Some final thoughts on Ragtime

I really feel for the cast and fans of the musical Ragtime, which is closing on Sunday due to - what else - poor ticket sales. I know what it's like to have a beloved show end a Broadway run prematurely. (Update: Ragtime got a one-week reprieve, to Jan. 10.)

But I have to admit that despite a glorious score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, this revival was a bit of a disappointment.

As someone who loved the 1977 novel by E.L. Doctorow, who enjoys epic American stories, I was really looking forward to the musical. But after a terrific opening number that introduces the WASP, African-American and Jewish immigrant characters, Ragtime never again soared as high for me.

Part of it may simply be my familiarity with the story - I knew the plot so well that there were no surprises. I had the same problem with a production of Parade I saw in Boston. I knew going in what happened to Leo Frank. So there was no "gasp" moment.

Also, while I enjoyed some of the performances in Ragtime - especially Christiane Noll as Mother and Bobby Steggert as Mother's Younger Brother - none of them truly got to me emotionally.

I chalked it up to seeing an early preview but now I'm not so sure. The characters who should have hit me the hardest - Robert Petkoff as the Jewish immigrant Tateh, Quentin Earl Darrington as the black piano player Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Stephanie Umoh as Sarah, the woman he loves and the mother of his child - didn't make a big impression. They never felt like fully developed characters.

I'm not even sure it was totally their fault. Although Terrence McNally won a Tony for his book, I don't think he was entirely successful. I liked the way he incorporated the real-life historical figures that populate Doctorow's novel but the individual stories left me feeling a little cold. They felt truncated and I was never truly absorbed in them.

And believe me, it didn't matter that there were no celebrities in the cast.

My biggest problem with Ragtime occurs (spoiler alert!) when Coalhouse Walker's prized Model T is destroyed by a group of bigots. It's an act of racism that consumes him and sets in motion the rest of the musical's tragic events.

(The "car" in this case is a red metal skeleton of a vehicle. Didn't Henry Ford say that you could have any color Model T you wanted, as long as it was black?)

The scene with the car was staged in a way that was so lame I almost laughed. And I never, ever, laugh at bigotry. The white vandals go through the motions of hitting the car without actually touching the vehicle. So even though Coalhouse is very upset, the car looks exactly the same after it's supposedly been destroyed. I couldn't see why he felt so enraged.

But most importantly, we live in a different world than when Ragtime was published in 1975 or when the musical premiered in 1996. Part of my reservation my simply stem from the fact that the events it portrays take on a different meaning in 2009.

Late in the musical, (spoiler alert!) Coalhouse begins a campaign of terror that culminates in his taking over a building and threatening to blow it up. Despite everything that's happened to him, in post 9/11 New York City, it's hard to muster any sympathy.

I'm always sad when a show closes, especially one as ambitious as Ragtime. I loved the music and I did enjoy it. There was some great imagery and I liked the panoramic view of early 20th century New York.

But I didn't leave the theatre wanting to tell everyone I knew that they simply had to see Ragtime. Maybe that was the problem.

Race in America and on stage

I've now seen and reviewed five Broadway shows that deal in some way with race in America, from the fantasy of Finian's Rainbow to the history of Ragtime and Memphis to the contemporary Superior Donuts and Race.

There's no doubt Superior Donuts was my favorite. I loved the story and the characters contained in Tracy Letts' play, which sadly is closing Jan. 3. It's not a sunny, everything is perfect optimism. People struggle and they're certainly not perfect. Still, you get the sense that we can move beyond our fears and stereotypes and reach out to each other as human beings.

While these plays and musicals have strong, interesting black characters and some terrific performances - most notably Jon Michael Hill in Superior Donuts and Montego Glover in Memphis - I don't think any of them has a story or music written by an African-American. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.)

Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the fact that they were all largely created by white men - and one white woman, Lynn Ahrens, lyricist of Ragtime. We all ought to be able to write about any subject or group of people, even if we don't happen to belong to that group.

I just think that when you're talking about race, it's beneficial to have some different perspectives and it's a shame we didn't get that on Broadway this fall. Yes, I know that a revival of the late August Wilson's Fences is planned for the spring but the play was written in 1983 and takes place in the 1950s.

I'd like to see more African-American playwrights, like Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage for example, have a chance to get their works on Broadway. Because talking about race in America in the 21st century should be a two-way street.

Ragtime

Gratuitous Violins rating: *** out of ****

I remember being excited to read Ragtime when it was published in 1975. I love American history and novelist E.L. Doctorow did a masterful job weaving real-life characters into his fictional story of three families at the turn of the century.

