UNITED NATIONS -- 'Hair,' the 1960s counterculture Broadway musical, was stripped of sex and updated to reflect concerns of the 1980s for a one-night comeback Thursday to raise an expected $2 million for children with AIDS.
The new 'Hair' shed all the nudity, drugs and free sex that characterized the play and caused shockwaves when it opened at the Joseph Papp theater in 1967 under the direction of Gerald Freedman.
Some members of the original cast performed for the audience that paid from $250 to $5,000 each to watch the two-hour show in the cavernous hall of the U.N. General Assembly.
Former 'Hair' performers Treat Williams, Donna Summer, Heather MacRae, Melba Moore and Nell Carter mingled with dozens of teenagers dressed in hippie-style clothes. They danced and sang 'I believe in God and love.'
The new version of the Broadway show was entirely rewritten by the show's authors, Gerome Ragni and James Rado, for the U.N. performance. It was retitled 'Hair ... For The Next Generation.'
The new songs warned of depletion of the atmosphere's ozone, urged help for the homeless and called for a brighter future for children without the scourge of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. But the memorable song 'Let the Sunshine In' opened and closed the show.
The show was sponsored by The Creo Society, a non-profit organization that has raised $3 million for various anti-AIDS programs. Honorary chairmen are Nancy Reagan, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain and U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar and his wife, Marcella, none of whom attended the show.
The Creo Society said it will share the proceeds equally with the U.N. Children's Fund and the U.S. Committee for UNICEF.
'The emerging problem of children affected by AIDS is fast becoming a major social, medical and financial problem around the world,' The Creo Society said, adding, '20,000 cases of children with AIDS are predicted in the United States alone in the next three years.'
UNICEF, a U.N. agency caring for women and children, said it will use the money collected from the show to support a program it has begun to control the spread of AIDS in Rwanda.
The World Health Organization said about 1 million people have the AIDS virus in central, eastern and southern Africa, and half of the victims are women who will transmit the infection to newborn babies.
