Sad news about the death of James Rado, co-creator of “Hair.”

I interviewed the 90-year-old Rado for a story for Encore Monthly magazine last fall. Joan Marcus took this terrific portrait of him.

Below is that story:

James Rado: Quite A Trip

By FRANK RIZZO

Like the musical “Hair,” its co-creator James Rado seems ageless.

Rado, 90, is the co-author with Jerome Ragni of the 1967 "American Tribal Love-Rock Musical" but that’s not how his career in the theater began. After studying acting under Lee Strasberg, Rado made his Broadway debut in 1963 in June Havoc’s “Marathon ’33,” played the romantic lead in the musical "She Loves Me" in Boston and originated the role of Richard in the Broadway production of “The Lion in Winter.”

He and buddy Jerome Ragni were cast in several shows beginning in 1964 and soon began collaborating on a musical that would reflect their passion for the burgeoning experimental theater movement and the fast-changing counterculture.

“Hair,” which would premiere off-Broadway in 1967. The show opened on Broadway the following year with Rado in the role of draftee Claude, opposite Ragni as free-spirit Berger.

“I never thought about the future and the show could still be alive today. We were living in the moment in those days. We just wanted to create something sensational for the Broadway stage that was about liberation, consciousness and the hippie movement.”

Rado says the audience then was a mixed one “with very straight people sitting next to hippies.”

The show changed the perception of what a Broadway musical could be and became a cultural sensation, spawning hit singles, global productions and 1979 film. “Hair” earned the Tony Award for best revival in 2009.

And his advice to young people? “Love your art form, study it, and know that you can take it to another level. Life evolves and so does the art form and the sky’s the limit. Just get in the groove, go with the flow, and believe.”

As for his life in the theater: “It was a trip, that’s for sure.”

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