Ragtime will begin its Broadway premiere engagement at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts on December 26, 1997. Opening night will be January 18, 1998. For tickets, phone 212-307-4100.
Garth Drabinsky, another of the bright lights that has made Toronto the latest hot-bed of good theatre, has poured $11 million into a lavish production of Ragtime, due to open on Broadway after a successful stint in the Commonwealth.
Playwright Terrence McNally adapted E.L. Doctorow’s classic novel for the stage. Music and lyrics are by Tony-award-winners Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. Doctorow and producer Drabinski were involved in every step of the process.
The result isn’t just another frothy musical but a powerful social commentary and historical drama. It combines all the elements for success: a bit of vaudeville, tragedy, pathos, realization of the classic American dream, and enough drama and memorable musical scores to keep you gripping your seat throughout the performance.
The setting is New York in 1907, the city’s heydey, when fortunes were won and lost overnight and its leading citizens were larger than life. Marching through the show are Evelyn Nesbit, now a faded vaudeville star, who achieved fame only when her millionaire lover killed her millionaire husband in ‘the crime of the century’; the magnificent illusionist Houdini; Financier J.P. Morgan; and Industrialist Henry Ford.
The story centres around three families: an upper-middle class white family from affluent New Rochelle, an upwardly mobile black family from Harlem, and a newly arrived immigrant and his young daughter. The lives of these three disparate groups intertwine as they struggle to make sense of their roles in the new century.
This is a powerful play with the underlying message that social injustice must not be tolerated. Brian Stokes Mitchell is the undoubted star of the show as Coalhouse Porter Jr., the talented black musician, and his heartfelt renditions of “The Gettin’ Ready Rag”, “The Wheels of a Dream”, and “Justice” are some of the best in the show. His lovely Sarah is played by Audra MacDonald, another star among the supporting roles.
Also outstanding among the supporting characters are Emma Goldman, the radical trade unionist, played by Camille Saviola (it is a pity her part was so small); and Booker T. Washington, a voice of reason in the black community, played by Richard Allen.
There are no big stars in the mostly American cast, but all have solid careers on the American stage. The wonderful Scott Joplin style music can be a bit overpowering at times, but it is three hours of lively action and colourful staging that will leave you uplifted, and a lively roam through one of the most interesting periods in American history.
Tess Bridgwater
