Gerome Ragni

Gerome Bernard Ragni (born September 11, 1942 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania or Canada ; † July 10, 1991 ) was an American actor and painter and was one of the founders of the Open Theater . He was best known in connection with the musical Hair .

Life

Ragni came from a large family of Italian descent. He started painting when he was five. In addition to studies at Georgetown University and Catholic University , he devoted himself to acting; He is said to have made his first appearance at the age of twelve. In 1963 he received the Barter Theater Award for Outstanding Actor for his role in War staged at the Village South Theater in New York . In the same year he married his girlfriend Stephanie, with whom he had a son named Erick.

In 1964 he starred in the Broadway production of Hamlet and in the film version of the Warner Brothers . In the same year he appeared on the side of James Rado in Hang Down Your Head on Die . The first ideas for a musical came up on a tour with Rado and the piece The Knack . Ragni and Rado rented the Harper Theater in Chicago for the planned show, but were unable to implement their ideas due to lack of time.

In 1966, Ragni made a decisive contribution to the success of a play by the Open Theater that had emerged from the Living Theater. This inspired him to take up the idea of ​​a musical again with Rado and to address the hippie movement . Numerous songs about Hair were written during this time after environmental studies in the East Village .

The producer Nat Shapiro arranged the contact to the composer Galt MacDermot . On October 29, 1967, Ragni played Berger in the premiere of Hair at the Public Theater in New York. This would remain his most famous role. The success of the musical in the following years led to a personal crisis at Ragni. His marriage fell apart, he joined a sect and triggered several violent conflicts with the other members of the stage by making unauthorized changes to the concept for Hair .

With his new musical Dude , Ragni could not build on the success of Hair .

In 1977 there was another collaboration with Rado in Jack Sound and His Dog Star Blowing His Final Trumpet on the Day of Doom , and in 1990 Ragni was involved in the environmental musical Sun (YMCA). Ragni died of cancer before the work was completed.

Web links

• Gerome Ragni in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Works by and about Gerome Ragni in the catalog of the German National Library