'Time and Again
Is Ragtime: The Musical worthwhile? Hell yes.
While I'm frustrated that so many musicals today are unsatisfying adaptations of novels and/or films made purely for economic reasons — it's too expensive to sell an unknown work to audiences that only want to be surprised by something new if they've seen it before — I have no complaints about Ragtime: The Musical. The 1998 song and dance from Terrence McNally (book), Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) is based on E. L. Doctorow's sprawling 1975 novel and buoyed, no doubt, by Milos Forman's 1981 film.
Did we need this story again? Maybe not. Nevertheless, is it worthwhile? Hell yes, as Temple University's superb area premiere, with a cast of 47 on the vast Tomlinson Theater stage, proves.
Ragtime examines the 20th century's early years as a clash of three groups in quiet New Rochelle, N.Y.: the rich whites living quiet suburban lives, the blacks struggling against discrimination, and the immigrants, trying to eke out new lives in their not-so-perfect promised land. Director Peter Reynolds stages these intersecting stories with a few platforms and chairs on Daniel Boylen's set, aided by Luke Schantz's sepia-toned projections, Marie Anne Chiment's staggering number of period costumes, and gorgeous lighting by John Stephen Hoey.
Lauren Rooney anchors Ragtime as Mother, who bravely adopts a black baby found "like Moses in the rushes" outside her home and takes in his mother Sarah (sweet-voiced Chartel Findlater), who's run away from her fiance Coalhouse (Greg Fisher Jr., a better singer than actor). While Coalhouse becomes the story's explosive center — responding defiantly to attacks from whites who call him "a nigger who doesn't know he's a nigger" — Rooney's resolute poise, gentle humor and sincere singing shape Ragtime's ultimately hopeful vision.
The counterpoint to Coal-house's eternally American demand for justice is the equally American rags-to-riches story of the Latvian Jew Tateh (charming Cosimo Mariano, alternating performances with Noah Drew) and his daughter (Jessica Searight), who inventively discover an escape from the workhouses.
Historical characters parade through Ragtime: Emma Goldman (Lindsay Mauck), Booker T. Washington (Charles Dumas), Harry Houdini (Brian Kurtas) and more, all helping to define the times.
Pulling all these characters and stories together is America's first homegrown musical style, ragtime, brought to life through musical director Kevin Casey's 10-piece orchestra and Kathy Garrinella's snappy choreography. All together, they reveal an exciting, harrowing and chaotic period in America — without feeling like a novel, a movie or a history lesson.
Ragtime: The Musical
Through Nov. 4, Tomlinson Theater, 1301 W. Norris St., 888-695-7849, www.temple.edu/theater
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