Shirt worn by Gerome Ragni as Berger in the original Broadway production of Hair: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Shirt worn by Gerome Ragni as Berger in the original Broadway production of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. The red, knit cotton, long-sleeved t-shirt is torn into a v-neck at the collar, and has an embroidered flower applique sewn on at the right breast.

Ragni, who co-wrote the book and lyrics for Hair with James Rado, wore this shirt while portraying the character Berger in the 1968 original Broadway production of Hair. A semi-autobiographical representation of Ragni himself, Berger is depicted as a member of “the tribe,” a diverse group of politically active New York City youths engaging in the liberation movements of 1960s America. Berger is a free-spirited extrovert who is revealed to have been kicked out of high school. He is an irreverent yet respected leader of the tribe, and throughout the play he leads the cast in articulating their values and beliefs while also helping his friend Claude deal with his draft notice to serve in the armed forces during the Vietnam War. The development of Berger’s character was largely influenced by Ragni’s personal observations of contemporary youth culture, with its drug experimentation, long hairstyles, and unconventional lifestyles. He co-wrote and starred in the production with close friend James Rado, who played the character Claude, after first working together in the 1964 Off-Broadway project Hang Down Your Head and Die. Both Ragni and Rado’s characters, along with their unique and, at times, volatile relationship, were centered around their shared interpretation of the hippie counterculture taking place during the mid-20th century in response to the Vietnam War, racial tensions, and sexual revolution of the period.

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, one of the most groundbreaking and influential works of musical theater of the 20th century. The rock musical, with book and lyrics by Ragni and Rado and musical composition by Galt MacDermot, engaged with contemporary events and social change through the lens of American youth culture. The play openly discussed controversial issues including the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the sexual revolution, and hippie counterculture. This politically, socially, and culturally conscious musical generated controversy itself, breaking new ground for Broadway with its nudity, depiction of illegal drug use, irreverence for the American flag, profanity, avant-garde score, story structure, racially-integrated cast and invitation for the audience to join the cast on stage for a “Be-In” finale. Hair influenced a new generation of composers, lyricists, writers, and performers who created hip, socially-aware, contemporary “rock musicals” in the coming decades.

Hair premiered off-Broadway at the new Public Theater in New York’s East Village on October 17, 1967 for a six week limited engagement. Despite lackluster critical reviews, the show was a popular success, and producer Michael Butler and director Tom O’Horgan spearheaded an overhaul to prepare the show for a Broadway run. The plot and characters were tweaked and thirteen new songs were added, including “Let the Sun Shine In,” which would become a major hit for The 5th Dimension in 1969 when combined with the show’s “Aquarius.” O’Horgan’s "organic, expansive style of staging" and improvisational, spontaneous, sensual direction helped the show capture the style and spirit of the era’s youth counterculture, perhaps best represented in the show’s new and immediately infamous nude scene, involving the entire cast, at the end of Act I. Hair opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on April 29, 1968, where it ran for 1,750 performances, closing on July 1, 1972. The show earned mixed critical reviews but was a popular success, and has become a standard for college and regional theater productions. Hair was adapted as a 1979 feature film, directed by Milos Forman, and has been revived on Broadway several times.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: before 1968
• wearer: Ragni, Gerome
• Object Name: shirt
• Physical Description: cotton (overall material)
• Measurements: overall, mounted: 25 in x 19 in x 10 1/2 in; 63.5 cm x 48.26 cm x 26.67 cm
• Measurements: overall, flat: 26 in x 22 in; 66.04 cm x 55.88 cm
• Associated Place: United States: New York, New York City
• Subject: Vietnam War
• Subject: Theater
• related event: Vietnam War
• ID Number: 2023.0153.01
• catalog number: 2023.0153.01
• accession number: 2023.0153
• Credit Line: Gift of the James Rado Estate
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.