Grace Potter in Concert at The Roxian; PMT Opens ‘Hair’ at Gargaro Theater (Thurs., 1/23/20)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AfqCOeziSA

1) Grace Potter will play at the Roxian Theatre in support of her fourth solo album, 2019’s Daylight. (Appropriately, it follows 2015’s Midnight.) She is a living survey of American music, having performed with Kenny Chesney, The Rolling Stones, and alternative psych-rockers The Flaming Lips. Potter hails from Vermont, where she and other musicians formed Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, an indie band which also dabbles in blues, folk, and jam. She and drummer Matt Burr were married, but they divorced in 2017, and Burr subsequently split the band. Prior to that, the group founded Grand Point North, a music festival, in Burlington, Vermont. Other festival appearances for Potter include the AmeriServ Flood City Music Festival in Johnstown 2009 and 2016. She has also lent her vocals to a number of television and film productions, such as “One Tree Hill” and Tangled. Devon Gilfillian opens. 8 p.m. 425 Chartiers Ave., McKees Rocks. (CM) 

The gang’s all here for ‘Hair’ at PMT. (photo: Pittsburgh Musical Theater)

2) No doubt about it: Hair has legs. It’s been over 50 years since the legendary Sixties musical opened off-Broadway, and the revivals keep coming. Nor does Hair live on just because boomers do. Its virtues include the songs: Hair has more than the typical musical and they’re good. Some became stand-alone hits, like “Good Morning Starshine” and “Easy to Be Hard” (covered memorably on TV by Three Dog Night). “Let the Sunshine In” is longer and more powerful in the show than in cover versions. And lesser-known songs like “What a Piece of Work Is Man,” taken in part from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, are equally powerful. Hair also has a Pittsburgh connection. Co-creator Gerome Ragni was born here and grew up in East Carnegie. After working in experimental theater in New York, he conceived and wrote the show with friend James Rado; Galt McDermot composed the music. 

Hair was one of the first “conceptual” musicals, with many scenes linked thematically instead of by a storyline. But above all it’s a strong musical. Created in the midst of both a cultural shift and the Vietnam War, Hair takes a hard look at some hard issues amid the humor and the hippie-ness. If that is not your trip, stay home. If you think it might be, Pittsburgh Musical Theater performs Hair in the Gargaro Theater. 7:30 p.m.  Performances continue through February 2. 327 S. Main St., West End. (MV) 

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