THE THEATER

NEW PLAYS Hair

This musical is a cross between a Dionysian revel and an old-fashioned revival meeting. The religion that Hair preaches, and often screeches, is flower power, pot and protest. Its music is pop-rock, and its dialogue is mostly graffiti. Hair is lavish in dispraise of all things American, except presumably liberty. The play itself borders on license by presenting a scene in which half a dozen members of the cast, male and female, face the audience in the nude. This tableau is such a dimly lit still life that it will leave most playgoers yawning.

Compared with this season's crop of moribund Broadway musicals, Hair thrums with vitality. Nonetheless, it is crippled by being a bookless musical and, like a boneless fish, it drifts when it should swim. Director Tom O'Horgan lashes up waves of camouflage, but distraction is no substitute for destination.

While hippiedom onstage may last no longer than its cultists, nudity could prove more durable. On-and off-Broadway, this has been the year of naked truth. It reflects the widening moral latitude of U.S. society, and represents the theater's attempt to recover that adult freedom of expression which films have pre-empted in recent years. Under New York's present laws on obscenity, the police will not intervene unless the nude becomes lewd, itself a problematic area of interpretation. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.