Hair Musical by Tampere Pop Theatre

http://www.sunpoint.net/~hair1969/

The Pop Theatre of Tampere was established by Orthodox Youth Association and Finnish Youth Association in autumn 1966. It was to be a rival amateur group and it assumed as early as then its popular character. It is no wonder that "Hair" has become the greatest success of our theatre's history. It has caused an enormous reaction in Finland, taboos have been overturned and the young people of our time have conquered everybody's mind with their absoluteness. The revolution of music, theatre and love has swept over the country and forced professional theatres to estimate the situation anew.

Hair would have hardly ever been performed in Finland without the Pop Theatre. Yet the group from Tampere had been looking for a musical with modern pop music. It found Hair and managed to get the rights of presentatiom. The group had not been busy in vain. It was able to carry its ideas out. The page of the amateur theatre opened in theatre history. There has been more than 140 performances by spring 1970 and the number of spectators is almost 100 000, which is almost the same as that of the largest professional theatres of our country.

The Hair interpretation of the theatre has visited almost every professional theatre in Finland and frequently the main stages of the country in Helsinki.

Also Helsinki got its Hair in November 1969. It is performed by The International Theatre of Finland. The Hair in Kotka will be completed in spring '70 and more is to come. Finland seems to be the promised land of the American hippie musical!

The next première of the Pop Theatre of Tampere will be in May 1970 in Helsinki during the Helsinki Festival Weeks and the group will likely preserve its musical style.

Performances of "Hair" will continue in the Tampere Theatre Summer in August '70 and in Tampereen Teatteri in autumn.

[from the 1970 press release]