The famous musical Hair by Gerome Ragni and James Rado premiered on the stage of Atelje 212 on May 19, 1969, as the fourth production in the world and the first in a socialist country.
“Hair” later achieved global fame through its 1979 film adaptation directed by Czech Oscar winner Miloš Forman, starring John Savage and Treat Williams, but all of that was preceded by the stage production.
The main driving forces behind the first “Hair” at Atelje 212 were Mira Trailović and Zoran Ratković. They had seen the show on Broadway in 1968. They co-directed the musical based on an adaptation by Bora Ćosić.
The Atelje production emerged after the rare opportunity this Belgrade theater had to visit New York during one of the most fascinating periods in its history, when the hippie movement and the “sexual revolution” were at their peak. Greenwich Village was teeming with hippies, almost all of whom opposed the Vietnam War. The authors of “Hair,” Ragni and Rado, were themselves hippies, and Ragni had already played Berger in a more modest version of “Hair” at the Public Theater.
Jovan Ćirilov rehearsed Galt MacDermot’s songs with the help of Saša Radojčić on piano. Berger was played in the first version by Dragan Nikolić, while Claude was portrayed by Miša Janketić, as well as Branko Milićević and Mihajlo Kostić. The role of Woof was performed by Miodrag Andrić, later also by Branislav Milićević and Predrag Manojlović.
Jenny was played by Seka Sablić and Mija Adamović, as well as Slobodanka Žugić and Nada Blam. Sheila, the wealthy young woman in love with the provincial Claude—the leading female role—was played by Mira Peić. Seka Sablić also appeared as the pregnant hippie girl Jenny, who does not know whose child she is carrying. The main solo numbers were performed by Dušan Prelević.
In the famous production, the actors appeared naked while singing “Let the Sunshine In” (“Daj nam sunca”). It was the first nudity ever seen on theater stages in former Yugoslavia. The show was performed twice before Josip Broz Tito, but without the onstage undressing and the tearing up of draft cards.
An urban legend even says that Tito himself sang “Let the Sunshine In” at a reception in 1970, and that Mira Trailović supposedly hid for years an American brochure stating that Tito had been a producer of the Belgrade production of “Hair.”
