I still wonder why Ragtime did not become a major hit. I think it's because people expected to get something along the lines of the British crowd-pleasing completely pointless shows just because it had a big cast and it is as epic as those shows, and ended up facing a musical about so many themes, raising so many questions, and dealing with so many issues. The fact that it opened the same season as The Lion King didn't help either, and of course the fraud was a major problem. Still, this is the kind of show that at least I hope becomes a major American classic, Scott Miller says it deserves a place next to shows like Showboat and Passion, I agree. And yes, it does feature a mind-blowing opening number, everything about that opening number worked.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
