LaChanze in Ragtime

She was very good, yes.

Someone recently posted a video to Youtube of her and Alton Fitzgerald White performing "Wheels of a Dream" on The Today Show. Based on just this one clip, I love her. She captures a sense of innocence and youthful enthusiasm that is different from Audra's:

Ahrens has said they wrote the role for her (no surprise since she had been in Once on this Island.)

I saw Ragtime twice during its massive sit down in Vancouver (Drabinsky originally had two major productions--the Toronto one which moved to Broadway and the LA one which moved to Vancouver and then, I think, to Chicago.) The cast was nearly all impeccable and I think prettymuch as strong as the Broadway cast (I need to pull out my program but Kingsley Leggs was Coalhouse and John Rubinstein was Tateh, I remember.) At first I was just disappointed I wasn't seeing Audra--I was a teen and had not heard Island yet--all I knew about LaChanze was her lovely Another Hundred People on the Company revival CD. Anyway, I echo everyone's thoughts here--she was amazing--the highlight in the cast for me. And while Audra sounds magnificent on the CD, LaChanze gives Sarah more vulnerability.

That television performance reminded me how much I enjoyed Alton Fitzgerald White as Coalhouse. I also had completely forgotten about White's wrongful arrest, which took place during his run in the show.

I didn't see LaChanze- she was out the night I went to see it during her run, but I remember not particularly enjoying her understudy (Tonya Dixon) very much. Audra and the final Sarah, Darlesia Cearcy, were both better than Dixon.

EricMontreal22 said: "Ahrens has said they wrote the role for her (no surprise since she had been in Once on this Island.)

I saw Ragtime twice during its massive sit down in Vancouver (Drabinsky originally had two major productions--the Toronto one which moved to Broadway and the LA one which moved to Vancouver and then, I think, to Chicago.) The cast was nearly all impeccable and I think prettymuch as strong as the Broadway cast (I need to pull out my program but Kingsley Leggs was Coalhouse and John Rubinstein was Tateh, I remember.) At first I was just disappointed I wasn't seeing Audra--I was a teen and had not heard Island yet--all I knew about LaChanze was her lovely Another Hundred People on the Company revival CD. Anyway, I echo everyone's thoughts here--she was amazing--the highlight in the cast for me. And while Audra sounds magnificent on the CD, LaChanze gives Sarah more vulnerability.

"

John Rubinstein did play Tateh in LA. I'm not sure the casts were Toronto/New York and LA/Chicago/Vancouver. Brian Stokes-Mitchell played Coalhouse in Toronto, LA, and New York. Steven Sutcliffe and Judy Kaye played Younger Brother and Emma Goldman, respectively, in LA and New York, but not Toronto.

I saw both Audra and LaChanze.

I still give the edge to Audra but I do feel that LaChanze was pretty much just as good and I agree that her vulnerability was more compelling and it made more sense.

I saw both and loved them equally. I found LaChanze's take to be a little raw and natural, grounded, which gave the piece as a whole a stronger sense of immediacy. Of course, Audra was Audra. Class of her own.

Just because this has not been posted yet, Sarah Brown Eyes from the same TV performance. Even comparing it to Audra on the recording, you can tell how different LaChanze's performance is--:

Updated On: 8/30/15 at 03:13 AM

More about the Chicago casting and changes in the staging from Variety (I didn't realize this was Hinton Battle's first big role.) I have no idea what they mean about LaChanze's vocal limitations though:

As has been Livent’s past practice with Chi-originating product, however, most of the principals in this production — including LaChanze, Peer Kevorian, Joe Dellger and Donna Bullock — have played their roles before in other cities. That is not true, however, of Hinton Battle. Perhaps that’s in part why the three-time Tony winner’s version of the ill-fated Coalhouse Walker is so strikingly different from that of Broadway original Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Physically slighter and far more emotional, Battle lacks the stentorian Stokes’ tragic magnitude. But he nonetheless turns in a fluid, vulnerable performance that’s probably more true to the character in E.L. Doctorow’s original novel.

Among the other principals, Vancouver vets Bullock and Dellger are both exceptionally poignant as the bewildered WASPs caught in strange new music. And if LaChanze and Kevorian have their vocal limitations, their acting is both strong and compelling.

Never one to leave well enough alone, Galati has usefully tinkered with some of his imaginative staging. The ensemble machinations around Sarah’s funeral look quite different from New York, as do the illusions of Houdini. The escapologist’s endeavors (and, indeed, his character) seem much more closely linked to the rest of the show in Chicago, thanks in part to a refreshingly less mannered performance from newcomer David Bonanno.

somethingwicked said: "adamgreer, Barbara Walsh replaced Donna Bullock as Mother in Chicago when Bullock left to replace Marin Mazzie in the Broadway company. Stephanie Mills was playing Sarah in Chicago by the time Walsh joined.

"

That makes sense, thanks! Eichenberger must have done the national tour, than. Didn't Hinton Battle also appear in the Chicago company at some point?

Stephanie Mills played Sarah? Anyone have footage of that?

I saw the Ragtime tour in January 2001 in Baltimore. The only one I remember is Rebecca Eichenberger as Mother. I have no idea who the Coalhouse and Sarah were. I left very disappointed. The show was scaled down. The set looked cheap. I definitely didn't have the impact that the Broadway production did.

I saw the final Broadway performance as well. I loved Alton White as Coalhouse, and Donna Bullock as Mother.