Ragtime follows three fictional families in pursuit of the American Dream at the turn of the 20th century: Black pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Joshua Henry) and his sweetheart Sarah, a wealthy white family led by Mother (Caissie Levy), and Latvian immigrant Tateh (Brandon Uranowitz) along with his Little Girl. This gala production is led by Tony-nominated Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet (Once Upon a Mattress, Into the Woods).
It’s hard not to be instantly drawn to Tateh’s story: an immigrant who arrives on our shores dreaming of a better life and starts his own business making silhouettes, only to be crushed by tenement life; he ultimately resorts to working in a textile mill—64 hours a week for 6 dollars. You’ll want to join Younger Brother at Emma Goldman’s rally for the workers. Taub, on leave from Suffs where she plays another fiery activist, women’s suffrage leader Alice Paul, and Ross (star of Jason Robert Brown’s musical The Connector) are that persuasive. And Tony winner Uranowitz (Leopoldstadt), recently seen as the uppity ship owner in Titanic at Encores!, is shattering as Tateh, who later reinvents himself brilliantly as the filmmaker Baron Ashkenazy.
But what do you get when you stand back and let the piece’s contradictions speak? A Rorschach Ragtime that means many things at once, just take your pick. The agnosticism, I’m guessing, is due in no small part to the performance schedule. Everyone in the audience knows there’s an election on Tuesday, after which this production will, by force of context, simply have to become either tragic or triumphant for the final week of its run. Just as in American Idol, the public decides! Soon, we’ll all learn whether this country was a good or bad idea. That hangs a lot of weight on electoral politics, and as with that teenybopper Romeo & Juliet and the star-packed Our Town, puts this Ragtime in the frustrating position of deriving gravitas from this upcoming moment in American history while, in fact, saying very little about it. If I had to name what I imagine to be the one underlying theme in Ragtime, it’s that there’s always, in America, new music playing, and a rush to forget the past and sing along. The future is one intoxicating melody. But if it’s all you pay attention to, you miss the sound of what’s already playing now.
1996 | Canada |
World Premiere Canada |
1998 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2003 | West End |
London Revival West End |
2005 | Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
Paper Mill Production Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
2007 | Chicago |
Chicago Revival Chicago |
2009 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2012 | West End |
Open Air Production West End |
2015 | US Tour |
Non-Equity National Tour US Tour |
2016 | Off-Broadway |
Ellis Island Developmental Concert Production Off-Broadway |
2016 | West End |
Charing Cross Theatre Company Revival Production West End |
2017 | Regional (US) |
Barrington Stage Company Revival Regional (US) |
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Concert Revival Production Off-Broadway |
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