''I feel like it's one of the greatest achievements of our career,'' says Keegan Theatre's Susan Rhea of the company's current production of Hair. ''I feel more proud than I've ever felt of anything.''
Naturally, as co-director with her husband Mark Rhea, she feels a sense of motherly love and pride over Keegan's incredibly stirring and youthful adaptation of the 46-year-old Broadway sensation. The provocative show, featuring music by Galt MacDermot and book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, was one of the last musicals to generate firsthand pop hits. And they've stood the test of time -- from ''Aquarius'' to ''Let the Sunshine In.''
Cast of ''Hair'' at Andrew Keegan Theatre
(Photo by Julian Vankim)
''I realize that not everyone likes every kind of music,'' continues Rhea, Keegan's associate artistic director, ''but every single person in the leadership of Keegan is absolutely in love with the score of Hair.''
No doubt most – if not absolutely all – of the audience will feel the same with the verve and talent this cast of 22 singing actors gives to the rock- and funk-oriented jams. That's especially true given it all takes place in the intimate space of the company's venue off 17th Street NW, known for decades as the Church Street Theater until Keegan bought it last summer. In fact, the Rheas instructed the show's young actors to think of the Andrew Keegan Theatre as the communal ground for the show's ragtag group of hippies -- the place where they eat, sleep, hang out, have sex and live as a pot-loving anti-war ''tribe,'' a loose-knit kind of family.
Cast of ''Hair'' at Andrew Keegan Theatre
(Photo by Julian Vankim)
And the sense of family that's developed among the cast is why Rhea's pride goes beyond the typical directorial delight in seeing a complicated show come to fruition.
''I just love and respect our cast so much,'' says Ian Anthony Coleman, who plays the hyper-sexualized ''Colored Spade'' Hud. ''Everyone's so talented and so loving. It's been a judgment-free space. It's been very therapeutic and incredible to be around people that you can love and trust so quickly.''
Coleman, 23, is far from alone. Interviewed on Keegan's stage immediately before an early dress rehearsal, several others in the cast heaped praise on the bond that they've formed working on this ensemble-based show, where nearly everyone is on the stage or in the immediate periphery for most of its nearly three-hour length. ''The cast has been absolutely fantastic. It's definitely one of the friendliest, most open groups of people I've ever met,'' says Ryan Patrick Welsh, who plays ''big ole homosexual'' Steve and also serves as dance captain. ''We all kind of went out of our way to hang out a lot outside of the show, outside of rehearsals, so we could all kind of get familiar with each other and know each other so that we could bring those personal relationships on the stage.''
''As cliché as it sounds, we've become this big community and this big family. We're all so comfortable with each other,'' says Paul Scanlan, who plays the lead, Claude, struggling to weigh his opposition to war and love for tribe with duty to his country. Since graduating from Catholic University, Scanlan has been seen on many of the leading stages around D.C., including Signature and Ford's. But he gives Keegan credit for pushing him further. Hair is the second show in a row with the company in which he didn't try out for the lead, starring as the emcee in last year's Cabaret. ''They've put me in these parts that I never see myself doing, that I learn a lot from and I think I benefit from because it gets me out of what I'm used to doing.''
Cast of ''Hair'' at Andrew Keegan Theatre
(Photo by Julian Vankim)
Of course, it also takes time getting used to getting naked onstage.
''I never thought I'd be able to do that,'' says Caroline Wolfson, who plays Sheila, the lead protester in the tribe. ''There's a part of it that's easy because it's not just me by myself. It's the whole group.''
''It took a while to work up to,'' adds Christian Montgomery, who plays Woof and sings ''Sodomy,'' about the short, dimly lit scene that essentially ends the first act. ''But the way that it's done is so beautiful and so inspiring. It's my favorite part of the show.''
Leading up to the rehearsals, the Rheas let the actors decide exactly when they were ready to get naked as a group. The directors have also given them free range to flesh out their characters and their relationships, and hence the story.
