the people called it Ragtime...

I just saw my schools production, and I had forgotten I loved this show!! I was in it almost 8 years ago as the Little Girl, and had fun but Ragtime was never one of my top favorites. I guess things change with age because I really do think it's a fabulous show!! Not to brag, but I thought our cast was top-notch (wickedrentq can vouch for that - she came with me!) and I was glad we did this show, even though I was not cast =(

One thing I never understood - how did the little boy Edgar know about the Duke?? That part always confused me.

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Updated On: 3/4/07 at 02:08 PM

I always thought that Edgar was based on Edgar Casey.

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Don't cough that - speak that outloud! That would be AWESOME, I LOVE that show!

:) If only! But would there be a revival soon if the opera's already doing a production?

I need a revival!!!!

city opera is presenting ragtime for two weeks in april 2008? does this not count as a revival?

it's been very well documented on these boards, and easily found with the "search" feature ...

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broadway revival...but i'll take the city opera one

I saw the show on Broadway and enjoyed it, but it wasn't one of my all-time favorites. When it was being done at NYU a few years ago, I only went to see it because a couple friends from work were in it. I was shocked at how moving I found it, when it was presented with much more minimalist staging. I think the Broadway production got cluttered up with trying to create something spectacular on a giant scale (the huge stereoscope, the big Houdini number and all that), and it just wound up being a distraction from a story that is very human.

I also found it interesting that I saw the Broadway production right after it opened, from a 2nd row orchestra seat, and it didn't move me that much. I was way in the back of the balcony at NYU, but I was much more drawn into the story and really felt for all the characters. IMO, that says a lot about how the Bway production failed to make the show intimate enough, even under the most ideal conditions.

Um... Edgar is E.L. Doctorow - the author of the novel RAGTIME. Of course, he isn't old enough to have actually lived the time of the novel. I believe he was born in the mid-1920's. The set piece depicting the exterior of the house in the original production is a photo of his boyhood home in New Rochelle.

By the way, Docotrow's new novel is set during the Civil War, and one of the characters is Coalhouse Walker SENIOR.

Updated On: 3/4/07 at 04:55 PM

In a production that I saw, the ensemble joined her on stage for that number.

I recently got the 1996 Cast (Toronto/Concept) Recording of this show, and I have become absolutely addicted. It was weird, I got out of my car and had Ragtime playing, got online, and this was the first thread to appear.

Anyhow, how long did the original production run and which theatre? Was it a complete failure? And do people generally consider the fact that it was SO. HUGE. the main reason that it failed?

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Updated On: 3/4/07 at 05:57 PM

I saw the show at the Paper Mill a few years ago, and I agree with whoever said minimalistic staging helps, some how the show was just more touching.

Nope, it was a TYTE production.