Gimme a Head With Hair, Long Beautiful Hair

Anne as a hippie, with an Indian pal.

Anne at the new hookah bar downtown (how appropriate).

My buddy Anne Sampson and I went to see "Hair!" at the Roanoke Civic Center last night and it was all we expected--or wanted. The love-rock musical holds its relevance as a statement against war and racism because not much has changed since 1967, though the look is as dated as the audience.

Before the show, we ate on City Market and did a little walking tour, including a stop in front of the brand new hookah bar on Campbell Avenue, an apporpriate pause in an evening devoted to the 1960s.

We did an unofficial survey of the demographics at "Hair!" and came to an indisputable conclusion: Baby Boomers. And they were there in numbers, a full house from what I could count for this lively, loud, melodic visit to the days of our often misspent youth.

This was not a crowd that included an inordinant number of Tea Partiers, those who can trace the destruction of America to the hippie movement. I think it was more representative of those of us with the naive belief that good would triumph over evil, which is most certainly has not. That aside, however, it was an energetic evening with a good young cast saluting one of our important American plays.

One more observation: about a third of the way into the evening, Anne and I began counting redheads (I love redheads, used to be one as a kid). We came to the conclusion, I think, that rumors of the redheads' demise are exaggerated. There were a bunch of them, some bottled, some not, all lovely.

(One other important item: No, there was no nudity. Guess they didn't want the hassle.)

Here's some of the big crowd for "Hair!".