I last sat down to write a program note late in 2019 as deadlines approached for the first Globe shows of 2020, Jitney and Hurricane Diane. I’m not sure I quite remember how to do this, but I am cognizant of what a joy it is to get the chance. It’s a joy tinged with some pain, however: 2020, the Year of the Virus, was difficult, marked by grief and loss. But it’s important to look forward. Elsewhere in this program Tim Shields and I describe the things that happened here in the pandemic, including the flood tides of creativity and generosity that surged our way. Buoyed by our supporters, artists, and community partners, I feel much optimism now, and it sustains me as I look forward to a reopened, recovered, and refocused Old Globe.

That optimism led me, when thinking about how to restart our beautiful but buffeted theatre, to turn to Hair. Originally scheduled to be produced indoors last summer, this boisterous, brilliant musical—with one of the great scores in the history of the form—is exactly the right way to turn the lights on again. The show is about a group of young people who come together to remake their world, kinder and more gracious than before. The “Tribe” of friends and lovers, hippies and seekers, stares hard at an America in turmoil and sees in it not ugliness and rancor, but instead “harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding.” They conjure from a time of pain a vision of a brighter future. And that’s why we’re doing it.

The members of the Tribe would be in their early 70s in 2021, and I imagine they would startle that the discontents they fought 50 years ago are still so current now: political alienation, economic inequity, environmental devastation, racism, sexism, sexual double standards, violence abroad and at home, even the dislocations wrought by technology. The show is so moving precisely because these idealists refuse to despair in the face of these upheavals. They understand that the reality of America can sometimes fall seriously short of our country’s promise, and Claude, the show’s hero, comes to know the human cost of these failings. But they continue to believe in the possibility of a better America. Hair was controversial when it opened, and if it retains its power to unsettle us in our decades-later but still anxious country, then it also retains its ability to inspire.

Indeed, I think the surge of feeling this musical generates is even greater in our moment. Beautiful young people singing from their hearts: “Let the Sunshine In!” Hearing that song lifted us in the late ’60s during a terrible period of war and unrest and generational strife, and it lifts us to hear it again as we emerge from our own time of calamity. What could be more wonderful than a group of young people calling on us all to be our best selves, or proclaiming despite everything that it’s fundamentally an act of optimism to work for change?
James Vásquez, a dear friend and Resident Artist of The Old Globe, has made an effervescent and powerful production, and he and his team of collaborators have done extraordinary things in reconceiving their vision of the show for our outdoor stage. The cast that assembles under the shining San Diego moonlight offers their talents and their hearts in equal measure. I’m grateful to them all.

Throughout the Globe’s extended closure, I often reminded myself that the agony of this period would lift the instant our community gathered again to watch the best theatre artists in our country weave their magic spells. The company of Hair, onstage and off, prove through their artistry that I was right. It delights me beyond measure to share that magic with you, our audience, who’ve been so stalwart and generous in your support. And so, at last, after 17 long months, I offer my traditional close:

Thanks for coming. Enjoy the show.