Ragtime Reviews
Ragtime Reviews
Ragtime Reviews#0
Posted: 1/5/06 at 6:18pmI was listening to the the Forbidden Broadway Ragtime song who gave the show a scathing review? And how late did it open?
re: Ragtime Reviews#2
Posted: 1/5/06 at 6:32pmAnd then it starting later than expected? I mean I saw the original production and I believed it just to be an amazing show. Saw Lion King the same week ans was extremely underwhelmed. I guess it's just one of those hotly debated subjects.
re: Ragtime Reviews#3
Posted: 1/5/06 at 6:46pm
Well, not so hotly debated here. Among theatre fans, most agree that RAGTIME having won best book and score should also have won best musical. But "style" trumped "content" that year.
The reference in FB to "we opened late" was as I recall due to teh fact that Theatrical Impressario & crook (or are they one-in-the-same?) Garth Drabinsky was building the FORD 9now Hilton) theatre to house teh show and it wasn't ready until December 1998. LION KING opened in November and was already a hot ticket.
The reviews for RAGTIME were mostly favourable with several raves but the New York times was mixed to unfavourable. This after another Times writer had covered the Toronto premiere and given it a rave. The show went to LA before New York so teh New York opening was almost 2 years after Toronto and I think the New Yorkers were miffed that it took so long!
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
re: Ragtime Reviews#4
Posted: 1/5/06 at 6:56pmI thought that there was a healthy mix of positive and negative reviews for Ragtime, wasn't there? Maybe more negative, but the show is a personal favorite of mine.
re: Ragtime Reviews#5
Posted: 1/5/06 at 6:58pm
From the Ben Brantley review:
"Blessed with beauty, ambition, a smashing wardrobe and a social conscience, 'Ragtime' would seem to be the kind of musical that brings Broadway audiences to their knees in adoration. Then why does this $10 million show, which opened last night at the new Ford Center for the Performing Arts, feel so utterly resistible?
Sitting through this heavily publicized adaptation of E. L. Doctorow's 1975 novel about turn-of-the-century growing pains is like meeting someone on the basis of a promising lonely-hearts ad. It's not that your date doesn't match the adjectives from the glamorous self-description. But face to face, you discover there's just no chemistry.
There is much to admire in 'Ragtime,' from its images of hand-tinted daguerreotypes brought to exquisite life to the electric presence of its leading man, Brian Stokes Mitchell, as the black revolutionary Coalhouse Walker. But there is finally little to fall in love with."
http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9D00E0DD1238F93AA25752C0A96E958260
re: Ragtime Reviews#6
Posted: 1/5/06 at 8:07pmOuch
re: Ragtime Reviews#7
Posted: 1/5/06 at 9:10pmI always wondered whether or not it had to do with the venue it was in. Upon first viewing I was in the 3rd row and was completely mesmerized by it. Another time I sat up in the balcony and the show didn't seem to have quite the same effect (plus Marin Mazzie happened to be out that time). Don't get me wrong, Ragtime is one of my all-time favorite shows. I was very fortunate to have seen it's final performance almost six years ago.
re: Ragtime Reviews#8
Posted: 1/5/06 at 9:21pm
Dottie-
I totally agree. The Ford (Hilton) is a giant barn of a theatre, and it's very easy for a show to get lost there. I saw RAGTIME quite a few times (from many different locations), and got a feeling of real distance from the action when I was in the balcony, or even when I was a few rows back in the dress circle. When I had a good orchestra seat, I was rapt.
That theatre is awful.
Videos
