The Boston Herald

THEATER

 

JAMES RADO, GEROME RAGNI

HARD AT WORK ON MUSICAL

 

By Donald Cragin

 

In the relatively short space of three years, James Rado has gone from a young man who wanted to act, to a young man with many stage appearances.  He has appeared as a wild young man in "The Knack," a love-struck perfume salesman in the musicial "She Loves Me," a gangster's bodyguard in another musical "Marathon '33," a monk in "Luther," and one of Henry II's sons in "The Lion In Winter."

 

Currently he appears as a minister in the new musical "A Joyful Noise," which is doing a pre-Broadway tour at the summer tents, and is currently holding forth at Framingham's Carousel Theater.  John Raitt has the lead role, playing a hillbilly folk-singer, with Rado's role that of providing a religious contrast.

 

Joining Rado one afternoon for a lunch at his motel, we asked him, "what next?"  The answer was guarded.  "I'd like to appear sometime in another musical, a musical I know would be great."  The tall young man stood up and paced around the room, brushed a shock of  blonde hair to one side of his long, lean face and looked out the window.

 

"About this musical.  What is it?" we asked.  "Well, I don't like to talk about it, but...we've written a musical."  "Who?" we asked.  Jim has a reluctance to talk about any of his roles, even his current work in "A Joyful Noise."

 

In fact when I told him that we had checked through The Herald drama files before coming out to see him, and had found a review of his performance in the Charles Playhouse musical "She Loves Me" that stated "James Rado, a newcomer to the company, is a young man of good looks, an agreeable singing voice and an engaging stage personality," he winced.

 

Another young man entered the room, carrying a bag which he set down.  We were introduced to Gerome Ragni, and after joining them with a can of beer and a sandwich ("I thought we'd be hungry," Jim said) we pried the story of the musical from them.  They have, in their spare time, been hard at work on an original musical, described as contemporary in nature and theme, a full length show, with many songs.

 

Ragni met Jim when they toured Chicago in "The Knack" and himself had appeared in a minor role in the Sir John Gielgud-Richard Burton version of "Hamlet."  The two have spent spare days, when possible, in writing the show.  Their reluctance to discuss it was a combination of genuine modesty and an almost superstitious attitude toward their new, complete script.

 

"Well, all right," in time they agreed, "you may look at it," and we read through the first few pages.  A vow of secrecy will not, I'm sure, be breached if I disclose that the script is very good, the dialogue is current without being distractingly vague, the characters are whole beings and the lyrics to the few songs we saw are bright and clever.

 

"Why the reluctance?" we asked.  An awareness of the vagaries of theater-luck and fortune was the answer.  "We both appeared in a very funny British revue called 'Hang Down Your Head And Die.'  It was produced by Marion Javits, Sen. Javits' wife, and the first-night audience was comprised of well-dressed society people.  Not one smile, not one joke went over.  An audience of well dressed business people had come to see a friend's show and found raw and biting satire.  Mrs. Javits closed it the next day.

 

"We want everything right with this.  Our agent has assured us it has a chance.  Now we spend weekends and any other spare times working, polishing it."  We said we understood what can happen in the theater, and asked about "A Joyful Noise."  There we got no comment at all, although it is known that Ben Shaktman, director, had left the show some weeks ago, that there has been no director since then, and that Dore Schary has been engaged to rework and rewrite the musical and that it will go on to Broadway as planned.

 

"I've been very lucky in theater," Jim said.  "I wanted to be an actor and since I left college, I've studied with the Strasbergs, and with Uta Hagen.  I've been in some very good plays, and played a diverse selection of roles.  I can't say I like one better than another, althought some have been much better and important than others."  (His last role was his most major, appearing as the oldest of the three snarlinig sons in "The Lion In Winter," which tried out in Boston and starred Robert Preston and Rosemary Harris.)

 

Jim has a natural modesty toward his work, but we can say, again without breaking a confidence, that there's little need for modesty in a career that is fast rising, and toward a script that is a fine finished piece of work.