RAGTIME - Clehouse Walker's Identity? — Page 2

FYI, Musical Theater West, in the LA area (Long Beach), is mounting Ragtime in February. This is an Equity company that draws on the LA talent pool and I just saw their production of She Loves me which was excellent, so I have high hopes!

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Hate to break up the RAGTIME discussion, but:

"First of all, a recording of a Broadway show is an "Original Cast Album", not a "Soundtrack.""

Semi-incorrect. What about revivals? They aren't original.

Recordings of shows are generally called "Cast Recordings." There are Original Broadway Cast Recordings, Revival Broadway Cast Recordings, Original Cast Albums, Revival Cast Albums. But the term most used nowadays is "Cast Recording."

Now, back to RAGTIME - LOVE the music by Ahrens & Flaherty. I attended the recent show in Raleigh, NC with Julia Murney. Fantastic show!

Powerful, catchy, timeless.

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"It is unlikely that a national tour of RAGTIME will ever be mounted again, especially since colleges, community theatres and even hugh schools are doing it now (a local high school did it last year - spending over $30,000 on the production - including $4000 to rent the Model T)."

Nuts! But aren't high schools also doing West Side Story, a show that's about to be mounted on Broadway again?

But West Side Story is almost 50 years old. That's another story altogether.

After reading this thread I decided to revisit the cast recording after not having heard it for a couple years and was reminded of one aspect of the show that I found somewhat strange. There are several moments in the show in which it seems as though Edgar is somewhat clairvoyant. Did anyone else notice this, and what is your take on it?

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Yep, that's one of the instances I was referring to. He also wakes up from a bad dream at one point and says something to the effect of "There's going to be an explosion." Another time, he says to Mother after first encountering Tateh and his little girl, "We're going to know those people." In addition to that, he foresees that one of the men injured in an explosion is going to die before the evening is through.

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Isn't here a scdene involving Emma Goldman giving Evelyn Nesbit a massage, while Younger Brother is hiding in the closet?

There are two homoerotic incidents that occur closer to the beginning:

- Goldman leads Nesbit into her apartment, makes her remove her corset to reveal all the welts from the whippings that Thaw gave her, and then massages her while she relaxes in the nude. Nesbit is in something of an orgasmic state as this occurs, while Younger Brother hides in the closet and masturbates to it.

- Houdini is performing a stunt at a prison known as The Tombs. He has to disrobe so that he can remove all of the wires hidden on his body and use them to escape from the cell. In the cell directly across from his is Harry Thaw. Anyway, as Houdini dresses again, Thaw begins to disrobe at the same time and flaps his penis through the cell bars for Houdini. Houdini is frightened by this and runs away as quickly as possible. In reality, Thaw was known to have pursued homosexual relationships in which he played the role of sadist against the will of younger men; in fact, he was jailed for it over a decade after the Stanford White murder trial.

i've enjoyed reading this thread i fell in love with RAGTIME's music after seeing a local concert production of it a few months ago. my favorite song is JOURNEY ON. there's just something about that song ...

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