Harmony and discord within the English ‘Counter- Culture’, 1965-1975, with particular reference to the ‘Rock Operas’ Hair, Godspell, Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar. Christopher John McGowan This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Queen Mary, University of London 1 Declaration The work presented in this thesis is my own. This thesis consists of 99,999 words, inclusive of footnotes and excluding bibliography. Signed: Christopher John McGowan 20 November 2011 2 Abstract This thesis considers the discrete, historically-specific theatrical and musical sub- genre of ‘Rock Opera’ as a lens through which to examine the cultural, political and social changes that are widely assumed to have characterised ‘The Sixties’ in Britain. The musical and dramatic texts, creation and production of Hair (1967), Tommy (1969), Godspell (1971), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and other neglected ‘Rock Operas’ of the period are analysed. Their great popularity with ‘mainstream’ audiences is considered and contrasted with the overwhelmingly negative and often internally contradictory reaction towards them from the English ‘counter-culture’. This examination offers new insights into both the ‘counter- culture’ and the ‘mainstream’ against which it claimed to define and differentiate itself. The four ‘Rock Operas’, two of which are based upon Christian scriptures, are considered as narratives of spiritual quest. The relationship between the often controversial quests for re-defined forms of faith and the apparently precipitous ‘secularization’ and ‘de-Christianization’ of British society during the 1960s and 1970s is considered. The thesis therefore analyses the ‘Rock Operas’ as significant, enlightening prisms through which to view many of the profound societal debates – over ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ in the widest senses, sexuality, the Vietnam war, generational conflict, drugs and ‘spiritual enlightenment’, and race – which were, to some considerable extent, elevated onto the national, political agenda by the activities of the broadly- defined ‘counter-culture’. It considers subsequent representations of the ‘counter- culture’ as the root of a contested but enduring popular legacy of ‘The Sixties' as a period of profound cultural change. 3 Acknowledgements This study was undertaken with the financial support of an Attlee Foundation– Queen Mary, University of London Research Studentship; Doctoral research funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and a Scouloudi Junior Fellowship from the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London. I am grateful to all three organizations for their generous financial assistance. Many people have helped with my research. I would like to record my thanks to the archivists and librarians who assisted me, especially Beverley Cook of the Museum of London; Kathleen Dickson of the British Film Institute; Malcolm Marjoram of the British Library; Dan Hedley of The Guardian Digital Archive, and the staff of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. Dr Peter Catterall and Dr James Ellison of the Department of History at Queen Mary provided advice and support throughout the project. I am also grateful for the encouragement of Dr Jen Harvie and Dr Bridget Escolme of Queen Mary’s School of Drama; Dr Mara Keire, and Professor Arthur Burns of King’s College, University of London. The interdisciplinary nature of this thesis reflects the influence of those, in diverse fields, under whom I previously studied and worked: Harry Broad; Ken Hetherington; Lawrence Glover; Professor David Johnston; Colin Gray; Lynn Bains, and Andy Mackie. I am also grateful to Brian Donald; Hannah McDowall; Stuart Wilkinson; Joanne Bett and Ian Buchanan for their help. Above all, I thank my Supervisor, Dr Dan Todman, without whom this project would not have been conceived or undertaken, let alone completed. His intellectual energy; scholarly rigour; embrace of interdisciplinarity and exemplary pastoral support made this project possible. My parents, Jack and Elise, as so often in the past, supported me emotionally, practically and financially. I am deeply grateful to them. They also appreciate the joy I have experienced by becoming an uncle during this research project. In the vague hope, therefore, that my niece and nephew may be interested enough to read it in the future, this thesis is dedicated, with love, to Maya Rai and Neil Kumar McGowan. 4 Table of Contents Declaration 2 Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Table of Contents 5 List of images 7 CHAPTER ONE: 8 Introduction 1.1 ‘Strange thing, mystifying’: The ‘Rock Opera’ genre 8 1.2 The historiography of ‘The Sixties’ 15 1.3 The counter-culture and the ‘Counter-Culturalists’ 21 CHAPTER TWO: 28 From ‘Pop’ music to ‘Rock’ music, 1965-69 CHAPTER THREE: 40 Hair: Origins, working methods, text and music 3.1 The prototype Rock Opera 40 3.2 Origins, working methods, text and music 41 CHAPTER FOUR: 61 London Theatre during ‘The Sixties’, the Lord Chamberlain, and Hair 4.1 What Was On in London? 