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Soon · Off-Broadway rock opera poster
1970 Off-Broadway poster for the short-lived rock opera Soon at the Ritz Theater — electric hair reused from an unused Hendrix sketch.
Byrd’s poster for the 1970 off-Broadway performance of the rock opera Soon features the electric hair from an unused Jimi Hendrix poster design, which he often reused. As Byrd says, “When you have electric hair, show it off!”
The job came through Roger Puckett at Triton Gallery in late December 1970, with the show about to open in a fortnight — another “rock opera” spawned by Tommy’s success, not a Who/Tommy sheet.
Byrd turned the unused Hendrix sketch into the Soon face quickly: sunglasses as part of the title (sOOn like zOOm), a joint in the mouth with type in the smoke, and reworked hair shapes and colors.
The show flopped; the poster later hung on Joe Allen’s famous wall of Broadway flops. Credits include early appearances by Richard Gere, Peter Allen, Nell Carter, and Vicki Sue Robinson.
Sources: Poster Child · The Who (p. 95).