![]() The word “confluence” sprang to my mind immediately as I observed the staging by Jim Charles and choreography by Jessica Costa of the show’s opening number. This is a play about America and Americans at a time of ethnic confluence. The members of the white family are known simply as Father, Mother, Grandfather, Younger Brother, and the Boy, although McNally tickled Doctorow’s fancy by giving the Boy the author’s name, Edgar, in the show. As in Doctorow’s novel, very few of the fictional characters have names. Morgan, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford, and Harry Houdini. The story Ragtime tells is sweeping, encompassing three fictional families – one white, one black, and one Jewish immigrant – as their lives graze those of historical figures such as Booker T. ![]() Indeed the plot of Ragtime is so tightly woven that I am going to be careful in this review to reveal as little of it as possible because I could definitely spoil your experience if I reveal exactly how the rags come together to form whole cloth. The creators had to “audition” for Doctorow in order to earn the rights to adapt his work for the stage.ĭoctorow claims that he did not name his novel, which is set, as is the show, somewhere between 19, for the musical style of the day, but because he perceived that he had woven the story out of “rags” - shreds and scraps of fiction and history “plucked from the rag bin” of his mind. Doctorow’s award-winning 1975 novel of the same name, but while Doctorow hates the 1981 film adaptation, he loves this 1998 stage version, which is really more of an operetta than a musical, with a book by Terrance McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Aherns. You may never have heard of it or may have glanced at the title and dismissed it as one more revue-sical of historic music, but trust me, it is one of the great musicals of the 20th century and one you MUST see in its current incarnation at the Cohoes Music Hall.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |