Cast announced for Ragtime- Page 3

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 8/27/09 at 10:24pm

oldschool,

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Noll just seems to be working too hard to hit the emotions but not in an organic way. It's too "indicated" for my taste. The gestures, the facial expressions, the punctuation all seem deliberately imposed and not of the moment.

Listen to Rachel York's version on her website. So nuanced, yet so powerful. You can hear her reminiscing, then regretting, then becoming determined and strong. She sings with such layers and grace. And her vocal quality is so rich. She absolutely paints a picture with her interpretation. And her diction is perfect for the period.

It was severals years ago that I saw her performance, and it's still etched in my brain. Star turn, indeed.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/27/09 at 11:29pm

I just compared the Kennedy Center cast list with the one announced today and it seems like only a handful of the ensemble from the DC production remain with the show.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 8/27/09 at 11:40pm

Who cares? It's still the same show---too many plot lines, no emotional heat, a thoroughly routine, unsurprising score, now cast with leads who are dull as dirt or devoid of warmth and charm.

I'll save my money and re-read the book and encourage everyone to do the same.

Updated On: 8/27/09 at 11:40 PM

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 8/27/09 at 11:56pm

For old time's sake, Marin Mazzie's rendition.
Back to Before

[Oldschool]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 12:03am

Loveclassics, I suspect the same tonal values you admire in Mazzie, you admire in York's performance. To my ear, York's performance, her voice, sounds compressed and husky, somewhat thick, and the presentation equally deliberate as Mazzies, which is why it does little for me. The performance feels flat until the very end where she almost sounds like she's going to go out of control -- she never loses control, but there's a sensation that its going too. For me it doesn't build the way Noll's performance does.

To each their own...

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 12:56am

I saw Christiane Noll in concert last year and I immediately became a fan of her voice. Ron Bohmer is great as well. I am very much looking forward to this!

[hakunamatata205]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 1:11am

I personally love Christiane's voice. It has this tint of vulnerability and it's beautiful.

[massofmen]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 1:12am

this might actually win the tony now that its known that the most boring female actress on the broadway stage (erin davie) will be playing charlotte in Night Music. They just killed that show with that casting. Ragtime has best revival in the bag.

Christiane Noll will FINALLY be nominated for a tony and might win. though I am sure she will have some awesome competition with Angela Landsbury and Bebe Neuwerth (sp?)

[blaxx]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 1:20am

^ You already posted that here:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=1003172&dt=1&boardid=1

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 1:23am

I am sure she will have some awesome competition with Angela Landsbury and Bebe Neuwerth (sp?)

- Angela LANSBURY is playing a featured role. She will not be nominated with those women. Maybe you are not familiar with Night Music....

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 7:19am

As my name suggests, I am a huge fan of RAGTIME. I saw the Original Broadway production a week before it opened and - nearly two years later - saw the closing performance. I also saw the National Tour in Washington, DC, and the standing company in Chicago. I saw the Kennedy Center production this past May and enjoyed it. It was great to see the show after a few years, and, as familiar as I am with the show, it delivered an unexpected emotional punch. I saw understudies for Mother and Tateh, both of who were fine, so I can't comment on Noll's performance.

I had a few quibbles with the Kennedy Center production - just a few. I wish Ron Bohmer had not laughed out loud after the line "unless you want to be the only woman on board a ship full of men..." The laugh took away the early-20th Century sensibility. Mother is rightly embarrassed by the line, and Father apologizes calling his remark "coarse." Which it was. I hope the laugh gets dropped when the show transfers.

I think the director needs to be more aware of sightlines at the end of the show when the company lines the stages in an inverted U formation. I hope she opens it up more so that those sitting on house left and right can see the entire company.

The set is much simpler than in the original production. I liked the piano and car done in outline form, but on the Eisenhower theatre stage (Kennedy Center) the car seemed larger than it needed to be. I can't imagine the Neil Simon theatre being any larger.

RAGTIME is such a sweeping show that it is truly an ensemble production. Yes, Coalhouse, Mother, and Tateh are leading roles, but so many people have their moments on stage.

Mother's Younger Brother was a stand-out in the Kennedy Center production, and I'm glad he will be in the B'way revival.

I still don't know why THE LION KING won the Tony over RAGTIME. I'll give LION KING their first 20 minutes - among the most memorable in any Broadway show - but after that it is downhill. LION KING deserved awards for creativity and direction. RAGTIME deserved the Tony for BEST Musical. Because Coalhouse and Tateh are both leading roles, and both actors were nominated... they both lost.

I think there were a few biases against RAGTIME, starting with feelings about the now-disgraced producer. In recent years we've heard about how much influence the world of touring has on Tony voters (who comprise a large number of the voters). Well, with a cast of 52 in the original production, RAGTIME was going to cost a fortune to tour. The show opened in Toronto more than a year before its Broadway opening, and because they were waiting to go into renovated Ford Center for the Performing Arts, RAGTIME opened in Los Angeles before NYC. By the time it got to Broadway it - perhaps to B'way insiders - had the feeling of day-old-bread, compared to the fresh LION KING.

I welcome RAGTIME's return to Broadway. It is a beautiful score, and a sweeping American story, with themes from a century ago that echo even today.

