The New York Times

December 19, 1972

 

THE THEATER:  "RAINBOW"

 

Musical Successor to "Hair" Is a Success

 

By Clive Barnes

 

The progenies of "Hair" have not enjoyed a great track record.  It is therefore all the more pleasant to report that the latest of that tribe, "Rainbow," which opened last night at the Orpheum Theater, is a distinct success.  It has the style, manner and energy of "Hair," as well as its chaotic organization and its simplistic view of a far from simple world.

 

It has been written chiefly by James Rado, who was one of the writers of "Hair."  The music and lyrics are by Mr. Rado, and for the book he has been assisted, but perhaps not enough, by his brother, Ted Rado. 

 

The musical is joyous and life-assertive.  It is the first musical to derive from "Hair" that really seems to have the confidence of a new creation about it, largely derived from James Rado's sweet and fresh music and lyrics.

 

"Rainbow" almost  literally takes off from where "Hair" ended.  At the end of "Hair," Claude, the drafted dropout, is killed in Vietnam.  In "Rainbow," someone called simply Man has been killed in Vietnam, and comes over the other side into Rainbowland.

 

Rainbowland is the kind of place that perhaps only Judy Garland could fully appreciate.  It seems to be a radio station of sorts - fancy finding out that heaven was just that great big radio station in the sky - obsessed, but not too intently, with preparing commercials for such soap products as Oxydol.  (Nights when I was unable to sleep I often wondered whatever happened to Oxydol - well, it appears it made good, and went on to higher things.)

 

There is a Mother, and a Father, and Jesus, and Buddha, a Stripper, a Wizard, a Girl, her lesbian twin, a President and a First Lady.  The whole thing is great fun until for one horrid and unfortunate moment, the Brothers Rado feel impelled to introduce a conscience-struck note of political significance.

 

The Man, accompanied by his Rainbow Room of cronies, goes to Washington and there sees the President.  "Why was I killed in Vietnam, Mr. President," he asks plaintively.  Mr. President, a good guy at heart, replies: "If it was my fault, forgive me."  Yes, well.  But such lapses apart - and there aren't many - "Rainbow" reallly swings and pulses.

 

Perhaps the big surprise is provided by James Rado's music, which comes out in a gush of melody.  It is a brilliant score full of the most astonishing variety.  Some of it does sound like the great Galt MacDermot score for "Hair," and the influence of MacDermot is strongly felt.  But there is also country music, band music, showbiz pastiche, all manner of music, held into one homogenous score by its characteristic forcefulness.  Yes, at times this pressure is a little unremitting, and the show has an almost unbelievable 42 numbers in it.  Luckily the singing hardly ever stops.

 

Mr. Rado's lyrics have a bizarre zaniness.  Apart from the occasional modish dirtiness, there is a Lewis Carroll madness here that is most appealing.  They say crazy things and evoke crazy images, but do so with a most bouncy zest.

 

The setting by James Tilton is simple but effective, consisting fundamentally of a spiral platform running around the stage.  Busby Berkeley would have loved it and Fred Astaire would have tap-danced down it.  The staging is by yet another "Hair" alumnus, Joe Donovan.

 

Mr. Donovan has doubtless caught his sense of slightly organized frenzy from Tom O'Horgan, but his style of red-cheeked clowns and unlikely buffoons appears to derive more from John Vaccaro and his Playhouse of the Ridiculous.  It works well to give the show the specific style it needs in the absence of a book.

 

The performances - and this is a team effort - are notably attractive.  The show has something of the tribal quality of "Hair," that odd mixture of charades and greasepaint, of backyard kids play-acting.

 

Gregory V. Karliss gave Man a certain gusto, Camille (only one name as in Greta Garbo) belted attractively as the Mother, Bobby C. Ferguson made a happpily mysterious Wizard, and the two pretty and fine-singing Girls were Kay Cole and Janet Powell.  All the singing was first-rate and the playing (musical supervision by Steven Margoshes) and the sound engineering (Abe Jacob) were both superior.

 

What separates "Rainbow" from the other rock and plotless musicals that have recently been going bump in the night, is its stylistic cohesion and lack of pretensions.  It is not only noisy and brash, it is also very likable.