''They've all been encouraged to find relationships with each other onstage physically and emotionally,'' Susan says. ''If you want to touch someone or kiss them or physically be near them, it doesn't matter who it is.'' There are no boundaries, only free love.
And the subtle, random touches, looks and gestures between cast members throughout the show, signifying their strong relationships, definitely boosts the story itself, even helping it transcend its Vietnam War-era time period.
''I didn't want to just do a bunch of songs about hippies. Like, who gives a shit, right?'' Susan Rhea says. ''When we first started digging into this many, many, many months ago, my stomach was in knots trying to find the story.''
Cast of ''Hair'' at Andrew Keegan Theatre
(Photo by Julian Vankim)
In that respect, Hair is a departure from the typical show at Keegan Theatre, which has chiefly made its name staging classic dramas, heavy in plot and thought. Then again, when Mark Rhea started Keegan with a couple colleagues in the late 1990s, the focus was much more on presenting Irish plays and playwrights. And musicals were almost out of the question for staging in the basement of the Mount Olive United Methodist Church in Arlington.
But since the Church Street Theater became a home for Keegan in 2009, the company has more than doubled the number of productions it puts on, roughly eight a season. Per the company's mission, roughly two are always Irish. These days the company sometimes even stages two musicals in a season -- but always one big one.
''It's just been a byproduct of realizing how much we can do,'' says Susan Rhea, who met her husband Mark when they were both acting together in a show at another company.
But Keegan, which has launched a $4 million capital campaign to renovate and slightly expand its old brownstone venue, doesn't stage just any musical. ''One of the reasons we love our venue so much,'' she says, ''is that I think it reflects our personality as a company, which is strong and tough and kind of scrappy. A little edgier, and not this pristine, perfect place.'' Generally that translates to staging gritty, lively, rock-oriented types of shows, from Rent to Spring Awakening to Hair.
And it's the passion contained within Hair that especially hooked Susan, who works part-time as a Web manager for the liberal support nonprofit the Alliance for Justice. ''The desire for change and people actually doing something about it even if they weren't wildly effectual, the coming together of human beings saying this isn't right -- that just gives me goosebumps. We haven't seen anything like it [since].''
Cast of ''Hair'' at Andrew Keegan Theatre
(Photo by Julian Vankim)
But if the show itself makes the 43-year-old feel a little wistful for missing out on the flower-power love of the late '60s, Keegan's production, featuring nearly two dozen talented young millennials from around the region, leaves her feeling more hopeful. ''I think young people are starting to find their voice and their own rage and disillusionment.''
''The show is all about kind of rebelling against authority or the conventions of society that tell you you have to be a certain way, or you have to do something just because society says,'' actor Ian Anthony Coleman says.
''There are still themes and messages that were relevant in 1968 that are still relevant today,'' adds actor Christian Montgomery. ''Protest movements, pointless wars, the government doing wrong to the people, and solving problems with love instead of hate, and problems with racism and homosexuality, and everything going on.''
Of course, the rap on millennials, living in a selfie age all about technology, is that they're too self-absorbed and not engaged enough in the outside world to make a difference. ''We see something and we have a very far away reaction to it, where we're like just closed off to it,'' explains actor Caroline Wolfson. ''We'll see something horrible online and we'll share it on Facebook, but that's it. We don't do anything about it.''
But Wolfson thinks Hair could be a motivator to help her generation do more. ''It encourages people to really open up and try to find the compassion in their hearts that I think we lose a lot of. Hopefully it will send a very positive message of, 'Open up your heart. Let the sunshine in.'''
Hair runs to April 27 at Andrew Keegan Theatre (formerly Church Street Theater), 1742 Church St. NW. Tickets are $37 to $42. Call 703-892-0202 or visit keegantheatre.com.
Cast of ''Hair'' at Andrew Keegan Theatre
(Photo by Julian Vankim)
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