James Rado

James Rado (born James Radomski in 1932), is an American actor, writer and composer, best known as the co-author, along with Gerome Ragni, of 1967's groundbreaking American tribal love-rock musical Hair. He and Ragni were nominated for the 1969 Tony Award for best musical, and they won for best musical at the Grammy Awards in 1969.

Biography

In college, Rado majored in Speech and Drama and began writing songs. He co-authored 2 musical shows at the University of Maryland, "Interlude" and "Interlude 2". After graduation, followed by two years in the U.S. Navy, he returned to school in Washington, D.C. for graduate work at The Catholic University of America, where he co-authored a musical revue called "Cross Your Fingers." He wrote the lyrics and music for all of his early songs.^[1]

He then moved to New York where he studied acting with Lee Strasberg and also wrote pop songs and recorded his own band, "James Alexander and the Argyles."^[1] Rado's first Broadway show was Marathon '33 in 1963. He met Gerome Ragni in 1964, when they acted together in the off-Broadway play Hang Down Your Head and Die, and they began writing Hair together in late 1964.^[1][2] The main characters of Claude and Berger were autobiographical, with Rado's Claude being the pensive romantic.

In 1966, Rado originated the Broadway role of Richard Lionheart in The Lion in Winter by James Goldman, starring Robert Preston and Rosemary Harris. Later, both Rado and Hair co-writer Gerome Ragni were cast in the Chicago company of Mike Nichols' production of The Knack, by Ann Jellicoe. They played the roles of Tom and Tolan, becoming an acting duo. Hair premiered off-Broadway in October 1967, but Rado was not in the cast. In 1968, however, Rado originated the role of Claude on Broadway, performing opposite Ragni as Berger. He also played Claude in the later Los Angeles production.

Since then, Rado has been active in developing new productions of Hair, including the 11 city 1994 national tour which he directed, and the 2006 CanStage production in Toronto.^[3][4]

In a 2008 interview with The Advocate, Rado described himself as omnisexual and Ragni's lover.^[5]

References

External links

• The official Hair the musical website by James Rado
• James Rado at the Internet Broadway Database
• James Rado at the Internet Movie Database

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