James William Romick was born on June 6, 1956 in Warren, Ohio. His mother says that the doctor had to be called from lunch for the delivery! He was brought home from the hospital to what was known to the family as the “Red House” on Triumph Avenue in Lake Milton, Ohio. Jim went to kindergarten, grade school and high school (K – 12) in the Jackson-Milton local school system, graduating 5 th in his class of '74.

Jim's Mother, Mary, is a retired school teacher and still resides in Ohio with his older brother, Mike, who works for Home Depot. Jim's younger brother, Thom, is a microbiologist specializing in food science and lives in California. His father, Eli, is deceased.

Jim is 6 feet tall, bare foot. He has reddish-brown hair (which is slowly transforming to a distinguished gray) and blue eyes with a fleck of brown in the lower left corner of the left eye, which Jim claims as a birth mark.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a policeman. One of my father's friends was a County Cop, and I wanted to be just like him. But music was always a part of my life. When I was 5, my father strapped a small accordion onto my chest and taught me how to play it. I still have it, and his. When I was in 6 th grade, I got in the school band. I played the drums. I was also in the choir. When I went to high school, I continued playing the drums and singing in the choir. In my freshman year, our choir director staged a few numbers from various musicals for our spring concert. He included me in “There Is Nothing Like A Dame” from South Pacific. I don't think I'd ever even seen a live stage musical up ‘til then. So, performing that number with a bunch of my friends was really something special for a 13 year old. The next year, all of us kids that were involved in the music programs, the band and choir, were thrust into a kind of limbo. Our band director and our choir director moved on to bigger school systems. Both of their replacements only lasted a year. But the replacements' replacements revitalized both programs and renewed my interest in music. Our new choir director wanted to do some musicals and I was more than happy to be a part of them.Lil' Abner in my junior year. Fiddler and Oklanoma! in my senior year. She also helped me win a scholarship to YSU. Doing shows in high school was fun, but when I got to college, I thought I was going to become a serious musician and become a music teacher.”

Jim earned a Bachelors of Music Degree in Education on a voice scholarship at the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University. That is when he was first bitten by the acting bug, performing in the college productions and the Youngstown Playhouse.

“In college, I was studying to be a classically trained singer. I was singing Art Songs and Arias in Italian, German and French. In the spring of my freshman year, I lucked into an opportunity to play El Gallo in The Fantasticks that was being put on by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the music fraternity. The guy that was originally cast had to drop out and I got the part. The next year I got involved in the local community theater, the Youngstown Playhouse. Not long after that the Spotlight Theatre (YSU's theater program) and TNT (Trumbull New Theatre), another local community theatre. I even did some opera.”

Jim's professional career began in, of all places, an amusement park.

“Toward the end of my third year of college, I heard about an audition for the Live Shows at King's Island Theme Park near Cincinnati. I got the job. The show was a 40 minute revue called New York, New York. We did 5 shows a day. The show had an alternating cast. A, B and C. I was in A and B and off on C. So, I would do one show on the A day and a different show on the B day, but it was the same show. It was good training for becoming a swing. It was the first time that I got a pay check for performing and I said to myself, ‘I can do this! I want to make a living doing this'.”

Jim got his Equity Card as an understudy for Lancelot in a production ofCamelot at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Florida in the spring of 1980.

“I was making $100.00 a week for 8 weeks of a 10 week run. They also gave me a room on the beach. Those last 2 weeks, I became a member of Actors Equity. Rehearsals were kind of funny. My role in the show was Sir Lionel, the one who dies and Lancelot brings him back to life. The guy who was contracted to play Lancelot was only going to be available for the last 3 days of the 10 day rehearsal period. So, I did most of the rehearsals with Arthur and Guinevere. I was dying and bringing myself back to life.”

Jim made his way to New York in the fall of 1981.

“I bummed around Florida for a while. I auditioned for some things, but didn't get any of them. I went back to Ohio, nothing there. Went back to Florida and got another show at BRDT, doing Will Parker in Oklahoma!. Went back to Ohio and did another Camelot in Summer Stock for the Kenley Players. After that, I decided that I had to go to New York if I was going to get anywhere. In New York, I auditioned for everything, even things I knew I wasn't right for, just for the experience. I wound up working out-of-town a lot. Dinner Theatre in Florida again. The Indiana Repertory Theatre for the better part of two seasons. Back to Florida. And Summer Stock in Maine. It was after Maine that I decided I was going to make it in New York or give up, but I had no intention of giving up.”

Jim met his wife Liz in 1986 in Florida while performing together in productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma!, and 1776. They were married in 1990. Liz is now a physical therapist and pursuing a Doctorate from Boston University. They have 4 cairn terriers (Toto dogs): Sammy, Zibby, Becky and Casey.

The Zorro Picture

For Christmas 1959, Jim's mother made him a cape and embroidered "Zorro" on the back. The hat, mask and plastic sword (not pictured) were purchased. “Zorro,” staring Guy Williams, was a popular TV series then and one of Jim's favorites. His father, an accountant for the government, did income tax returns for people in their home. Jim would leap over the couch and "attack" them with his sword. "Z" was the first letter of the alphabet he learned to make. Jim hangs a framed copy of the picture on the Phantom's dressing room door for good luck when he performs the role.

Click here to read Jim's account of his Road to Phantom

Some Interesting Loops of Jim's Career

The Phantom of the Opera ~ At his first audition for Phantom the casting director told him, "There's nothing for you in this show." However, in February of 1990, nearly three years later, he was hired as a swing and now covers all of the men's roles except Piangi. Jim was also at the opening night party for Phantom at the Beacon Theatre. He worked as a cater-waiter and served potatoes au gratin to Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman, Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Cameron MacKintosh, Hal Prince and the rest of the company and their guests.

A Chorus Line ~ Prior to being cast in Phantom, Jim worked as the night doorman at the Schubert Theatre where A Chorus Line was playing. It also happens to be the very first show he had ever seen on Broadway on his very first trip to New York on New Year's Eve 1976. After being hired for Phantom in February, A Chorus Line closed the following April, the longest running Broadway show at that time. On his last day at the Schubert Theatre, Jim joined the cast in the backstage singing of the A Chorus Line's finale. Phantom is now the longest running show in Broadway history!

Lil' Abner and Oklahoma! ~ In his first high school production, Jim played the title role in Lil' Abner. Peter Palmer, the original Lil' Abner on Broadway and in the movie, cast Jim as Will Parker in the production of Oklahoma! that Mr. Palmer was directing, and starring in as Curley, at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre. Jim would later play Curley opposite his wife-to-be in a subsequent production. He has also played the role of Judd Fry.

The Fantasticks ~ Jim was a freshman in high school when a friend of his, who was a senior, asked if he would like to see him play the Old Indian in a community theatre production of The Fantasticks. "I sat in the second row just awestruck! And as the show progressed, I said to myself, ‘I want to do this!' It was just magical." Jim later went on to play El Gallo in his first college production, and was thrilled some years later to have been called to audition for the role in the Off-Broadway production at the Sullivan Street Theatre. Jim recently invited his high school friend to see him perform the Phantom.

Godspell ~ Jim once played the role of Jesus in a production of Godspell, a role portrayed by Victor Garber in the movie. Jim met Victor while he was performing in Art at the Royale Theatre (now the Jacobs Theatre), which shares the backstage alleyway with the Majestic. Alan Alda, who was also in Art, was once Jim's neighbor in Leonia, New Jersey.

Camelot ~ Jim obtained his Equity Card understudying Lancelot in a production of Camelot at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in 1980. He also met Burt, who at that time (Smokey and the Bandit), was the top box office draw and his mother's favorite actor. Jim had a chance to portray Lancelot in a summer stock production of Camelot at Brunswick Music Theatre (now the Maine State Theatre) opposite Robert Peterson, who was the understudy to the Broadway's original Lancelot, Robert Goulet. Jim's college voice teacher surprised him backstage after the opening night performance. They hadn't seen each other in ten years! As it turned out, his voice teacher's summer vacation home was in Brunswick, Maine and had co-founded that very same summer theatre about the same time Jim was born, some 31 years before. The person originally cast as Lancelot was also a cast member of the New York, New York revue at Kings Island. Jim was an AB, and he was a BC. Jim did that person's C-show on his B day, and he did Jim's A-show on his own B day. He would later play Jim's twin in The Boys From Syracuse later that summer in Maine.