By TANIA PHILLIPS
WARRAGUL’S Thomas Bradford is set to star in the latest production of the sixties-based psychedelic musical about love, life, death and drugs – HAIR Summer of Love, Victorian Tour.
It will be a chance to let the hair down and let the sun shine in as the stage of the West Gippsland Arts Centre comes alive on 14 and 15 March with a cosmological burst of psychedelic charm.
And up there starring in the role of Walter is local boy Thomas Bradford who recently moved to Melbourne to pursue a career in the arts industry.
This is Bradford’s first casting in a professional theatre production and he admits he is thrilled to bits that he gets to perform to his home town in his first ever theatrical tour.
Bradford sings the much loved ballad in act two What a Piece of Work is Man as well as being a featured soloist throughout the show.
HAIR, the rock musical which rocked, shocked and defined a generation, will also star Tod Strike in the role of Berger and Denise Devlin from New York who leads the show in the role of Dionne – and brings to life the beautiful Aquarius.
Based on the Tony Award winning 2009 Broadway revival, the show has been remastered to suit modern-day audiences while sticking true to its original message.
The production pays homage to life in the 1960s and the battles faced by America’s youth when being confronted with conscription to the Vietnam War, exposure to the era of free love and the experimentation of the illicit drugs LSD and marijuana.
It is staged in full and features the show’s most talked about scene where nearly all cast members remove their clothes in a nude protest against conscription in 1968.
The rock score features hits including Aquarius, Let the Sun Shine In, Hair, Good Morning Starshine and White Boys.
Hair Summer of Love is on at the West Gippsland Arts Centre on 14 and 15 March.
Tickets are on sale now at www.wgac.org.au or phone 5624 2456.
Ticket for adults are $59.50, concessions are $56.50, and tickets for groups of 10 or more are $55.50 each.
WGAC membership discounts apply.
