By Harry Haun
11 Apr 2009

MacDermot wasn't the first choice for composer. A Canadian married-with-children and relatively square in the ways of the world, MacDermot hardly seemed the right match for Rado and Ragni — but was, he says: "I never even heard of a hippie when I met them. What I got on to was the music of the times. I had just moved back from South Africa, so I was very into African music, and the rock 'n' roll that was happening in the '60s was that, so when they said, 'We want to do a rock 'n' roll show,' I said to them, 'That's exactly what I want to do.'

"When you say you want a rock 'n' roll show, you're talking about two hours of music. It can't all be the same. You've got to get different styles. I never counted them, but I like to think they're all a little different. 'Aquarius' has a bit of a West India feel. I was trying to make it spacey — like outer-spacey — and got too spacey. Jim said, 'The kids'll never sing a song like that.' I agreed. It was the only song I rewrote.

"Gerry loved making everything into a song. 'What a Piece of Work Is Man' was not a song until Gerry said, 'We have to sing that.' 'Frank Mills' wasn't a song. That began as a speech, and Gerry said no. He loved songs. He'd have turned it all into a song."

Coming all at once — the profanity, the promiscuous use of drugs and sex, the irreverence for the American flag, the nudity — Hair was, and is, unlike any other Broadway musical. "I'm proudest of the fact that we captured what was happening at that time," says Rado. "It was very important historically, and if we hadn't written it, there'd not be any examples. You could read about it and see film clips, but you'd never experience it. We thought, 'This is happening in the streets,' and we wanted to bring it to the stage. When you were there in person, it had such impact."

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The Public Theater production of Hair, directed by Diane Paulus, is at Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre.