![]() One can’t help but notice that the events of Ragtime don’t feel as distant as we’d like them to.īut it’s not just the show’s relevance that get people talking about the original production. But then it’s also clear that even in 2023, we still have so much to learn, so much work to do. The musical, no doubt, played its own small role in helping the world become more receptive to its messages of compassion, of the shared human experience, of the horrors of prejudice and poverty, and of the invented and unnecessary competition for success. It’s a bittersweet irony that Ragtime feels as poignant as it does in 2023. In many ways, cultural conversations have only recently started to catch up with some of the lessons Ragtime has to teach, at least in our dominant white society. ![]() Watching Ragtime 25 years after its Broadway premiere, one is struck at the sharpness of its narrative, as well as the vital and ever-present relevance of its themes. The effect is that these comparatively small stories about individuals speak to something larger, to the history of this country at the dawn of the 20th century-and, unfortunately, well beyond. Washington, Henry Ford, and Evelyn Nesbit. The show’s fictional characters are placed against the backdrop of real-life historic figures like Harry Houdini, Booker T. Over a decade, we watch as these three groups-wealthy white suburbanites, immigrants, and African Americans-all struggle to find their own piece of success in America, a struggle that seems to put them constantly at odds with each other. It's set in NYC, during a moment of unique change around the turn of the century-“an era exploding,” as the musical’s title number puts it. Doctorow’s equally grand 1975 novel of the same name, Ragtime tracks an Eastern European immigrant and his daughter, a Black ragtime pianist and his fiancée, and a wealthy white family. That team has given us lots of incredible musicals, to say nothing of the equally landmark work of book writer Terrence McNally.īut few musicals, Ahrens and Flaherty and McNally or otherwise, achieve what Ragtime was able to manage: telling an epically huge story on an epically huge scale, all while leaving its individual characters fully rendered, complex, and worth following. It’s easily the best show in Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s catalog-which is really saying something. Ragtime is one of those musicals, and the original production one of those productions, that theatre fans effuse about. Yes, all attendees were transported back to a magical time in which six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald played supporting roles. This concert version of the Ahrens and Flaherty musical was a reunion of the original Broadway cast, with much of the incredible principal and ensemble cast back to recreate their performances in full for the first time in decades-including Brian Stokes Mitchell, Peter Friedman, Mark Jacoby, Judy Kaye, and Audra McDonald. ![]() The energy, the excitement was palpably in the air even blocks away from the Minskoff Theatre, which was, in an ironic twist, the evening’s venue ( Ragtime’s original production won an impressive four 1998 Tony Awards, but famously lost Best Musical to current Minskoff tenant The Lion King).īut this wasn’t just any Ragtime: In Concert. That’s what March 27's Ragtime: In Concert, a one-night-only event benefitting The Entertainment Community Fund, felt like. There is nothing quite like gathering with 2,000 of your favorite musical’s fellow superfans to watch a special performance of your favorite musical.
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