61 4.2 The Lord Chamberlain and Hair 71 CHAPTER FIVE: 85 Hair in London: Production, performance and reception CHAPTER SIX: 111 Counter-cultural reactions to Hair in London, and Hair and its creators since the 1970s 6.1 ‘Shallow simulacrum’: Counter-cultural reactions 111 to Hair in London 6.2 Hair and its creators since the 1970s 129 6.3 Coda: The 2007-10 Broadway and West End revival 135 CHAPTER SEVEN: 139 The post-Hair wave and Godspell 7.1 The post-Hair wave 139 7.2 Godspell: the ‘clean’ Hair? – origins and text 145 7.3 Musical score 153 5 CHAPTER EIGHT: 158 Godspell in London 8.1 Production, marketing, and working methods 158 8.2 Critical reaction 172 8.3 Coda: Godspell since the 1970s – 176 ‘community spirit appears to be dead these days’ CHAPTER NINE 179 Tommy: the 1969 album 9.1 Origins and influences 179 9.2 Text and music 192 9.3 Critical reaction 209 CHAPTER TEN 217 Tommy live, on film and on the theatrical stage 10.1 Tommy live: the birth of ‘stadium rock’ 217 10.2 Ken Russell’s 1975 film 227 10.3 Coda: The Who’s Tommy reaches Broadway and 239 the West End CHAPTER ELEVEN: 244 Jesus Christ Superstar 11.1 The 1970 album: origins, text and music 244 11.2 Live in the USA 255 11.3 Superstar in London 259 CHAPTER TWELVE: 267 Religion and the Rock Operas 12.1 ‘Believing without belonging’: the religious ‘crisis’ 267 of the 1960s and the rise of the ‘New Age’ 12.2 The Rock Operas and St Paul’s Cathedral 273 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: 285 Conclusion List of Sources 290 6 List of images 1. Princess Anne steps off the stage of the Shaftesbury Theatre. 95 Daily Mail, 16/04/1969. 2. Hair ‘generic freak’ image used for publicity in the USA and 114 the UK. http://www.hairtribes.com/ (accessed 27/03/2007). 3. The Godspell publicity image on a programme for the 160 Round House production. 4. The publicity poster for Ken Russell’s 1975 film of Tommy. 231 5. VE Day celebrations as Tommy is born. 231 6. Tommy’s mother Nora (Ann-Margret), young Tommy (Barry 232 Winch) and Frank (Oliver Reed). 7. Nora tends to her adult son (Roger Daltrey). 232 8. Nora is engulfed by the products advertised on her television set. 233 9. The Pinball Wizard (Elton John) is challenged by Tommy. 233 10. The Pinball Wizard, close to defeat, surrounded by (from left 234 to right), John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. 11. Eric Clapton as The Preacher who offers ‘Eyesight to the Blind’. 234 12. Colm Wilkinson and Christopher Neil as Judas and Jesus in the 265 Palace Theatre production. Jesus Christ Superstar Souvenir Brochure and Libretto, 1974. 13. Judas, resurrected, sings ‘Superstar’ with the chorus of angels. 265 Jesus Christ Superstar Souvenir Brochure and Libretto, 1974. 14. Christopher Neil in the Crucifixion scene. 266 Jesus Christ Superstar Souvenir Brochure and Libretto, 1974. 15. The Hair company on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, 266 December 1971. Martin Sullivan, Watch How You Go (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975), facing page 193. 7 CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1.1 ‘Strange thing, mystifying’: The ‘Rock Opera’ genre This thesis uses a theatrical and musical phenomenon – the ‘Rock Opera’ – as a means by which to examine the cultural, social and political history of Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. The Rock Opera – here defined as a historically-specific sub- genre of works consisting primarily of Hair (1967) by Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot; Tommy (1969) by Pete Townshend and The Who; Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and Godspell (1971) by John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz – has received scant attention in the extensive and ever-expanding historiography of Britain during the 1960s and 1970s. The Rock Opera has likewise been ignored or dismissed with fleeting, amused contempt by the burgeoning fields of theatre and pop-rock music history. The absence is particularly striking given the genre’s substantial commercial success and theatrical dominance. The long-playing recordings (LPs) of the four Rock Operas sold in large quantities and Hair blazed a theatrical trail that saw the Rock Opera overpower the major stages of the Western world, including London’s theatrical West End. Only two of the four Rock Operas – Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar – are true ‘operas’ (in the style of the nineteenth century and beyond), being without spoken dialogue, ‘through-composed’ and, therefore, entirely ‘sung-through’. One, Tommy, was not given a full-scale, long-running theatrical staging until 1993. All four utilized, however, the instrumentation, amplification and musical vocabulary of pop-rock music to dramatic effect by augmenting or supplanting the traditional orchestra of the theatre pit. This was groundbreaking. Above all, the Rock Opera genre combined the broad spectrum of the pop-rock music of the day with the novel techniques and forms of what was considered to be ‘experimental’ or ‘fringe’ theatre.