Ragtime (musical)
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| Ragtime | |
 |
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| Cover of Ragtime cast recording. | |
|---|---|
| Music | Stephen Flaherty |
| Lyrics | Lynn Ahrens |
| Book | Terrence McNally |
| Based upon | Novel Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow |
| Productions | 1996 Toronto, Canada premiere 1998 Broadway |
| Awards | 1998 Tony Award for Best Book 1998 Tony Award for Best Score |
Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty.
Based on the 1975 novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, it tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker, a Harlem musician; Mother, the matriarch of a WASP family in New Rochelle, NY; and Tateh, a Latvian Jewish immigrant. Historical figures such as Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Stanford White, Harry K. Thaw, Admiral Peary, Matthew Henson, and Emma Goldman also appear. The music includes marches, cakewalks, gospel, and, of course, ragtime. The show is mostly sung-through, with very little spoken dialogue.
The musical had pre-Broadway runs in Toronto and Los Angeles before opening in New York City on January 18, 1998 as the first production in the newly renovated Ford Center for the Performing Arts (since renamed the Hilton Theatre). It was produced by Livent Inc., a Canadian company headed by Garth Drabinsky; shortly after the musical's Broadway opening, Livent filed for bankruptcy and Drabinsky was indicted in New York for fraud.
Directed by Frank Galati and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, Ragtime ran for two years, but was not financially successful, and some Broadway insiders consider its lavish production to have been the financial "undoing" of Livent.[1]
The original cast included Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, and Audra McDonald, who were all nominated for Tony Awards.
Ragtime received mixed reviews, many critics noting that the dazzling production (with an $11 million budget, including fireworks and a working Model T automobile) overshadowed problems in the script; Ben Brantley's review in the New York Times was headlined "A diorama with nostalgia rampant." Nonetheless, it led the Tony Awards with 12 Tony Awards nominations in 1998, and was considered the front runner for the coveted Tony Award for Best Musical; however, it was upset by Disney's The Lion King. The musical won awards for Best Featured Actress (McDonald), Original Score, Book, and Orchestrations (William David Brohn).
The Broadway production closed on January 16, 2000, and has since become very popular with regional theatre groups. It was produced in London by Sonia Friedman in 2003.
The European Amateur Premiere was produced by Thurles Musical Society, Ireland in March 2004 and won numurous AIMS awards in the same year.
The expected revial by the New York City Opera has been postponed.
[edit] Song list
Act I
- "Prologue"
- "Goodbye, My Love"
- "Journey On"
- "The Crime of the Century"
- "What Kind of Woman"
- "A Shtetl Iz Amereke"
- "Success"
- "His Name Was Coalhouse Walker"
- "Gettin' Ready Rag"
- "Henry Ford"
- "Nothing Like the City"
- "Your Daddy's Son"
- "The Courtship"
- "New Music"
- "Wheels of a Dream"
- "The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square"
- "Gliding"
- "The Trashing of the Car"
- "Justice"
- "President"
- "Till We Reach That Day
Act II
- "Coalhouse's Soliloquy"
- "Coalhouse Demands"
- "What a Game"
- "Fire in the City"
- "Atlantic City"
- "Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc."
- "Our Children"
- "Harlem Nightclub"
- "Sarah, Brown Eyes"
- "He Wanted to Say"
- "Back to Before"
- "Look What You've Done"
- "Make Them Hear You"
- "Epilogue: Ragtime/Wheels of a Dream"
