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A second chance for Ragtime
"Ragtime' revived in New York (1st review)
Steve Cohen
Ragtime was robbed of the Tony Award for Best Musical of 1998. Committee members that year, bowled over by Julie Taymor's costumes and set designs for The Lion King, voted the top honor to her show instead of Ragtime, a far superior amalgamation of story and score and staging.
You may scoff at the value of awards, but a Tony trophy ensures ticket sales. Disappointing box office figures and the producer's financial problems led to a relatively early closing of Ragtime a decade ago.
The current revival, which opened November 15, is less expensive-looking than the original but continues to tell a good story. This is a powerful re-telling of E. L. Doctorow's kaleidoscopic tale of the interaction among three disparate families at the dawn of the 20th Century as they embody the changing fortunes of blacks and immigrants as well as the forces of capitalism, industrialization and radicalism.
In the words of the show's opening song, ragtime "was the music/ of something beginning/ an era exploding/ a century spinning." Composer Stephen Flaherty and librettist Lynn Ahrens used ragtime music as the story's motif, as they blended ragtime, spirituals, European immigrant music and Americana.
More clarity, less expanse
The new staging by Lynn Dodge Milgrom is apt and, in some scenes, provides more clarity than the original. But it suffers from a loss of sweep. The 1998 production used the full expanse of a huge tilted stage plus a balcony box. This reincarnation eschews Houdini's scene in the box, and it fills the stage with cumbersome scaffolding, which pictorializes the levels of society, but its presence almost incarcerates the drama's scope.
Quentin Earl Darrington is sympathetic as Coalhouse Walker, although he lacks the handsome charisma of a black pianist to whom people were attracted to more than his piano playing. Darrington's voice lacks the belting power of Brian Stokes Mitchell, who originated it, thus reducing the soaring impact of his idealistic closing song, "Make Them Hear You."
Stephanie Umoh is a real find as Coalhouse's love, Sarah. She's radiant of voice and looks, certainly the equal of the high standard set by Audra MacDonald. Bobby Steggert is actually better than previous incarnations of Mother's Younger Brother. He perfectly captures the lad's idealism and reckless passion.
Robert Petkoff, who was part of Tevye's family in the recent Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, here plays the Jewish immigrant, Tateh. He is excellent as he progresses from a peddler to movie director.
Doctorow's misgivings
On the other hand, Ron Bohmer makes a stuffy Father, here trivialized so that he no longer upholds his important place as one of the three legs of the plot's stool. Doctorow created a balance between the WASPs, the Negroes and the immigrants. In fact, the author was unhappy that Milos Forman's 1981 movie version gave undo prominence to the immigrant, as portrayed on film by Mandy Patinkin. Terrence McNally's 1998 script for the musical adaptation successfully restored the correct balance. Here it is tilted a bit again.
The talented Christiane Noll is miscast as Mother. Her excellent lyric soprano voice lacks the guts and chest tones that should delineate this spunky woman. Her "eleven o'clock" number, "Back to Before," sounds petulant rather than a strong affirmation of liberation.
Milgrom's choreography serves the production well, and she stages Coalhouse's meeting with Younger Brother, and the subsequent scene in the Morgan mansion, with exceptional clarity. Her direction gives dignity to the role of Booker T. Washington. The original version made him seem comic; here he presents a solid alternative to the radicalism of Coalhouse.
The missing Model T
But one particular economy of this budget-minded revival of Ragtime disturbs me. This production foregoes the real Model T Ford that was used in the original staging, in favor of a skeletal representation of a car. The vintage car's presence in 1998 wasn't frivolous excess, and its absence lessens the drama. Doctorow's novel stresses the automobile industry, an emphasis that was echoed in the original introduction to the show's big ballad, "The Wheels Of a Dream."
"That car is a promise," it said. "That car is the whole damn country, / Shined up, / Tuned up, / Waiting..."♦
To read Steve Cohen's follow-up to this review, click here.
