City Center's 24-25 Season: Ragtime, Urinetown, LaChiusa's Wild Party, Love Life — Page 9

Voter said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "TotallyEffed said: "Probably the best show I’ve ever seen at City Center. All star vocals (will we ever hear it sung this well again?) with a cast that showed up prepared and ready to blow the roof off the place. It may not bemy favorite musical ever but even I couldn’t hold back the tears. When Mother found that baby the tears started and were hard to stop. Also, this would be such a good movie musical with a huge 90s budget. It feels very cinematic.

I remember watching Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing thesummer of 2020 and marveling with a deep sadness how little had changed since it was released. This musical feels frightfully relevant right now. It’s all just a little bit of history repeating…


I suspect Broadway is just around the corner."

Seaview and ATG are finalizing spring dates at the Palace as we speak. Tickets will go on sale in early 2025, and it will be a limited run.

I’ve got a feeling this should easily appeal to the SUFFS crowd (and not just because Shaina is in it)."



TF closes in January and Ragtime comes in March?"

I’m hearing early March previews for a late March opening and a run to early August. Nat’l tour expected to follow as well. 

I also hope this will come to London. I’ve never seen a full production of Ragtime before and need to see it! Hope a cast recording is coming as well! We NEED IT! This is also the best thing for Lear DeBessonet as she finishes her tenure at Encores and moves to Lincoln Center. 

UWS10023 said: "The production is splendid with outstanding vocals that brought the house down. It was economically staged with lovely visuals and a strong sense of flow. The director smartly kept the emphasis on telling the story with emotional depth. Ragtime is one of the best City Center productions in recent memory.

I agree with the poster who talked about how timely the production was. It speaks to moving forward with compassion and humanity and not going back to the ugliness of the past.

I do not get some of the director bashing on this board. To me she is a very adept story teller with a strong track record. The bashing feels personal."

Agreed on all fronts. DeBessonet has a real knack for crafting productions that really get down to the heart and "meat" of the show and material. I think Ragtime may be her best work yet, and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a transfer.

Sure!

Nicholas Barrón – Understudy for Younger Brother
Briana Carlson-Goodman – Understudy for Emma Goldman
John Clay III - Understudy for Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Billy Cohen – Understudy for Tateh/Harry Houdini
Rheaume Crenshaw – Understudy for Sarah's Friend
Ta'Nika Gibson – Understudy for Sarah
David Jennings – Understudy for Booker T. Washington
Morgan Marcell – Understudy for Evelyn Nesbit
Kathy Voytko – Understudy for Mother
Aerina Deboer – Understudy for Little Girl
Kane Emmanuel Miller – Offstage Understudy for Coalhouse Walker III
Henry Witcher – Understudy for Little Boy

NYT Critics Pick from Jesse Green

TotallyEffed said: "I'm already predicting a Tony for Joshua Henry."

He’s paid his dues, and it’s time. Dude is RIDICULOUSLY talented!

While I love the show and am very pleased by these reviews - RAGTIME is a huge musical that has lost money twice on Broadway.  Forgive me for asking, but why would commercial producers want to move this and lose money again?  It has no bankable names, and the weekly operating cost would have to be enormous with the cast and orchestra size. 

QueenAlice said: "While I love the show and am very pleased by these reviews - RAGTIME is a huge musical that has lost money twice on Broadway. Forgive me for asking, but whywould commercial producers want to move this and lose money again? It has no bankable names, and the weekly operating cost would have to beenormous with the cast and orchestra size."

Obviously they’re trying to replicate the recent transfers of Into the Woods and Parade. Both of which were financially successful. Also, if Thomas Kirdahy is producing I’d say it’s more of a passion project for him as the late Terrence McNally was his husband.

Green also RAVES about Joshua in the first three paragraphs of his review alone:

To say that a singer blows the roof off a theater, as Joshua Henry does in the revival of “Ragtime” that opened at New York City Center on Wednesday, is to understate what great musical performers do. It’s not a matter of so-called pyrotechnics, as if their vocal cords were dynamite sticks. Nor is it a matter of volume, so easily finessed these days. Also beside the point are ultrahigh notes and curlicue riffs, which are too often signs of not enough to sing.

As it happens, Henry offers all those things almost incidentally in this exhilarating gala presentation directed by Lear deBessonet. But what makes his performance as the tragic Coalhouse Walker Jr. so heart-filling and eye-opening, even if you know the musical and have some issues with it, as I do, is the density of emotion he packs into each phrase. Well beyond absorbing the aspirations and travails of the character created by E.L. Doctorow for the 1975 novel on which the show is based, he seems to have become the novel itself. He’s a condensed classic; he blows the roof off your head.

He is aided by songs that, though built from nuances of story, grow to the full scale of Broadway — not an easy act to pull off and not in fact pulled off consistently here. But especially in the first act, the music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, for whom “Ragtime” was a breakthrough hit in 1998, smartly express national themes in domestic contexts. Working with Terrence McNally, who shaped the unusually complex book from the highly eventful novel, they offer a boatload of songs in distinctive styles for the story’s three worlds, all intersecting in and around New York City during the first decade of the 20th century.

QueenAlice said: "While I love the show and am very pleased by these reviews - RAGTIME is a huge musical that has lost money twice on Broadway. Forgive me for asking, but whywould commercial producers want to move this and lose money again? It has no bankable names, and the weekly operating cost would have to beenormous with the cast and orchestra size."

As Jorge said, the producers must believe they have a workable model, and they've done it before. 

As a contrasting example, Sweeney Todd lost money in its first two Broadway productions, but the next two productions were hits (three if you throw in the "pie shop" version). I think third time was the (financial) charm for Into the Woods as well.

Updated On: 10/31/24 at 05:25 PM

Strangely, Nov 6 is the only date unavailable. Any intel as to why or if tickets will open up for that performance?

Call_me_jorge said: "I just assumed it was sold out."

Would have assumed the same thing but it’s rare for Encore! shows at City Center to have one show that’s sold out but all others have decent availability.