SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
"Ragtime," the 1998 musical based on E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel, mixes historical characters with fictitious ones at the turn of the 20th century, is now getting a revival at New York's Lincoln Center. With its mixture of Jewish immigrants, Black residents of Harlem and privileged white characters, the show appeals strongly to current audiences, as Jeff Lunden reports.
UNIDENTIFIED CAST: (As characters, singing) And there was distant music, simple and somehow sublime, giving the nation a new syncopation. The people called it ragtime.
CAISSIE LEVY: This piece is resonating just as much as ever, and not a word has changed since it was written.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: Caissie Levy plays Mother, a kind of proto-feminist whose comfortable, upper-class white existence in the suburbs of New York City, undergoes upheaval over the course of the show.
LEVY: You know, there's joy in that, and there's sadness in that, too, but what a time to be able to do it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CAST: (As characters, singing) La, la, la, la. A strange, insistent music putting out heat, picking up steam.
LUNDEN: At that the show looks at the American dream and its underbelly. It's been staged during different administrations. When "Ragtime" premiered on Broadway in 1998, Bill Clinton was president. When it was revived in 2009, Barack Obama was president. And now, with this Broadway revival, Donald Trump occupies the Oval Office. Actor Joshua Henry plays Coalhouse Walker, a Black musician with dreams.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOSHUA HENRY: (As Coalhouse Walker, singing) Sarah, it must be true. A country that lets a man like me own a car, raise a child, build a life with you, with you, with you.
LUNDEN: But over the course of the show, his dreams get crushed by racism, and he becomes radicalized.
HENRY: This is one of those pieces that never ceases to be relevant. And to be able to be in this piece right now feels like, oh, this is my portion. This is how I'm going to serve in this moment.
LYNN AHRENS: It's so fascinating to me to know that we wrote something, you know, with very open hearts and no political agenda. We just wanted to tell this amazing story, and look what has happened.
LUNDEN: Lyricist Lynn Ahrens' grandparents fled from oppression in Eastern Europe to opportunity in America, just like some of the characters in "Ragtime."
AHRENS: It is mirroring this very awful, divisive, frightening time where all of the same problems for immigrants and for women and for, you know, Black people - everybody feels attacked and frightened.
LUNDEN: In fact, this production of "Ragtime" is based on a concert version done in October and November of 2024. Director Lear deBessonet says the night after the election...
LEAR DEBESSONET: It was a space that contained more emotion from the audience than anything I've ever felt in the theater. And it wasn't a monochromatic emotion, right? People were feeling many different things.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HENRY: (As Coalhouse Walker, singing) Go out and tell our story. Let it echo far and wide. Make them hear you. Make them hear you.
DEBESSONET: And they were connecting deeply with the show and with each other. And it was an opportunity to share humanity and to share questions about who we are right now as a people.
STEPHEN FLAHERTY: It's really powerful at Lincoln Center as well.
LUNDEN: Composer Stephen Flaherty.
FLAHERTY: You know, you can literally hear gasps from the audience, and it has to do with the timing, I think.
LUNDEN: Even though the show is epic, part of what allows audiences to hear the words anew is that the production itself is spare. Without a lot of scenery, the focus falls squarely on Terrence McNally's words and the lyrics, says songwriter Lynn Ahrens.
AHRENS: Terrance's book is so fabulous, you know? And the lines in it are - they just keep hitting me personally, you know, in the heart, you know? Like, guns were going off everywhere. "We Can Never Go Back To Before" (ph), which is a song that grew out of one line that Terrance wrote.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LEVY: (As Mother, singing) Where are they now, those women who stared from the mirror? We can never go back to before.
LUNDEN: As a 10-year-old child actor in 1996, Brandon Uranowitz was in the tryout of "Ragtime" in Toronto. Now he plays Tateh, the Jewish immigrant father who, after many trials, reinvents himself in America.
BRANDON URANOWITZ: The entire piece is about people aspiring to something bigger than themselves, dreaming of a promise that has abstractly existed for them but that may be out of reach. And I think the tragedy of the piece is that some folks don't get to achieve that, and then the hope of the piece is that some folks do.
LUNDEN: While "Ragtime" was only set to run at Lincoln Center in January, it's been extended to the end of June.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CAST: (As characters, singing) The skies were blue and hazy, rarely a storm, barely a chill. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