Sadvipra

March, 1974

 

 

THE RAINBOW RAINBEAM RADIO ROADSHOW

 

 

Photo caption: "Left: President Mister (Herbert G. Goldman) and Billy Earth (James Rado) in a scene from new rock musical."

 

 

The Rainbow Rainbeam Radio Roadshow.

Music and lyrics by James Rado.

 

Book by James Rado and Ted Rado.

reviewd by Terry Campbell

 

"And remember: Peace is the ultimate object and Love  the ultimate soul."  Jesus (appearing in the form of two girls) utters these words to Billy Earth in a new rock musical called The Rainbow Rainbeam Radio Roadshow, an off-Broadway delight.  James Rado, who penned the lyrics and music for the daddy of rock musicals, Hair, is the creative wizard behind Rainbow. 

 

The same incredible energy that Hair generated can be felt in this new production.  Hair's main thrust was the music, which is also the case in Rainbow, with 33 new songs.  Its main stream of music is, of course, rock and soul, with generous doses of old time radio ditties, a little burlesque, country and western, some razzmatazz - and even a Carmen Miranda set, complete with dancing bananas (which leaves you helpless with a heavy case of the hearty hoo-hahs).

 

The story concerns young Billy Earth, who, after his death on earth, awakens to find himself in the middle of Rainbowland (inhabited by Rainbeam people).  He spends a lot of time trying to figure out where he is (or even who he is) and whether he is dead or alive or what.

 

Alll the while he is nurtured along by some loving Rainbow foster parents and Rainbeam musical antics, until they break it to him - that he is from earth, he died in a war there, and that before becoming a Rainbeam like them he must return to earth to find out why he died.  His quest for the answer comprises the greater portion of the production, and Billy eventually confronts the President of the United States himself with the question.

 

But the magic of the show is not so much in the story (part missing)  Since much of the material revolves around the bufoonery of President Mister, an obvious parody of Nixon, its value may not endure the test of time.  Fortunately when the storyline wanes the music takes up the slack (and ties it into a bow). 

 

The music steadily gushes with delight.  There are only one or two inconsequential numbers, and the rest zoom.  Whatever emotional mark they aim for they hit, right in the heart.  "Mama Loves You." for example - familial affection has never been set more sweetly to rock music.  As Billy is reborn on earth, he sings the deeply compelling "My Lungs" in poetic praise to the sheer fact of breathing.  "I Want To Make You Cry," Billy's crucial confrontation with the president, expresses his emotional urgency more fully than any of the lines he speaks.

 

The Statue of Liberty puts in an appearance, decked in black (her green stone is at the cleaners, she tells us) and her scroll (with the famous inscription) misplaced.  "But don't worry," she says wryly, "I have this memorized."  Her recital turns into an hilarious burlesque routine as she give us the real lowdown: "You gotta be naughty, you gotta be nice, you gotta remember that we're rolling the dice."

 

Then there are those heartdancing numbers like "You Live In Flowers" (in which some of the players dance among the audience to give them flowers), "Somewhere Under The Rainbow," and "The World Is Round" - some of the most exciting and joyous music around these days - and all a celebration of love.  When the Rainbeams burst out "Somewhere" they sound like a heavenly host of rock and roll angels.  And in the "The World Is Round" they form a dancing mandala around the befuddled President.  The clapping, foot-thumping players become their own percussion section while affirming the logic of the universe as well:

"The world is round, it has no sides, take a lesson from that!"

 

With love, Billy has gained the universe.  Rainbow culminates with his initiation in Rainbeamship while the president is left to ponder the piercing question of Billy's death (and the deaths of others) and must come to terms with it himself.  For Billy, it is enough that he has asked.

Washington Star-News

Washington, D.C. Wednesday, January 23, 1974

 

Caption underneath photo:  "Robert Ader, holding globe, plays secretary of state, and Herbert Goldman (center) president in the rock musical "Rainbow Rainbeam Radio Roadshow," which opened last night in the American Theater.

 

THE MUSICAL IS JOYOUS AND LIFE-ASSERTIVE.

 

It is the first musical to derive from 'HAIR' that really seems to have the confidence of a new creation about it,

largely derived from James Rado's sweet and fresh music and lyrics. 

