Ragtime- Page 2

[sipos]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 2:48am

Michelle was great. Mary was by far the best of all the principles. YES! That's right. I met her in the alley after the show waiting for my friends. I just sounded like a gangster. alley ...



(musicalfandukie, I didn't call RAGTIME a flop, flop=BIG, if you meant me)

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 2:56am

The Ford theater in Chicago was a better place to stage Ragtime than the theater in Manhattan anyway. Note the effect of the performers actually flooding the stage to the point that they're forced to march off of it during ATLANTIC CITY (or so I remember it that way) vs. all this empty space on the stage in Manhattan.

I wonder what Mary and Michelle are up to now?

EDIT: The other great thing I remember from the Chicago production is that they made use of the loge. I appreciate productions that require me to be an active spectator as far as looking around the theater (rather than straight ahead the whole time) goes. Updated On: 1/11/05 at 02:56 AM

[sipos]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 3:44am

It was really beautiful. Loved the huge cast. It was epic like it should be. Thanks for reminding me of that production.


my friend use to have an audio of La Chanze flubbing the President song going,

" ... 'Cause Coalhouse, he won't marry me
till we have a son. (pause)
And President, we got a sooooooon!"

When I saw her(2X), she was perfect.

So thanks. Because when I saw the national tour in Tampa about a year later, it reeked.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 3:52am

That's hilarious about the flub. As if the mystery surrounding Sarah didn't already suggest she might have been a whore...

Ragtime played next door to me (literally, I lived on the same block of land as the theater) here in Evanston, IL for a few weeks in 2003. I really enjoyed that production too except the woman playing Sarah couldn't carry her voice across the theater, and the little boy playing The Little Boy got a case of stage fright during "Harry Houdini, Master Escapist" and just stood there until the orchestra finished the song. The production designed also explicitly framed the performances as emerging within The Little Boy's mind, which I thought could be an interesting concept for a film version.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 4:57am

Hahah Walsh was Mother when I saw it in Vancouver but I think I liked her fine--I didn't have any major probs with the cast.

E

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 4:59am

In Van it played at the Ford theatre built by Livent there--but the stage seemed ideal for the production. I dunno if it played in Van or Chicago first (I think Van) but it sounds like it was largelyt he same cast except for Rubinstein as Tateh.

E

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 7:58am

Kingsley Legs played Coalhouse in Van

E

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 1:13pm

I'm looking forward to Papermill's production.

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 2:11pm

veuve, Garth is infamous for treating public $$ as his own. He bilked investors and creditors out of half a billion dollars. He had the company paying his taxes. He most certainly used others' peoples' dollars to 'line his own pockets', and hopefully he'll pay. Whether it was done for a love of theatre (doubtful) or not, he's still a crook. And was a crook, long before Livent. The stiffest sentence he and his three cohorts can get is 10 years, hardly the same as for murderers.

[mallardo]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 2:50pm

I've actually worked for Garth Drabinsky - twice, in fact! - and he's definitely a difficult guy. But that said, I agree with VeuveCliquot that his creative accounting manipulations were gambles that just didn't pan out. He had done so well in his movie theater business - he virtually invented the Cineplex -that he felt he couldn't lose. Ultimately, the shows he promoted were good shows - remember that the Showboat revival was also his - and not lowbrow commercial fare where the financial return would have been more certain. He's a far cry from those Enron bloodsuckers.

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 2:59pm

mallardo, if you consider saddling the company with a $700 million debt, then yes, I guess Garth did fabulously with Cineplex-Odeon.

[mallardo]

Posted: 1/11/05 at 3:07pm

erinrebecca, you are obviously more in touch with his finances than I am - I was under the impression that it was his Livent cross-collateralizing that saddled Odeon Cineplex with that debt. Anyway, I'm not excusing any of that. I just think - perhaps naively - that his heart was in the right place, at least as far as the Theater was concerned. There is no denying his personal venality or the size of his ego - both of which drove him to the belief that whatever he did, he would ultimately get away with it.