Updated On: 8/28/09 at 07:19 AM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 7:36am

Because Father and Tateh are both leading roles, and both actors were nominated... they both lost.

Not true. Brian Stokes Mitchell, who played Coalhouse, and Peter Friedman, who played Tateh, were nominated for Best Leading Actor. Mark Jacoby, who played Father, was not nominated, but would have been a contender for Featured, not Leading, Actor. Stokes absolutely should have won the Tony that year, and his award two years later (for Kiss Me, Kate) seemed to be more in recognition of his work in Ragtime than Kiss Me, Kate.

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 8:52am

Of course, you are right. I corrected it in my previous post. I was thinking about Father's performance, which is what made me put "Father" instead of "Coalhouse."

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 8:04pm

"I welcome RAGTIME's return to Broadway. It is a beautiful score, and a sweeping American story, with themes from a century ago that echo even today."

Nonsense. RAGTIME has virtually no resonance today. The show is ostensibly about revolution (though you'd never never know it from the musical). We live, however, in just about the most complacent, smug and self-satisfied time imaginable (even 9/11 coudn't rouse the USA from its torpor but for a limited time). American today is inward-focused, concerned only with the latest techno-gadgets and feeding its face (hello, obesity crisis!) and the only 'revolution' it cares about is Paula Abdul being booted off American Idol. Today, RAGTIME, Obama notwithstanding, has about as much cachet as (and less entertainment value than) HIGH BUTTON SHOES.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 8:08pm

Threadjack -

Did anyone ever watch the Sister, Sister episode where they see Ragtime? It was on today on ABC Family.

[Oldschool]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 8:58pm

Enchantedhunter, I think you missed the point of the show. Just to break down the themes by the three principle intersecting stories:

Mother: an evolutionary tale of someone discovering who they are and what they want and trying to do so by freeing herself from the box that society put her in.

Tateh: Classic immigrant does good story

Coalhouse: Classic minority demanding simple respect.

All of these themes are painted in the context of the late industrial revolution where everything was changing very fast.

These themes are alive and well today and go beyond Obama. We have a society still coming to terms with the acceptance of minorities of all kinds, coming to terms with the openness of modern gay/lesbian/transgendered society. We have a society at odds with its immigrant past and how to handle its immigrant future. We have a society that still has difficulty coming to terms with "other." We have the traditional family still in transition since the Women's liberation. How much more relevance do you want?

[TheLostandtheLooney]

Posted: 8/28/09 at 9:27pm

Actually this transfer is kinda sad....
The MAJORITY of the ensemble that was praised and gave weeks of hard work to restructure this show and help build it into a new beast...has been let go. Most of them were lead on to believe they were a sure thing. And then a director, with no broadway credits, had more money thrown at her than she ever has, and is in WAAAAAAAAy over her head wasted alot of NY actors and agents time and patience. Endless auditions, callbacks, and pointless hoo ha.
I think this show will never be what it was in DC. That magic left when the true core of the show, the ensemble, was dismissed. Best of luck to them. But I can't wait to see Dodges disappointment when she loses the Tony to "Night Music". Then she'll know what kind of hurt she handed out to others.

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 2:56am

IMO, they should have doen a total cast transfer to Broadway. Excepting, of course, the fact that some of the actors might not want to follow the show to NYC.

[alliez92092]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 10:45am

So LostandtheLooney, were you one of the ensemble members let go?

But back on topic, I think Ragtime is incredibly relevant still and I for one am thrilled that it will be back on Broadway. In my opinion, I think it is one of the best original American musicals to grace the stage in the last few decades.

[Oldschool]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 10:59am

TheLostandtheLooney,

I too am disappointed that members of the Kennedy Center Production did not make it through to the transfer cast. There are members of the cast that made it through who I thought were weak and should have been replaced. But analyzing the whys and wherefores of this process is nonetheless pointless. I have friends in the cast that made it, and those that did not; for those that were passed over, it is painful and disappointing. However, for those that I have had the chance to speak with, none of them despite their own deep personal disappointment, wish the production any ill will.

It is important to point out that the production costs of going to New York are steeper than going into the Kennedy Center -- salaries and labor and casting are more expensive for a Broadway run. Most importantly, there are many more hands in the production pie than there were for the Kennedy Center production and they too may have a hand in some of these decisions. There is also the dynamics of casting that include competition for a limited number of places as well as limited number of actors suitable for the Broadway transfer. A comment from one crew member I spoke with that has been in the business over 30 years, the consensus was while the core of the cast was fine, the ensemble needed help, particularly vocally.

Ms. Dodge's budget is twice the size of her original production, but comes with additional costs that weren't in the original, for example the lighting and audio equipment that the Kennedy Center has natively that they will have to rent for the Broadway production.

I guess my point is that while it sucks for those who didn't make it, the resentment that comes through in your posting isn't productive and it isn't necessarily reflective of the entire process, or even the paranoid nature of casting, generally. I suspect that part and parcel of what made the production successful was how Ms. Dodge managed the cast and crew in making them comfortable and creative for themselves and each other. It is in this light that I believe that the transfer will be successful.
Updated On: 8/29/09 at 10:59 AM

[theatregirlie]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 5:24pm

Its really nice to have people who are talented and right for the roles playing them...and not TV and FILM stars who have no business being on Broadway.

RAGTIME is going to be amazing!