But until I stumbled upon the Broadway cast recording a couple years ago, I didn't even know there was a musical. I hoped someday I'd get to hear the stirring Tony-winning score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens performed live.

Enter the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., which staged Ragtime in the spring under the direction of Marcia Milgrom Dodge. That production won raves and transferred to Broadway, opening last night at the Neil Simon Theatre.

When Ragtime begins and you see the cast arrayed on Derek McLane's spare, industrial-looking three-tiered set, it feels like an epic story.

The prologue that introduces the WASP, African-American and Jewish immigrant characters is glorious. And there are powerful images - Eastern European Jews carrying their belongings on their backs cross paths with black migrants from the South doing the same.

Christiane Noll was a standout for me as Mother, who becomes more confident and independent as her affluent life in New Rochelle, N.Y., with her husband and son is upended. In some ways, I felt like Ragtime was her story. I also enjoyed the performance of Bobby Steggert as the impetuous Mother's Younger Brother.

Their lives become intertwined with Tateh, a Jewish immigrant played by Robert Petkoff who struggles to provide for his daughter, and with the self-assured black piano player Coalhouse Walker Jr., played by Quentin Earl Darrington, and Sarah, played by Stephanie Umoh, the mother of his infant son.

As interesting and compelling as these three stories are, they didn't grab me emotionally to the extent I thought they would.

Part of it may be that because I knew how the musical would turn out, there was no element of surprise. Plus, it's tough to distill a novel into another medium and because Ragtime has so many stories to tell, the musical seems to sacrifice depth for breadth.

I especially felt a distance from the story of Coalhouse and Sarah, which I always thought was the heart of Ragtime. I liked Darrington's and Umoh's singing but I didn't sense much chemistry between them. I also felt like we didn't spend enough time with them together. Still, I saw a very early preview so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.

A bigger problem I had with Ragtime was the way Dodge has staged a key event involving an act of racism. No one is hurt, or even targeted physically, but it's still devastating - or at least it's supposed to be. Honestly, my reaction was, "That's so lame." I know it's theatre and we're supposed to suspend disbelief but I couldn't.

Playwright Terrence McNally, who won a Tony for the book, has provided a panoramic view of New York City in the first two decades of the 20th century, a time of mass immigration, mass production and mass entertainment.

There are great cameos from, among others, Donna Migliaccio as the fiery anarchist Emma Goldman, Eric Jordan Young as African-American educator Booker T. Washington, and Jonathan Hammond as escape artist Harry Houdini. I especially enjoyed Savannah Wise as showgirl Evelyn Nesbit. Together, they put the individual stories of Ragtime's three families into a larger context.

This is an ambitious, entertaining musical and well worth seeing for its gorgeous score and its sweeping look at a time in American history when everything seemed to be changing. But I admired it more than I truly felt touched by it.

My Broadway dance card is full

The hotel reservation has been made, the tickets have been purchased and in just a few weeks I'll be making my 2009-2010 Broadway debut!

Here's the lineup: The Royal Family, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Finian's Rainbow, A Steady Rain, Superior Donuts and Ragtime.

Four were no-brainers. I had Brighton Beach Memoirs, A Steady Rain, Superior Donuts and Ragtime on my must-see list. But the other two were more of a toss-up.

I picked The Royal Family, about a 1920s theatrical clan based on the Barrymores, when enthusiastic reports started coming in from friends who'd seen the play.

I was also excited about seeing Tony Roberts, since Annie Hall is one of my favorite movies. Roberts has been out since suffered a minor seizure onstage Sunday. But thankfully, he's feeling great and looking forward to returning.

The last slot was tougher. I wanted to finally see Wicked on Broadway, especially with Tony winner Rondi Reed playing Madame Morrible. But I was afraid the seats wouldn't be that great and there are always so many tempting new shows.

So, I went with Finian's Rainbow despite the fact that my fellow bloggers were split over the concert version presented by Encores in March. Why did I decide to give the musical a shot? The cast was a big part of it.

I've seen two of the actors before, Kate Baldwin in the Huntington Theatre Company's She Loves Me and Christopher Fitzgerald on Broadway in Young Frankenstein, and I loved them both. Two others, Tony winner Jim Norton and Cheyenne Jackson, I want to see.

Plus, since Finian's Rainbow will be in previews, I took advantage of a discount at Playbill and got an orchestra seat for $55. You can't beat that!

