Need something to listen to? Six star Brittney Mack recommends listening to the cast recording of the Actors Fund’s concert of Hair.
The Actors Fund's concert of Hair was presented at the New Amsterdam Theatre September 20, 2004, raising over $500,000 for the non-profit organization. The concert, conceived by Seth Rudetsky, was co-directed and co-choreographed by Devanand Janki and Christopher Gattelli.
The cast album of Hair is available on Amazon, iTunes, and Apple Music.
With music by Galt MacDermot and a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rando, Hair examines a group of 60s-era youth struggling for generational and personal identity, dealing with the Vietnam War, and exploring drugs and the sexual revolution.
The star-studded concert featured Shoshana Bean ("I Believe in Love"); Laura Benanti ("Initials"); Kathy Brier, Orfeh, and Ann Harada ("Black Boys"); Liz Callaway ("Good Morning Starshine"); Paul Castree and Darius de Haas ("What a Piece of Work Is Man"); Chuck Cooper ("Colored Spade"); Gavin Creel ("Going Down"); Lea DeLaria ("Donna"); Raúl Esparza ("Hair"); Harvey Fierstein ("Air"); Ana Gasteyer ("Dead End"); Annie Golden ("Frank Mills"); Jackie Hoffman; Jennifer Hudson ("Easy to Be Hard"); Ledisi, Brandi Chavonne Massey, and Shayna Steele ("White Boys"); Norm Lewis ("Let the Sunshine In"); Michael McKean; Euan Morton ("Manchester, England"); Julia Murney ("Where Do I Go?"); Nancy Opel; Adam Pascal ("I Got Life"); Billy Porter ("Abie Baby"/"Four Score"); Jai Rodriguez ("Sodomy"); RuPaul ("My Conviction"); Christopher Sieber and John Tartaglia ("Don't Put It Down"); Toxic Audio ("Electric Blues"); Lillias White ("Aquarius"); and Harris Doran as Claude.
Rounding out the ensemble were Meredith Akins, Aliane Baquerot, Jerad Bortz, Isaac Calpito, Stuart Capps, Kate Chapman, Brian Corey, Bobby Daye, Mary Faber, Jenifer Foote, Julie Garnyé, Chris Ghelfi, Lucia Giannetta, Brian M. Golub, Geoffrey Hemingway, MaryAnn Hu, Naomi Kakuk, Trent Armand Kendall, Evan Knapp, Kenway Hon Wai K. Kua, Jason S. Little, Julie Lyke, J. Elaine Marcos, Orville Mendoza, DeQuina Moore, Anisha Nagarajan, Darius Nichols, Craig Ramsay, Eliseo Roman, Nell Snaidas, Shanna VanDerwerker, Jessica Walker, Brooke Wendle, Jason Weston, Schele Williams, Gustavo Wons, and Christopher Zelno.
Hair later returned to Broadway in a Diane Paulus-helmed production in 2009. The revival, starring Gavin Creel, Will Swenson, Caissie Levy, Sasha Allen, and more, ran for 519 performances, concluding its run June 27, 2010. The production would go on to earn eight Tony Award nominations, winning for Best Revival of a Musical.
Gavin Creel and cast in Hair
