Why the Broadway Revival of Ragtime Promises to Speak to New York and America

It’s One of the Great New York Musicals (And One of the Great American Musicals)
This September, New York City will commemorate the 400th anniversary of its founding. Few tributes feel more fitting than the new revival of Ragtime, Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Terrence McNally’s sweeping musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel, at Lincoln Center.

On one level, Ragtime is an exhilarating and vivid New York history lesson. Real-life figures of the city’s turbulent post-Gilded Age era—anarchist Emma Goldman, showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, architect Stanford White, orator Booker T. Washington, industrialist J. P. Morgan and others–mix and mingle with fictional characters against a detailed, historically accurate backdrop.

Yet Ragtime reaches beyond its turn-of-the-century setting. Doctorow’s novel arrived in 1974, a particularly disillusioned moment in New York’s history. It argued that the city has always been a combustible swirl of humanity, its greatest strength and greatest source of tension. Amid the unrest, there was always the possibility of hope: for a city and a country striving to live up to its ideals. The message continues to resonate.

A Score That Still Soars
Departing from the essentially episodic structure of Doctorow’s novel and its cool detachment, the musical version of Ragtime begins with one of Broadway’s most masterful feats of character introduction. In the space of nine minutes and 24 seconds, we meet an upper-class Protestant family from New Rochelle, a young woman from Harlem named Sarah, Latvian immigrants arriving in America in search of a better life and more. It’s as dizzying as the history it depicts.

This bravura opening hints at the riches to come. Ahrens and Flaherty’s Tony-winning score draws from a range of American musical forms, including the delightful piano style of the title. But it's deeply felt numbers like “Your Daddy’s Son” and “Wheels of a Dream” that lend the show its emotional power. Even as Ragtime delights the history buffs in the audience, the wallop of these songs lingers long after the curtain falls.

New Era, New Cast
The original Broadway production of Ragtime was packed with career-defining performances from Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Marin Mazzie and Peter Friedman, all nominated for Tony Awards, with McDonald winning for her role.

Now, Lincoln Center’s revival, directed by Lear deBessonet, promises a new generation of powerhouse performances, with Joshua Henry as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Nichelle Lewis as Sarah, Caissie Levy as Mother and Tony winner Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh. Each brings a voice that can stir the soul, and together they are poised to raise the roof of the Vivian Beaumont Theater.