Viet Rock

{{Infobox musical | name = Viet Rock | subtitle = | image = Viet Rock Poster Cafe La Mama 1966.png | image_size = 225px | caption = | music = Marianne de Pury | lyrics = | book = Megan Terry | basis = | productions = {{plainlist| * 1966 La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club * 1966 Yale Repertory Theatre * 1966 Off-Broadway}} | awards =  }}

'''''Viet Rock''''' is a rock musical by Megan Terry that served as inspiration to the musical ''Hair''. A violent denunciation of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, the play was described by its author as a "folk war movie" comprising scenes of disillusionment and protest to the American military presence in Southeast Asia.<ref name="TDR"/> ''Viet Rock'' is widely considered to be the first rock musical written and performed in the United States, as well as the first protest play about Vietnam.<ref>Gary Botting, ''The Theatre of Protest in America'', Edmonton: Harden House, 1972</ref> Its premiere also marks the first major theatre production in the United States in which actors left the stage to interact directly with the audience.<ref name="Holsinger"/>

The play was initially developed in 1965 and 1966 during collaborative workshops at New York City's The Open Theater under the leadership of Joseph Chaikin and Peter Feldman.<ref name="Hughes"/> The company performed improvisations based on accounts of the Vietnam War, and Terry wrote and directed a full-length show based on these improvisations.<ref name="Bottoms"/> The music was composed by Marianne de Pury, who developed the songs during the workshops. It opened at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club on May 18, 1966.<ref name="LaMaMa"/>

The play then had a two-week run at the Yale Repertory Theatre before its off-Broadway premiere at the Martinique Theatre on November 10, 1966. It closed at the Martinique on December 31 after 62 performances.<ref name="nyt661221"/><ref name="lortel"/>

The play was also performed at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, directed by R. J Quinn in 1973. It was a bold move by Quinn to state his objection to the war at the time as it had no foreseen end and the University had a ROTC program fully supported by the University administration.

One of the leading cast members was Gerome Ragni, who would go on to create the musical ''Hair'' with fellow actor James Rado. In developing ''Hair'', Ragni borrowed the anti-war theme, as well as the experimental technique of improvisational exercises, from the production of ''Viet Rock''.<ref name="Wollman"/><ref name="Miller"/>

==Publication==

''Viet Rock'' is published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc. in the collection ''Plays By Megan Terry''.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Terry, Megan|title=Plays by Megan Terry|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/270224.Plays_by_Megan_Terry| publisher=Broadway Play Publishing}}</ref>

==See also== * List of plays with anti-war themes

==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=Bottoms>{{cite book|last=Bottoms|first=Stephen J.|title=Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement|year=2004|publisher=University of Michigan Press|location=Ann Arbor|isbn=047211400X|pages=178–81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5BfLQGIqtgC&q=marianne+de+pury+yale&pg=PA180}}</ref> <ref name=Holsinger>{{cite book|title=''"Viet Rock (Musical)." in ''War and American Popular Culture|year=1999|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport|isbn=0313299080|pages=425|editor=Holsinger, M. Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oe4AOVHkJ9oC&q=marianne+de+pury+yale&pg=PA425}}</ref> <ref name=TDR>{{cite journal|last=Terry|first=Megan|title=Introduction to ''Viet Rock''|journal=Tulane Drama Review|date=Fall 1966|volume=11|pages=196–98|doi=10.2307/1125282|jstor=1125282}}</ref> <ref name="Wollman">{{cite book |last=Wollman |first=Elizabeth L. |title=The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical |publisher=University of Michigan Press |place=Ann Arbor|year=2006 |pages=43–44 |isbn=978-0-472-11576-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DKjhFrT-W7wC}}</ref> <ref name="nyt661221">{{cite news |newspaper=New York Times|title=Lincoln Center Postpones Play |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/12/21/archives/lincoln-center-postpones-play-in-3-zones-intended-for-small.html |date=21 Dec 1966 |access-date=22 May 2012}}</ref> <ref name="lortel">{{cite web |title=Viet Rock |publisher=Lortel Archives |url=http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=3839 |access-date=May 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007093641/http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=3839 |archive-date=October 7, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> <ref name="Miller">{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Scott |title=Let the Sun Shine In: The Genius of Hair |publisher=Heinemann |place=London|pages=56–62|year=2003 |isbn=978-0-325-00556-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aW4IAQAAMAAJ}}</ref> <ref name=LaMaMa>{{cite web|title=LaMaMa E.T.C. Archives|url=http://www.lamama.org/archives/year_lists/1966page.htm|access-date=15 July 2012|archive-date=3 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403065455/http://www.lamama.org/archives/year_lists/1966page.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> <ref name=Hughes>{{cite journal|last=Hughes|first=Catherine|title=The Theatre Goes to War|journal=America|volume=20 May|year=1967|pages=759–61}}</ref> }}

== External links == * {{IOBDB title}}

Category:1966 musicals Category:Off-Broadway musicals Category:Original musicals Category:Rock musicals Category:Musicals set in Vietnam Category:Vietnam War in popular culture