Broadway's youth movement

Tonight was the first preview for a show I'm especially excited about seeing - the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. It'll play in repertory with Broadway Bound, which begins previews Nov. 18.

Set in Brooklyn in 1937, the play is the thinly veiled story of Simon's own childhood. It opened on Broadway on March 27, 1983, and featured 21-year-old Matthew Broderick in a Tony-winning performance as Simon's alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome.

Noah Robbins, a Washington, D.C.-area teenager, steps into Broderick's shoes. He was a senior at Georgetown Day School when his selection was announced in May.

According to Robbins' biography, he got his start at age 11 as a singing, dancing clown at the Kennedy Center and, among his other roles, he's appeared as Max Bialystock in his high school's production of The Producers.

Thinking about Robbins made me realize that there's a trio of actors in their late teens and early 20s making their Broadway debuts this fall: Robbins, Jon Michael Hill, 24, in the play Superior Donuts and later this month, Stephanie Umoh, a 2008 Boston Conservatory graduate, in the revival of the musical Ragtime.

What's amazing about all three is that they're not playing minor characters - they have substantial roles. And none of them comes to New York with an incredible amount of stage experience. It's not like they've been in a lot of movies or tv, either.

(Josh Grisetti, who'll play Eugene in Broadway Bound, is also making his Broadway debut but he has a much longer list of credits.)

Not that any of the three is coming in cold - Hill is a Steppenwolf ensemble member and Umoh has done shows, including Ragtime, with Boston-area theatre companies.

But having to carry a substantial part of a Broadway production is still a pretty major accomplishment - imagine pitching for the Yankees at 18 or 20. It must be incredibly thrilling and nerve-wracking.

Superior Donuts opened on Thursday and Hill received great reviews, like this from The New York Times: "Played with boundless, buoyant charm by Mr. Hill, Franco is the briskly humming generator of the play’s abundant laughs."

We still have to see how Robbins and Umoh do. Brighton Beach Memoirs opens Oct. 25. Ragtime begins previews on Oct. 23 and opens Nov. 15.

But on top of all the other reasons to be excited about this season on Broadway, the fact that I have a chance to see three young performers who may very well be on the cusp of stardom is certainly a big one.

Yes, bragging rights, that's what I'm after!

Doctorow on Ragtime, the musical

The Broadway revival of Ragtime will be my first novel to movie to musical adaptation!

I loved the 1975 novel but I don't remember too much about the 1981 movie by Milos Forman, other than it was James Cagney's last film role.

I vaguely recall that E.L. Doctorow didn't like the movie of his novel so I was curious how he felt about the musical, which features a book by Terrence McNally and a score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens.

Apparently, he likes it. I found an old interview from the San Francisco Chronicle in which he said that he was "very fond of the musical." (And the reporter confirms my suspicion that Doctorow is not a fan of the movie.)

The musical, he believes, "shows honor and devotion to the book. I was not a collaborator, but I was more than an observer. I fed them notes and think I was fairly useful to them. They were responsive to me.''

Having been promised approval rights over the creative team, been vigilant during the rehearsal process and made a point of seeing new musicals that have since opened, he says he's convinced "it verges on being an American opera. The piece really shines. Most of what you see (in other musicals) is so thin. Or hokey. Or overwrought.''

Now I know! I'm thinking it would be interesting to read the novel again, or at least watch the movie, but maybe I'll wait until after I see the musical, which begins previews Oct. 23 at the Neil Simon Theatre.

My must-see fall shows, Broadway edition

Maybe it's the Obama Effect or just a coincidence but there are five shows opening on Broadway this fall that deal with the subject of race in America - musicals Ragtime, Memphis and Finian's Rainbow and plays Superior Donuts and Race.

Three of them - a revival of Ragtime and two new plays, Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts and David Mamet's Race - are among the shows I'm most looking forward to seeing as the 2009-2010 Broadway season gets under way.

Why those three? Well, I've always been interested in 20th century American history, not so much from the perspective of momentous events but from a social and cultural angle - where we come from and how we get along.

Ragtime, based on E.L. Doctorow's novel, with a score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, focuses on three families - African-American, Jewish immigrant and WASP - at the turn of the century. I loved the book and from listening to the music, I think it does a wonderful job of telling those intertwined stories.

Superior Donuts, fresh from the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, is a contemporary look at a diverse, changing Chicago neighborhood. After seeing so many terrific Chicago actors in August: Osage County, I'm eager for more, including Jon Michael Hill, who's making his Broadway debut. He's won raves for his performance as a teenager who works in a doughnut shop owned by Michael McKean. (From Spinal Tap! Laverne & Shirley!)

