Hollywood Production of HAIR Defends Its In-Drag Character

PRLog (Press Release) - Apr. 16, 2012 - An upcoming production of HAIR is coming under fire for one of it's characters: "Margaret Mead" the drag queen.

"We've had people reach out from both sides" explains William Lloyd. PR contact for theTRIBE Productions (the company behind HAIR's upcoming June run).  "Some people are upset about having a drag queen in a musical, and others are happy.  But the message behind the character is so much more than what she's wearing..."

HAIR was the first Broadway show to feature a drag queen in a positive light, predating the 1969 Stonewall riot (rumored to have been started by a drag queen defending herself) by more than year.

"The character, Margaret Mead [named after the famous sociologist] was not presented as a "let's laugh at a drag queen' trope" continues Lloyd.  "She is actually the moral compass of the show.  During a time when racism, homophobia, and sexism was everywhere, she was the sobering voice that said 'Be whoever you want to be, and do whatever you want to do, just as long as you don’t hurt anybody.”'"

Which is a message that resonates just as much today as it did almost 40 years ago.

HAIR includes characters that cover many "controversial" topics: drag, homosexuality, sexual freedom, drug use, racial stigmas, and more.  Says the show's director, Christopher Chase, "The more on-stage examples we see of people who are giving off nothing but love, the easier it becomes to be proud of our own (and accept each others’) differences."

See HAIR to form your own opinion by getting tickets at www.Plays411.net/HAIR


HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical
June 1-24

El Centro Theatre
804 N. El Centro Ave.
Hollywood, CA 90038

(323) 960-4418
www.plays411.net/HAIR

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/11850852/1