It takes a lot of practice and careful choreography to really look carefree.
Just ask Noah Duffy.
Making his Bainbridge Performing Arts debut as choreographer of the upcoming production of “Hair,” which opens officially Friday, Oct. 9, the East Coast transplant said that his first island show has been deceptively difficult to arrange, given that it’s designed to appear very organic and carefree.
“The show poses a specific challenge in that most of the cast is on stage most of the time,” Duffy said. “So there are definitely times that it’s my job as the choreographer to step in and create structured chaos.”
The free love rock musical premiered in 1968 and tells the story of “the Tribe,” a makeshift family living the tenets of the burgeoning flower power movement in New York City and protesting against the draft. Today, the show is best remembered for its many iconic songs as well as its quintessential ‘60s era aesthetic and the nagging controversy surrounding the show’s profanity, depiction of drug use and sex and, perhaps most of all, its infamous nude scene.
Of course, that didn’t bother the choreographer a bit.
In fact, Duffy’s arguably the perfect man for the job.
“I come from a background of classical ballet, but work most often these days as a stripper,” he explained. “So I have a really interesting balance of a lot of different influences and a lot of different techniques.”
Duffy said he worked at a variety of venues throughout New York and New Jersey before moving west.
“I come from a really wide mix of, originally, ballet, and then jazz and then musical theater and now sort of more body-oriented dance, stripping included, hip-hop [and] those kinds of things,” Duffy said. “All of those things mixed together kind of contribute to this tapestry of movement that really explores the body as the central piece of storytelling in this show which really relates directly to the narrative of a group of people forming a community that really is choosing to define themselves on their own terms.”
Directed by Teresa Thuman (who previously helmed BPA’s “The Who’s Tommy,” “The Producers,” “Noises Off,” “Secret Garden,” “Urinetown,” “Kiss Me, Kate” and “Little Shop of Horrors”) and with musical direction by Josh Anderson, the show’s cast includes both BPA newcomers and favorites, including: Todd Baylor, Austin Bennett, Becca Brown, Adrian Cerrato, Melanie Curran, Danielle Daggerty, Ted Dowling, Liz Ellis, Brace Evans, Max Herren, Jade Jones, Mikaela Karter, Denny Le, Olivia Lee, Michelle Lorenz Odell, Alison Monda, Adrienne Palay, Kali Ponzo, Justine Scott and Jesse Smith.
Like any one of the timeless tunes it contains, Thuman said, the show remains applicable — if a little dated — today.
For a musical once conceived as very edgy, Thuman said, “Hair” is obviously of a very specific and somewhat tamer time, though by no means less applicable today.
“The biggest thing is the script itself is very creaky,” she said. “It’s almost a 50-year-old piece. When you actually dig into the script, it has a lot of very old references and a style and an approach that feels very much of ‘60s experimental theater.”
LBJ. IRT. LSD.
Still, Thuman said, at this point the songs and story are so well-known and the show has been re-imagined so many times that the BPA cast was free to put their own refreshing stamp on it.
“We take a few liberties,” Thuman said. “Thematically, I really believe that it’s [about] the opening of so many kinds of reexaminations of things we would consider radical and progressive [even] at this time.”
Specifically, Thuman and Duffy agree, the show centers heavily on the idea of a person being free to do what they wish with their own body — an idea still very much debated today — be it their decision about what to wear (or not wear), how long to grow their hair, to avoid conscription or to take illegal drugs.
“It does have a group of people very into drug use,” Thuman said. “And there’s no exploration of the consequences of that at all. No one mentions the word addiction at all or what can come out it.”
And then, of course, there’s the nude scene.
“It’s pretty quick,” Thuman said. “There’s a lot of good reasons why it can be justified [and] it’s not a central part of the piece.”
Still, the decision to include such nudity posed some unique production issues.
“It definitely posed a challenge,” she said of the play’s probably most mentioned moment. “But I think we have a great team and we made it really clear from the very beginning that it was a choice that each actor would be able to make on their own. We wouldn’t require it of anybody, unless it was something they wanted to do willingly.”
That being said, due to that and the show’s simulated drug use and sexual acts, Thuman cautioned — as well as racial stereotypes and slurs from the era, profanity, refusal of authority and excessive energy, love and happiness — it is recommended for mature audiences only.
“Nudity and drug use in this show are so much a vehicle of the storytelling,” Duffy said. “They’re so much a means to an end rather than an end themselves.
“There’s a real power in a group of people collectively deciding what it is that they stand for,” he added. “I think absolutely that ‘Hair,’ in its time, kind of redefined what theater could say and by extension who it would say it to.”
“Hair” will appear at BPA Oct. 9 through Oct. 25, with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. plus 3 p.m. Sundays and an Industry Night showing event at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19.A special Pay-What-You-Can Preview will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8and the opening night reception will be at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9.
Tickets, $27 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $19 for students, youth, military and teachers, may be purchased online at www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org, at 206-842-8569 or in person at BPA (200 Madison Ave. North).