And Race - well, no doubt Mamet will have something interesting and incendiary to say. Plus, of all the big-name movie and tv actors who'll be treading the boards this fall, it has the one I'm most excited about - Richard Thomas. Yes, I realize James Spader is in it, and David Alan Grier and Kerry Washington. But c'mon, The Waltons! I grew up pre-VCR, pre-cable. Network tv was all I had. 'Nuff said.

I'm also pretty pumped about seeing A Steady Rain. Yes, I want to see how Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig will transform themselves into Chicago cops in Keith Huff's two-hander play. But no doubt about it, I'm also looking forward to staring dreamily at Hugh Jackman for 90 uninterrupted minutes. (Although the Playbill, which features their melded faces, is creepy beyond words.)

And I simply cannot miss the revivals of two Neil Simon plays, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound. I'm really looking foward to seeing what Chicagoan David Cromer, who directed the amazing Our Town, will do with them.

The plays are thinly veiled accounts of Simon's youth growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s and '40s. Which means, I know, creaky, self-deprecating Jewish humor. What can I say? Lines like this truly make me laugh:

"I hate my name - Eugene Morris Jerome. How am I ever gonna to play for the Yankees with a name like that? All the best Yankees are Italian. My mother makes spaghetti with ketchup. What chance to I have?"

And this:

"And when they saw the Statue of Liberty they started to cry. The women wailing and the men shaking and everyone praying. And you want to know why, because they took one look at that statue and said, 'That's not a Jewish woman, we're gonna have problems again.' ''

Oy, I can't wait!

A noteworthy Ragtime cast

I've written before how excited I am about the Broadway revival of Ragtime. When the cast was announced yesterday, two names caught my attention: Bobby Steggert as Mother's Younger Brother and Stephanie Umoh as Sarah.

Steggert played Jimmy Curry, Audra McDonald's younger brother, in the 2007 Broadway revival of 110 in the Shade. I thought he was terrific in making a supporting part memorable.

He's one of many cast members reprising their roles from last spring's highly praised production of Ragtime at the Kennedy Center.

Umoh, on the other hand, is a newcomer to the cast. (Although she played the part in 2006, with the New Repertory Theatre, in Watertown, Mass. The Boston Globe review called her "a dazzler.")

I've never seen Umoh on stage but you could say I've been following the career of the 2008 Boston Conservatory graduate. She was the subject of a multipart series in The Boston Globe in 2007 that chronicled her senior year.

In the stories, she talked about her background - growing up in Texas the daughter of a white mother and a Nigerian-born father - how she got into musical theatre, the struggles of working her way through school. (While she got some financial aid, Umoh estimates that she owes $130,000, before interest.)

I thought this quote from Conservatory president Richard Ortner was pretty interesting: "None of these students have come to us without years and years of voice lessons and after-school acting lessons, and, for the instrumentalists, private lessons since the age of 5."

Except Umoh, whose training consisted of singing lessons in high school with the leader of her church choir.

Now, all of the hard work pays off in a dream-come-true moment. And how fitting, in an American Dream kind of musical!

She'll make her Broadway debut, in a role created by McDonald, her idol. And hopefully, she'll be able to whittle down some of that crushing debt.

Those are two things worth getting excited about.

It's Ragtime again on Broadway

Eighteen months ago I wrote a blog post titled "The best musicals I've never seen,'' about scores I love listening to even though I've never seen the shows that they're from.

Well, this fall I'll be able to cross one of those off my list because Ragtime is coming back to Broadway and I'm pretty darn excited! It's kind of like an early Fourth of July present.

The revival begins previews Oct. 23 at the Neil Simon Theatre and opens Nov. 15. (Here's Vance's review of the production at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, although there will be cast changes.)

I've always enjoyed stories that mix real-life and fictional characters. And E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel Ragtime does a wonderful job intertwining the lives of three New York families - Jewish immigrants, African-Americans and WASPS - with historical figures from the first two decades of the twentieth century.

I've seen the 1981 movie but until I started to become a regular theatergoer I didn't even know there was a musical version of Ragtime. I've since listened to the Tony-winning score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and I love the way they've translated Doctorow's story into song.

The original Broadway production of Ragtime opened on Jan. 18, 1998 and closed two years later. In the cast was an adorable little Lea Michele - before she grew up to be in Spring Awakening.