Theatre Register

James Rado

Shows · James Rado

LyricistBook WriterActor 1932–2022 On stage 19631968

James Alexander Radomski (January 23, 1932 – June 21, 2022), known professionally as James Rado, was an American actor, playwright, director, and composer, best known as the co-author, along with Gerome Ragni, of the 1967 musical Hair. He and Ragni won for Best Musical Theater Album at the 11th Annual Grammy Awards and were nominated for the 1969 Tony Award for Best Musical.

On stage 4 productions, 5 years

1963 Luther St James Theatre · Original · directed by Tony Richardson 211 perf.
1963 Marathon '33 Anta Playhouse · Original · directed by Tim Everett 48 perf.
1966 The Lion in Winter Ambassador Theatre · Original · directed by Noel Willman 92 perf.
1968 Hair Biltmore Theatre · Original · directed by Tom O’Horgan 1,750 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Also credited on1 work

Hair (2009 Revival)

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • On 27 September 1968, the Broadway musical sensation Hair , with book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot, opened for what would become a five year run at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. Billed as ‘The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,’ it captured the very essence of the peace and love flower-power cultur…ebooks/Bagnall, Rob/Still the Beast is Feeding_ 40 Years of Rocky Horror - Rob Bagnall & Phil Barden.txt
  • From Hair book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado (still playing everywhere) comes a lyric in nine lines, seven of which begin with "I got" and end with "life, mister," "laughs, sister," and end finally with "And bad times too/Like you" for fourteen additional stanzas in this pattern, followed by two other sections in other pattern…ebooks/Engel, Lehman/Words with Music_ Creating the Broadway Musical Libretto - Lehman Engel.txt
  • These lyrics sounded as if they’d been scribbled on scraps of paper, and some of them were, as Gerome Ragni and James Rado traveled on subways or ate in restaurants. In their eventual Playbill bio, they happily referred to what they’d written as “non-book and lyrics.” The lyrics don’t read particularly well, but they sang once Galt MacDer…ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • Cast: Steve Curry, Ronald Dyson, Sally Eaton, Leata Galloway, Paul Jabara, Diane Keaton, Lynn Kellogg, Melba Moore, Shelley Plimpton, James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Lamont Washingtonebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • This hugely successful revival was bolstered by a top-to-bottom scrubbing of the score, with original composer Galt MacDermot and surviving lyricist James Rado supervising. A key member of the onstage band, drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, played on the original Off-Broadway recording of the show in 1967. Cast members broke down the fourt…ebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • With book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot, the psychedelic, impressionist musical ignored almost every rule in the book. It offered non-rhyming lyrics, various songs that didn’t end but rather slowed down or segued into the next number, four-letter words, nudity, sexual content, an integrated and some…ebooks/Hadleigh, Boze/Broadway Babylon - Boze Hadleigh.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any portrait. 1,626 of 7,139 people have one, so this is the usual case rather than the exception.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — lyricist, book writer, actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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