The Gate Lets Its Hair Down for First-Ever Musical
Having taken a heavily European-influenced stance on recent programming, London’s Gate Theatre turns its attention across the Atlantic for its autumn season with two American pieces, including the first-ever musical to be produced at the venue.
Gate associate director Daniel Kramer (Woyzeck at the Gate, Through the Leaves at Southwark Playhouse and in the West End) will direct a 20-strong production of Hair at the 70-seat Gate, running from 22 September to 8 October (previews from 12 September).
As the press release points out, although the self-styled “American Tribal Love Rock Musical”, written for the then burgeoning youth movement in the US, is usually done on a larger scale, its first outing was in a 90-seat Off-Broadway theatre. The original Broadway production, premiered at the Biltmore Theatre in 1968, ran for four years while a more recent West End revival had a brief season at the Old Vic in 1993. Hair was also famously made into a 1979 film, directed by Milos Forman and starring John Savage, Treat Williams and Beverley D’Angelo.