Ragtime (musical)

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This article is about the 1998 musical. For other uses, see Ragtime (disambiguation).
Ragtime
Cover of Ragtime cast recording.
Music Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics Lynn Ahrens
Book Terrence McNally
Based upon Novel Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
Productions 1996 Toronto, Canada premiere

1998 Broadway production
1998-1999 US tour
1999-2001 US tour
2002 Cardiff, Wales concert
2003 West End production
Awards 1998 Tony Award for Best Book

1998 Tony Award for Best Score
1998 Drama Desk Award for Best Musical
1998 Drama Desk Award for Best Book


Ragtime is a Broadway musical with book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty and directed by Anne Allan. The musical is based on the 1975 novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow.

The musical tried out in Toronto and Los Angeles, and opened on Broadway on January 18, 1998.

It tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker, a Harlem musician; Mother, the matriarch of a WASP family in New Rochelle, NY; and Tateh, a Latvian Jewish immigrant. Historical figures such as Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Stanford White, Harry K. Thaw, Admiral Peary, Matthew Henson, and Emma Goldman also appear. The music includes marches, cakewalks, gospel, and ragtime. The show is mostly sung-through, with most of the story told through song, and there is very little spoken dialogue.

The original cast included Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, and Audra McDonald, who were all nominated for Tony Awards

Ragtime received mixed reviews; some considered the show to be one of the greatest American musicals ever written while others felt the dazzling production (with an $11 million budget, including fireworks and a working Model T) overshadowed problems in the script. Nonetheless, it led the Tony Award with 12 Tony Awards nominations in 1998, and was considered the front runner for the coveted Tony Award for Best Musical, however, was upset by Disney's The Lion King.[1] Ths musical walked away with four Tonys for Best Featured Actress (Audra McDonald), Original Score, Book, and Orchestrations (William David Brohn).

The Broadway production closed on January 16, 2000, and has since become very popular with regional theatre groups. It was produced in London by Sonia Friedman in 2003.


[edit] Songs

[edit] Act one

  • "Prologue"
  • "Goodbye, My Love"
  • "Journey On"
  • "The Crime of the Century"
  • "What Kind of Woman"
  • "A Shtetl Iz Amereke"
  • "Success"
  • "His Name Was Coalhouse Walker"
  • "Gettin' Ready Rag"
  • "Henry Ford"
  • "Nothing Like the City"
  • "Your Daddy's Son"
  • "The Courtship"
  • "New Music"
  • "Wheels of a Dream"
  • "The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square"
  • "Gliding"
  • "The Trashing of the Car"
  • "Justice"
  • "President"
  • "Till We Reach That Day

[edit] Act two

  • "Coalhouse's Soliloquy"
  • "Coalhouse Demands"
  • "What a Game"
  • "Fire in the City"
  • "Atlantic City"
  • "Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc."
  • "Our Children"
  • "Harlem Nightclub"
  • "Sarah, Brown Eyes"
  • "He Wanted to Say"
  • "Back to Before"
  • "Look What You've Done"
  • "Make Them Hear You"
  • "Epilogue: Ragtime/Wheels of a Dream"
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