RAGTIME Reviews — Page 4

Well, from a pure pastiche point of view, LB incorporates many more styles and utilizes them quite expertly to tell the story. "What You Want" is one of the best musical montage type scene since DREAMGIRLS and uses, what, four or five distinct musical styles quite expertly in the course of one number. RAGTIME fails to even juggle three distinct melodies OR styles simultaneously with any panache, even in the much discussed opening number. I think RAGTIME is a better whole than the sum of its parts, whereas LB's greatest asset was its score.

And of all the things to say in an argument about RAGTIME vs. LB, I think the same-ness of all the songs in RAGTIME and how they all say the same thing is even more evident than in LB. This sort of deductive ___ vs ___ argument could go on forever though, particularly on this board with these two shows.

I realize that by outing myself for the first time in 5 years as a huge fan and advocate of this score will strike some as odd, but there it is. I really enjoyed the score a lot and thought the show had some great moments where the staging and score came together wonderfully and reached a level of almost greatness. Sure, it's not the best score ever, but I'd take a million "Work It Out"s over having to endure "Gliding" or any of the white people (they are all nameless after all!) material in RAGTIME one more time.

Again, RAGTIME is a better show than LB, but I think LB has a better score and had moments that eclipsed anything in the admittedly very good original production of RAGTIME. RAGTIME was consistently good and never great, whereas LB had bad moments and very good moments.

P

Updated On: 11/15/09 at 11:00 PM

I just did.

Anything actually constructive to add or just the usual snide, condescending nonsense?

P

When was the last time anyone stuck to the original topic in a BWW thread? Ha.

Am I the only one who feels that there were like no reviews for this show compared to previous ones?

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Brantley didn't so much review this production as use it as a fulcrum to bash the show generally. He doesn't like the show, so the production is incidental to his remarks.

"Wow, before this production I had no idea how many people loathed the Ragtime score.

Exactly. People loathe it now because Brantley didn't love it the first time around. That's pretty much the only reason.

EDIT: When I say "people", I mean the critics. I am sure plenty of audience members didn't like the score."

Brantley was far from the only person when the show premiered to not be too keen on the score (or show). I was obsessed with Ragtime back then, and had seen it multiple times in Vancouver and remember being shocked and annoyed at the mixed and negative reviews it was getting. If anything the appreciation of the show and especially the score has gone up substantially in the past ten years.

Brantley's review annoys me (no big surprise). The original production was souless?? It feels to me like he liked the show more this time partly jsut cuz he's had time to sit with it without his anti Livent/Drabinsky agenda--and is trying to justify it.

To wit:"that featured planes, trains, a full-size Model T and fireworks (to accompany the expression of love)."

Ummmmm all I remember from that in the original production, was the Model T (and I mean no less a show than the divine original production of Night Music had TWO such cars...) Man he likes to exaggerate to make up a point.

So much for raves as predicted by most posters on BWW.

Umm aside from Matthew Murray's completely insignificant pan and Brantley's mixed review, the reviews have been very, very positive, with many raves.

They're going to have a hell of a time making it to the Spring.

I completely agree, Michael Bennett.

DidHeLikeIt.com classifies the RAGTIME review as positive, not mixed. These reviews were hardly anywhere near bad...they were pretty solid with a bunch of certified raves.

Michael Bennett, what lyrics do you object to? I do have think the complaint that the score sounds a bit like one too many anthems is justified, otherwise I really have no fault with it.

I admit Ragtime is a soft spot with me--it was the first (and so far only time) I got to see a major musical before it was even performed on the Tonys (thanks to the Vancouver production which was essentially the first American cast/LA cast--headlined by a brilliant LaChanze moved to Vancouver for 6 months) and so I followed it very closely.

I know people felt the musical was a bit too "by comittee". It's true that Drabinsky I think saw himself as a modern Ziegfeld--turned on by his experiences with the Show Baot revival (which was brilliant and, to be fair, was all at his instigation--it was his idea, he hired Prince, etc) he seemed to want to do his own epic musical and bought the rights to Ragtime. As most know, he auditioned ten different songwriters (or teams) hired McNally after their experiences together on Spider Woman, etc. For all the man's horrible faults, it was his doing, the whole team was hired by him, and this is probably why it might have a bit of that feeling.

That said, I did find the original production exquisite and even magical in many spots and I think it's gotten a bum rap (I think at the time it did as well due to many equating Livent with the Disney "take over of Broadway" bla bla blaaa). Of course Livent then disintegrated and their later shows Drabinsky instigated--aside from Fosse--all were less than successes (Parade, Seussical and years later Sweet Smell of Success)

Oh and I'm SOOO confused how this became a Legally Blonde vs Ragtime discussion...

Updated On: 11/16/09 at 12:36 AM

Just an FYI on leaked reviews... Brantley's review was not locked in a safe in the NYT building. Publishing outlets had the review and respect an industry embargo not to publish reviews early. Happens with films all the time. Companies that don't respect the embargo soon find access to future projects drying up. Someone at that website just made a stupid mistake. I'd be shocked if that site ever had a scoop again.

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There are glitches with review embargos all the time. There have even been a few occasions when the New York Times posted their own reviews too early. It happens. And in this case it was just a few hours early.

The bottom line is, he LIKED it. He really LIKED it.

Keep dreaming.