My second favorite musical is Lynn Ahrens’ and Stephen Flaherty’s Ragtime, which premiered on Broadway in 1998. On Friday, May 8 at 3pm, we’ll be listening to the original cast recording, which features some of my favorite singers:
- Judy Kaye – Emma Goldman
- Lea Michele – Little Girl
- Marin Mazzie (RIP) – Mother
- Brian Stokes Mitchell (or as I like to call him, “Stokes”) – Coalhouse Walker, Jr.
- Audra Audra AUDRA McDonald – Sarah Brown
This musical is set in the early 1900s and is based on the style of music popular during the era, which was known as ragtime. But it addresses so many issues that still exist today:
- Immigration
- Racism
- Anti-Semitism
- Socialism
- Sexism
- White privilege
- Tabloid journalism
There are three primary groups within the show:
- The affluent white family, known only as Father, Mother, Grandfather, Younger Brother, and Edgar, the son of Father and Mother (why he has a name and no one else does, I don’t know). Others affiliated with this group are historical figures such as J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Harry K. Thaw and his wife Evelyn Nesbit, as well as her former lover Stanford White, and Admiral Robert Peary. Less affluent, but also a face of white privilege is the fictional fire chief Willie Conklin.
- The African-American musician Coalhouse Walker, Jr. and his girlfriend, Sarah Brown; Booker T. Washington; Sarah & Coalhouse’s friends.
- The Jewish immigrant Tateh and his daughter, Little Girl (note that she doesn’t have a name); as well as the anarchist Emma Goldman. A more famous immigrant is magician Harry Houdini, whose life is somewhat tied to Edgar.
I saw this show on a national tour in Chicago in the early 2000s and fell in love with it. I’d already listened to the original cast recording, where I first fell in love with the amazing voices, especially those of Stokes and Audra.
Join me on Friday to hear more about this wonderful show (message me for the link or use the one from last week if you were there). Meanwhile, enjoy this performance of Audra and Stokes at the Kennedy Center in January 2019, a little over 20 years after their first performance in the Broadway production.
I have seen several wonderful productions of this musical, from a tour at the National Theater to community theatre large and small, and have always been blown away by it.
I saw it at Ford’s Theater about two years ago and wept like a baby. We saw a production at Marquette HS in Milwaukee about 12 years ago (!) and it was so good that my husband voluntarily put it on the next morning while he was working on some projects (he generally does not select musical theater as his soundtrack).