James Rado and Gerome Ragni’s 1967 tribal rock musical Hair centres on a group of long-haired hippies who champion peace, love and freedom against the backdrop of the Vietnam war draft during the 1960s.

Galt MacDermot’s score features the famous songs Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine, Let The Sunshine In and, of course, Hair.

Hair premiered off-Broadway in 1967 before transferring to the Great White Way the following year where it was a huge success, capturing the spirit of the anti-war movement and winning the 1969 Tony Award for Best Musical. The show opened in London in 1968 – the first musical to open after the abolition of the censor – with a cast including Elaine Paige, Richard O’Brien, Tim Curry and Paul Nicholas. It ran until 1973, only coming to an end because the roof of the Shaftesbury theatre fell in.

This new production of Hair, by the Public Theater, opened on Broadway in March this year and won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. In transferring with the show to London, the cast make history in becoming the first entire original Broadway cast to open a show in the West End.

For more about Hair at the Gielgud theatre read the First Night Feature.

Looking to see some musical theatre? Find out more about London musicals.