You may scoff at the value of awards, but a Tony trophy ensures ticket sales. Disappointing box office figures and the producer's financial problems led to a relatively early closing of Ragtime a decade ago.
The current revival, which opened November 15, is less expensive-looking than the original but continues to tell a good story. This is a powerful re-telling of E. L. Doctorow's kaleidoscopic tale of the interaction among three disparate families at the dawn of the 20th Century as they embody the changing fortunes of blacks and immigrants as well as the forces of capitalism, industrialization and radicalism.
In the words of the show's opening song, ragtime "was the music/ of something beginning/ an era exploding/ a century spinning." Composer Stephen Flaherty and librettist Lynn Ahrens used ragtime music as the story's motif, as they blended ragtime, spirituals, European immigrant music and Americana.
More clarity, less expanse
The new staging by Lynn Dodge Milgrom is apt and, in some scenes, provides more clarity than the original. But it suffers from a loss of sweep. The 1998 production used the full expanse of a huge tilted stage plus a balcony box. This reincarnation eschews Houdini's scene in the box, and it fills the stage with cumbersome scaffolding, which pictorializes the levels of society, but its presence almost incarcerates the drama's scope.
Quentin Earl Darrington is sympathetic as Coalhouse Walker, although he lacks the handsome charisma of a black pianist to whom people were attracted to more than his piano playing. Darrington's voice lacks the belting power of Brian Stokes Mitchell, who originated it, thus reducing the soaring impact of his idealistic closing song, "Make Them Hear You."
Stephanie Umoh is a real find as Coalhouse's love, Sarah. She's radiant of voice and looks, certainly the equal of the high standard set by Audra MacDonald. Bobby Steggert is actually better than previous incarnations of Mother's Younger Brother. He perfectly captures the lad's idealism and reckless passion.
Robert Petkoff, who was part of Tevye's family in the recent Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, here plays the Jewish immigrant, Tateh. He is excellent as he progresses from a peddler to movie director.
Doctorow's misgivings
On the other hand, Ron Bohmer makes a stuffy Father, here trivialized so that he no longer upholds his important place as one of the three legs of the plot's stool. Doctorow created a balance between the WASPs, the Negroes and the immigrants. In fact, the author was unhappy that Milos Forman's 1981 movie version gave undo prominence to the immigrant, as portrayed on film by Mandy Patinkin. Terrence McNally's 1998 script for the musical adaptation successfully restored the correct balance. Here it is tilted a bit again.
The talented Christiane Noll is miscast as Mother. Her excellent lyric soprano voice lacks the guts and chest tones that should delineate this spunky woman. Her "eleven o'clock" number, "Back to Before," sounds petulant rather than a strong affirmation of liberation.
Milgrom's choreography serves the production well, and she stages Coalhouse's meeting with Younger Brother, and the subsequent scene in the Morgan mansion, with exceptional clarity. Her direction gives dignity to the role of Booker T. Washington. The original version made him seem comic; here he presents a solid alternative to the radicalism of Coalhouse.
The missing Model T
But one particular economy of this budget-minded revival of Ragtime disturbs me. This production foregoes the real Model T Ford that was used in the original staging, in favor of a skeletal representation of a car. The vintage car's presence in 1998 wasn't frivolous excess, and its absence lessens the drama. Doctorow's novel stresses the automobile industry, an emphasis that was echoed in the original introduction to the show's big ballad, "The Wheels Of a Dream."
"That car is a promise," it said. "That car is the whole damn country, / Shined up, / Tuned up, / Waiting..."♦
To read Steve Cohen's follow-up to this review, click here.
What, When, Where
Ragtime. Script by Terrence McNally; lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; music by Stephen Flaherty; directed by Lynn Dodge Milgrom. At the Neil Simon Theatre, 250 West 52nd St., New York. (212) 757-8646 or www.neilsimontheatre.com.
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