 

 It is a brilliant score full of the most astonishing variety.  'RAINBOW' really swings and pulses.  What separates 'RAINBOW' from the other rock and plotless musicals that have recently been going bump in the night, is its stylistic cohesion and lack of pretensions.  It is not only noisy and brash, it is also very likable.  Mr. Rado's lyrics have a bizarre zaniness.  Apart from the occasional modish dirtiness, there is a Lewis Carroll madness here that is most appealing.  They say crazy things and evoke crazy images, but do so with a most bouncy zest.  The performances are notably attractive.  The whole thing is great fun."

                        - Clive Barnes, N. Y. Times 

 

" 'RAINBOW' takes the best of both theater worlds, the underground and the professional, to make a musical of great fun and freedom.  An exhilarating show with a musical score that is simply wonderful.  Just the kind of music our theater has been waiting for."

                        - Martin Gottfried, Womens Wear Daily

 

" 'RAINBOW' is a wonderfully crazy musical.  A bizarre, off-beat, brilliant show.  It's loud, it's freaky, it's frenetic.  It's also musically quite marvelous.  It's also the first show since 'HAIR' by one of the people who created 'HAIR,' James Rado, to have some of the same bounce, the same super driving energy and good, new music.  There are 38 songs and they're strong, tuneful and exciting."

                      - Leonard Probst, NBC Radio

 

" 'RAINBOW' is a feast for the eye and the ear.  A wildly exuberant, enormously entertaining work."

                      - Larry Wunderlich, Cue Magazine

 

" 'RAINBOW' is irreverent, irrelevant and irresistible.  It is 60% magic and 40% camp show (now that isn't a bad average).  The music is very good and the whole feeling has a nice 'up the establishment' quality.  James Rado, who worte the music (his brother Ted helped with the book) is having fun and the fun is contagious."

                      - William Raidy, Newhouse Newspapers

 

"A hallelujah happening, a joyous revival meeting, a sweet communion and a tuneful parable for the U.S.A. today.  I liked it immensely.  It's a true son of 'HAIR'.  'RAINBOW' points to the pot of gold.  The memorable songs come tumbling one after the other in rich profusion.  The cast of 15 is phenomenal.  Seldom has such a magnificent group of singer-dancer actors been assembled on any stage.  A night of celebration."

                      - Emory Lewis, The Record

 

" 'RAINBOW' flashes a lot of coloful hedonism, crackled with youthful high spirits for those who dig impertinent romp."

                      - William Glover, Associated Press

 

" 'RAINBOW' is spirited and tuneful."  

                      - Douglas Watt, N. Y. Daily News

Douglas Watt:  "James Rado has a definite feel for stage music and good-timey sounds in particular."

 

William A. Raidy headline: "There's Gold in RAINBOW"

 

Charles Orlando, Naked News:  "RAINBOW's a fucking good show. 

 

RAINBOW seems to be made out of the very effulgence of the heavens, where dreams are born. 

It's a modern  PETER PAN. 

 

                           Rado wants to love through his song.

                           And his Rainbeams are the stardust and song-

                           glitters of tribal love that sheds true tears for the

                           violence done to the children of God.

 

                           "RAINBOW is funky too.  After all, its takes its juice

                           from the Cannabis plant...funky, campy, sexy,

                           bouncy with the rhythms of light rock music...

                           Man is risen from the dead, his re-birth in

                           Rainbeam heaven..."

 

Ernest Albrecht,

New Brunswick, NJ:  "Musical number rolls over musical number with

                           tidal wave force...Rado emerges as one of the

                           theater's most versatile composers.  His score is a

                           vivid pastiche that ranges from Grand Ole Opry to

                           Twenties' syncopation through rock and Rodgers.

                           This is exciting theater music, music that has

                           tremendous power and drive...triumphant score.

                           As an ensemble, the casts produces a sound far

                           more vibrant and electric than Broadway's best-

                           schooled choral work...Nancy Potts has contributed

                           a motley wardrobe that is gloriously comic and

                           fantastic, and James Tilton has opened up the

                           tiny stage of the Orpheum Theater as if he has

                           just created a new universe."

 

Frederic C. Weiss:  "RAINBOW is a fast-paced, exciting, and

                           joyful new rock musical which consists of song

                           after song of love, life and hope for a world which

                           needs it, at a time when people are ready to reach

                           for it...while I can't really say it is better than HAIR,

                           it is safe to say that I enjoyed it much more...its

                           value as an entertainment and a showcase for

                           talent lives on."