Theater Review By Ron Fassler . . .
When I first saw the musical Ragtime in Los Angeles, prior to Broadway twenty-six years ago, I had chills up and down my spine at the opening number and tears streaming down my face at its closing one. It gives me no end of pleasure to report that this weekend at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia (just outside Washington D.C.), I had the exact same response.
Based on E.L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel, published in 1975, Ragtime was made into a rather flat film in 1982. Fifteen years later, when it became a Broadway musical, it had the good fortune of being led by a creative team at the peak of its powers. Is this the greatest book for a musical of the near dozen written and produced in playwright Terrence McNally’s lifetime? Yes. Is this the best score we’ve heard to date from the team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens? Yes. Is this the apotheosis of director Frank Galati’s work in the art of oral interpretation, a discipline he taught at Northwestern University for many years? Yes.
In his novels, Doctorow liked to mix factual people from the past with those of his own invention, gaining him a reputation as a writer of historical fiction. Ragtime, set in the period prior to World War I in New York and its environs, offers a sprawling plot that includes real-life characters such as magician Harry Houdini, anarchist Emma Goldman, and Evelyn Nesbit, a young woman whose husband, Harry K. Thaw, murdered her much older lover, Stanford White, one of America’s leading architects. But what Doctorow is most interested in is a well-to-do New Rochelle family of his own invention for whom he provides no last name (Mother and Father aren’t even given first names). It is their interaction with a young Black woman, Sarah, who fails in her attempt to bury her newborn baby in their backyard, an incident that is the basis of the rising action. Coalhouse Walker Jr, the baby’s father, is a ragtime pianist who tries to take responsibility and right the wrong of his abandonment of his child and her mother; then he tragically becomes a victim of a racist crime that warps his judgment and destroys his soul. Add to that the story of Tateh, a Jewish immigrant and his motherless daughter who strive for and fulfill the American dream, as the lyrics of its title song ring loudly in our ears: “This was the music of something beginning, an era exploding, a century spinning in riches and rags and in rhythm and rhyme, the people call it Ragtime.”
Though I caught it twice during its pre-Broadway run, I haven’t seen Ragtime on stage in a very long time. What a joy, then, to see this lovely new version under the inspired direction of Matthew Gardiner, accompanied by the choice movement and dancing by choreographer Ashleigh King at Arlington’s Signature Theatre. My first visit to this Tony Award-winning regional theater was well worth the four-hour drive, as not only was I impressed by the show’s 31-member cast and 16-piece orchestra, but also by the theater’s wide and intimate playing space that felt like being wrapped in a giant bear hug.
The challenge with staging Ragtime is a daunting one due to how its original one was conceived for a cast of forty-nine. A great deal of doubling-up is in play here, a practice that can often be distracting. As one example, the actor playing Grandfather is utilized in Act Two’s baseball game number, seated right next to his own grandson, something we’re meant to ignore. Credit to actor Lawrence Redmond who keeps his hat low and changes his body rhythms and overall mien to good effect, as do the actors cast as Houdini (Edward L. Simon), Evelyn Nesbit (Maria Rizzo) and Booker T. Washington (Tobias A. Young), also forced into duty in ensemble roles.
As for the leads, everyone has brought their A-game. In order for Ragtime to work it needs someone like Coalhouse who is both wildly charismatic and a strong singer. Nkrumah Gatling’s performance projects power from the moment he’s first seen seated at the piano, his back to the audience, before he even turns around and utters a single word. His commanding presence goes a long way towards making some of the more unbelievable aspects of his character believable, holding up the proceedings on his talented shoulders. Awa Sal Secka offered a Sarah that is simply heartbreaking and beautifully sung (it’s the role that won Audra McDonald the third of her six Tony Awards). Bobby Smith brings a palpable dignity as Tateh, the immigrant peddler and silhouette artist, and Teal Wicks, the only actor of whom I had any prior knowledge, is stunning in her simplicity and empathy as Mother, scoring with every song she sings. As Father, Bill English has perhaps the most difficult part in the play (it’s relatively one-dimensional, whereas others are not) and accomplishes the task admirably. Jake Loewenthal as Mother’s Younger Brother has the required passion and vocal prowess necessary, and Matthew Lamb winningly portrays The Little Boy. Special mention as well of Maria Rizzo’s Evelyn Nesbit, a role hard not to caricature, which she avoids assiduously. Her laughs land with stealth-like ability. And lastly, Jordyn Taylor’s standout solo in “Till We Reach That Day” soared with emotion, providing a vocal highlight of what is a thrillingly sung show.
Though there is no real scenery per se, Lee Savage has created an open playing area that suits the action well, though it’s next to impossible to compete with memories of the scenic design first created by Eugene Lee, the second in the trio of his Broadway triumphs along with Sweeney Todd (1979) and Wicked (2003). The gates he created that crashed down on the immigrants as they are “welcome” to America—an unforgettable image in “A Shtetl iz Amereke”—sadly go missing here. However, costumes by Erik Teague are spot on and the lighting design from Tyler Micoleau is excellent. Musical director Jon Kalbfleisch conducts the orchestra, perched high above the action, to perfection. Honestly, the whole enterprise marks one of the best regional theatergoing experiences of my lifetime.
The achievement of the essential road map first drawn up by McNally, Galati, and the team of Ahrens and Flaherty remains a wonder. The novel’s prose is used to deeply poetic effect, the songs are models of dramatic construction, and its multiple stories are clear and concise. All elements help inspire the Signature Theatre’s Ragtime with a production that truly sings.
Ragtime. Through January 7, 2024, at the Signature Theatre (4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, Virginia. www.sigtheatre.org
Photos: Christopher Mueller and Daniel Rader (as indicated)
Cover photo caption: Bobby Smith, Emerson Holt Lacayo and the cast of Ragtime (Photo by Daniel Rader)
