ragni as Berger, Jill O'Hara as Sheila, Steve Dean as Woof, Arnold Wilkerson as Hud, Sally Eaton as Jeanie and Shelley Plimpton as Crissy.

[28] Newsweek described O'Horgan's directing style as "sensual, savage, and thoroughly musical ... [he] disintegrates verbal structure and often breaks up and distributes narrative and even character among different actors. ...

This scaffolding was decorated with found objects that the cast gathered from the streets of New York, including a life-size papier-mâché bus driver, the head of Jesus, and a neon marquee of the Waverly movie theater in Greenwich Village.

Some of these included mixed parts of military uniforms, bell bottom jeans with Ukrainian embroidery, tie dyed T-shirts and a red, white and blue fringed coat.

General Ulysses S. Grant appears and begins a roll call: Abraham Lincoln (played by a black female tribe member), John Wilkes Booth, Calvin Coolidge, Clark Gable, Scarlett O'Hara, Aretha Franklin, Colonel George Custer.

Butler, who had declared that Hair is "the strongest anti-war statement ever written", said the reason that he opened so many productions was to influence public opinion against the Vietnam War and end it as soon as possible.

[53] The first European production, after London, opened in Stockholm, Sweden, on September 20, 1968, with a cast including Ulf Brunnberg and Bill Öhrström,[55] produced and directed by Pierre Fränckel[56] and choreographed by Arenal.

Theatre writer Scott Miller stated: [Youth protests in the 1960s concerned]: racism, environmental destruction, poverty, sexism and sexual repression, violence at home and the war in Vietnam, depersonalization from new technologies, and corruption in politics.

[27]Extending the precedents set by Show Boat (1927) and Porgy and Bess (1935), Hair opened the Broadway musical to racial integration; fully one-third of the cast was African American.

[53][67] Miller writes, "nudity was a big part of the hippie culture, both as a rejection of the sexual repression of their parents and also as a statement about naturalism, spirituality, honesty, openness, and freedom.

Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis said: Both [Hair and Hamlet] center on idealistic brilliant men as they struggle to find their place in a world marred by war, violence, and venal politics.

[105]Other literary references include the song "Three-Five-Zero-Zero", based on Ginsberg's poem "Wichita Vortex Sutra",[106] and, in the psychedelic drug trip sequence, the portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara, from Gone with the Wind, and activist African-American poet LeRoi Jones.

[133] "Good Morning Starshine" was sung on a 1969 episode of Sesame Street by Bob McGrath,[134] and versions have been recorded by artists such as Sarah Brightman, Petula Clark, Strawberry Alarm Clock.

[138][139] Hair helped launch the recording careers of Meat Loaf, Dobie Gray, Jennifer Warnes, Jobriath, Bert Sommer, Ronnie Dyson, Donna Summer and Melba Moore.

"[147] Jack Kroll in Newsweek wrote, "There is no denying the sheer kinetic drive of this new Hair ... there is something hard, grabby, slightly corrupt about O'Horgan's virtuosity, like Busby Berkeley gone bitchy.

"[149] Among positive reviewers when Hair opened in London was Irving Wardle of The Times, who wrote, "Its honesty and passion give it the quality of a true theatrical celebration – the joyous sound of a group of people telling the world exactly what they feel."

[47] Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert, after dubbing Apollo 13's lunar module "Aquarius" after the song, walked out of the production at the Biltmore in protest of perceived anti-Americanism and disrespect of the flag.

[206] The opening cast included Gavin Creel as Claude, Swenson as Berger, Caissie Levy as Sheila, Megan Lawrence as Mother and Sasha Allen as Dionne.

[209] The New York Daily News review praised the direction, "colorfully kinetic" choreography and technical features, commenting that "as a smile-inducing celebration of life and freedom, [Hair is] highly communicable" and warning: "If you're seated on the aisle, count on [the cast] to be in your face or your lap".

[213] Ben Brantley, writing for The New York Times, reflected the majority: This emotionally rich revival ... delivers ... the intense, unadulterated joy and anguish of that bi-polar state called youth.

[229] A review by Michael Billington of The Guardian described it as "a vibrant, joyous piece of living theatre", writing, "it celebrates a period when the joy of life was pitted against the forces of intolerance and the death-dealing might of the military–industrial complex.

[232] In The Times, Benedict Nightingale commented that "it's exhilarating, as well as oddly poignant, when a multihued cast ... race downstage while delivering that tuneful salute to an age of Aquarius that still refuses to dawn.

[234] A 2016 production in Manchester, England, at the Hope Mill Theatre, directed by Jonathan O'Boyle, starring Robert Metson as Claude, Laura Johnson as Sheila and Ryan Anderson as Berger, earned positive reviews.

[237] A UK national tour of the production began in March 2019, starring Jake Quickenden as Berger, Daisy Wood-Davis as Sheila, Paul Wilkins as Claude and Marcus Collins as Hud.

[187] After the Berlin Wall fell, the show traveled for the first time to Poland, Lebanon, the Czech Republic and Sarajevo (featured on ABC's Nightline, when Phil Alden Robinson visited in 1996 and discovered a production of Hair there in the midst of the war).

Directed by Miloš Forman with choreography by Twyla Tharp and a screenplay by Michael Weller, the film stars John Savage, Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo, with Golden, Moore, Dyson, Foley, Dorsey Wright, Don Dacus, Nell Carter and Cheryl Barnes.