ANDY DRACHENBERG – First off, can you tell us a little bit about what led you to the Tribe back when it first was on Broadway?
JOHN MOAURO – I had done HAIR before at a summer stock theatre when I had just graduated. I moved [to New York] and saw they were having an audition for HAIR at The Public. It was raining out, so I thought maybe I shouldn’t go to the audition, but I rolled my ass out of bed and I just went to the audition – I was non-equity, so I waited around all day to get seen. Three callbacks later, I got cast in the concert version. We rehearsed for six days and did it for three days – it was crazy! And it just continued going from there.
AD – What does your typical performance day entail for you?
JM – I sleep in really late. I don’t go to bed until like three o’clock in the morning. (I have this weird vampire lifestyle). I wake up, I eat, shower, hang around… watch some TV or hang out with some friends. I try to get to the theatre an hour before half-hour call just to be here in the space and not feel rushed. Then I usually stop by Kacie Sheik’s dressing room and chit chat for a little bit. I go on stage, stretch, warm-up, then I sit in my dressing room and just hang out (unless there’s someone out and we have lift call – I’m dance captain, so all kinds of dominos can go down with that)!
AD – Broadway, the West End, on tour, back on Broadway… how has each production been different?
JM – Consecutively, I’ve been doing the show since the end of January 2009 – two and a half years. Anytime you change someone in a cast, of course it’s going to change the dynamics a little bit, especially with this show because we’re all on stage together and we’re all in this family unit. We had quite a few new people that had come with us to the West End that weren’t in the Broadway production. We added some more spectacle to the show (Cameron Mackintosh wanted fog on stage and sound effects). After London, we had maybe a month off before we started rehearsals for the tour. It was like putting together a new show – it was different for me just as much as for all the new people coming in and being a part it.
AD – Two and a half years non-stop… do you think you will ever get the music out of your head?
JM – No! And I hope I don’t. This show is what has kept me here this long. The family that we have and the relationships that I have with everybody here keep me here as well. But the show! You can find something different every day. Each audience changes your energy. You can have more fun and laugh and different things. I like goofing off on stage. The show is just fun!
AD – What has been the greatest part about getting to perform every day at the St. James?
JM – Besides being able to be back in New York? We’ve been on tour for so long, I really missed New York, getting to see my friends and being in the city. Plus, there are no audiences like New York theatre audiences. We’ve seen the highs and we’ve seen the lows out of the road. When we were in London, they were very quiet, so I know how to roll with the punches. It’s hard going from city to city with every city reacting differently. It’s so nice to be back here and have the New York audiences that are loud and rowdy to play off of.
AD – What do you think it is about the show that pulls people in so much?
JM – We want to them to feel just as much a part of the Tribe as we do. They find a family here. They might be the only person like them where they come from, but as soon as the beginning of our music starts they feel like they are home. They can find their own voice in it. We have so many different people on stage with different energies that everyone can find the person that they relate to. I’ve had people say “I relate to you. I don’t know really anything about what’s going on with you, but you are how I feel.” Everybody has gotten messages like that. They come because we want to be friends with them. We just want to make a big family. Our “Hairballs,” as we call them, love to come out and just be there with us. They’re singing along just as much as we’re singing. We just happen to be on stage with mics on.
AD – HAIR has a history of being deeply involved with the culture and community around it. What has being a part of that been for you?
JM – I knew, as a show, we had something to say but I never thought that we were really going to take it and turn it into what is going on today. As a gay person, a lot of our activism that we’ve done with Broadway Impact for gay rights and equality rings really close to home, and it’s come so far since we’ve been a part of it. As much as I’m on stage every night protesting about the Vietnam War, I’m also protesting about what I believe in and what’s going on today. I’m looking at people’s faces in the audience that are living today. I’m not yelling at them about peace and love and flower power. I’m yelling about equality. Whatever you believe in, help us take our words and spread it across the country for change. We’ve come a long way in 40 years, but we still have a long way to go. Who knows where we’re going to be in 40 years. I’m excited to be here to see it.
JOHN MOAURO loves the sun, friends, mom and laughing. He started as energy from the sun and emerged riding on the Gemini-Taurus cusp. “All men are created equal; it is only men themselves who place themselves above equality.” Peace now!