Review: Ragtime Revival Is Broadway at Its Best

From the moment the chorus rises from the stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater during the opening number of Ragtime, you know you’re in for something special—a big Broadway musical with what seems like a cast of thousands singing their hearts out over swelling strings and gutsy brass. This is a revival in the truest sense, returning to the stage one of the greatest musicals ever written, but also offering the unmistakable thrill of encountering a Broadway show in peak condition.

It feels especially timely in a year when breathtaking technological progress and rising political extremism have thrown America into a protracted identity crisis. But writers Stephen Flaherty (music), Lynn Ahrens (lyrics), and the late Terrence McNally (book) remind us that we’ve always been a particularly restless people, a society of plutocrats and rabble-rousers, inventors and terrorists—and most of all, dreamers.

Ragtime is based on E.L. Doctorow’s historical novel, which was published just before the bicentennial, during another time of national soul-searching. Set in New York in the early 1900s, it introduces us to a host of characters including New Rochelle housewife Mother (Caissie Levy), pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Joshua Henry), and Latvian Jewish immigrant Tateh (Brandon Uranowitz).

Their lives intersect with those of real figures like would-be revolutionary Emma Goldman (Shaina Taub, ever the happy warrior), tabloid starlet Evelyn Nesbitt (the hilarious Anna Grace Barlow), and escape artist Harry Houdini (Rodd Cyrus, exuding a beguiling melancholy) to create a musical tapestry of American dynamism.

I’ve called Ragtime an indispensable American musical, but director Lear deBessonet’s beautifully staged and thoughtfully acted production makes that case better than I ever could. The new artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater turns the enormous Vivian Beaumont stage into a giant canvas for a sweeping scene of New York at the turn of the 20^th century. At the same time, she captures the intimacy of a musical that is surprisingly internal, inviting us into the private thoughts and desires of its characters through hummable, melodic numbers.

Uranowitz injects passion and heart into every moment as Tateh, a man driven entirely by dreams of comfort and happiness for his daughter (the adorable Tabitha Lawing). His performance of “Gliding” is pure joy, and his second act duet, “Our Children,” will leave you misty.

His partner in that duet, Caissie Levy, steadily, furtively draws us into her understated performance as Mother, the wife of the fireworks entrepreneur (Colin Donnell, finding vulnerability in an unlikeable character). When he leaves for an expedition to the North Pole, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery, finding purpose through Sarah (an operatically intense Nichelle Lewis), a Black single mother who abandons her baby in Mother’s garden. Rather than turning Sarah and her child over to institutions, she takes personal responsibility for their well-being.

Sarah’s presence in the house eventually attracts the attention of the baby’s musician father, Coalhouse, who knows he wronged Sarah and wants to make up for it. Henry’s performance is nothing short of magnificent. With the lung capacity of a zeppelin and a baritone you can feel in your bones, he stops the show during “Wheels of a Dream” (a transcendent duet with Lewis) and “Make Them Hear You,” an anthem of hope sung during a particularly dark moment in the show. With soaring vocals and an unforgettable stage presence, Henry once again asserts himself as one of the great leading men of his generation.

Everyone in this cast is making smart choices, helping us to reconsider characters we thought we understood. I was particularly struck by Ben Levi Ross’s emotionally unguarded portrayal of Mother’s Younger Brother, “a young man in search of something to believe in” who, in his aimlessness, “masturbates for a vaudeville tart.” Then he finds radical politics. It all feels uncomfortably resonant with the crisis of masculinity that is fueling political violence today. But it offers the consolation of history: This something we’ve seen before, and America survived.

The largest orchestra currently on Broadway (28 pieces, including a harp and a tuba) supports the actors without ever overpowering them (Kai Harada is responsible for the pristine sound design). Conductor James Moore maintains the symphonic feel of last year’s City Center concert, giving the audience a hearty taste of what Broadway musicals used to sound like, and often still do at Lincoln Center Theater.

DeBessonet’s staging is simultaneously grand and resourceful, jumpstarting our imaginations through suggestive design. David Korins deploys staircases on castors to create two passing ships in New York Harbor. Characters rise and fall from traps in the rotating stage, facilitating the elegant movement of bodies in Ellenore Scott’s impressionistic choreography.

Wearing Linda Cho’s gorgeously detailed period costumes, the actors look like sepia photos brought to life under the glow of Adam Honoré’s perfectly calibrated lighting. The ghostly effect Cho and Honoré achieve in the second act number, “Sarah Brown Eyes,” will give you chills. Everyone working on this show has clearly been thinking about it for years, and those thoughtful choices pay off in the most satisfying big musical experience currently on Broadway.

With so many voices and ideas, echoing the discord of the country it means to portray, Ragtime really shouldn’t work. And yet unlike any other musical, Ragtime leaves me with the feeling of having run an emotional marathon alongside characters I have come to love, a sensation I usually only ever get after reading a particularly good novel. It’s a remarkable achievement that is not to be missed.