The tour of the Stephen Flaherty/Lynn Ahrens/Terrence McNally musical RagtimeThe tour of the Stephen Flaherty/Lynn Ahrens/Terrence McNally musical RagtimeTurning a novel into musical theatre is a chancy proposition at best. Often the very things that make a novel work are difficult or impossible to translate into words, music and action. Failures are at least as common as successes.
Happily, the musical stage adaptation of E.L. Doctrow's quirky best-seller Ragtime - which plays the Fox through this Sunday - is one of the successes. Part historical pageant, part social and political critique and just a bit fantastical, Ragtime captures the wonder, horror, and inevitable decline of the mad optimism that began this century. It should be required viewing for the rabid free marketeers, hyper-nationalists and self-proclaimed populists who would have us believe that turn of the century America was the best of all possible worlds.
Librettist Terrence McNally - whose credits include Master Class, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Rink and many others - can't cram more than a fraction of Doctorow's characters, events, and connections into the show's three-hour run time. But the ones he does give us are lovingly and compellingly presented. McNally focuses on three families - one white and middle class, one poor and immigrant, and one black and fragmented. Their interactions with each other and with historical figures like Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington and the radical labor leader Emma Goldman generate a story of Dickensian complexity and richness.
The composer/lyricist team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens - best known for their 1990 hit Once on This Island - match McNally's book with a beautiful and powerful score influenced - but not dominated - by the ragtime of the title. From the title tune "Ragtime" to memorable ballads like "Wheels of a Dream", to anthems like "Make Them Hear You" and "'Till We Reach That Day", the music of Ragtime is memorable and intelligent.
It's difficult to comment in any detail on individual performances in Ragtime's large ensemble cast, partly because of time constraints and partly because, from my seat in the 29th row, it was difficult to make out faces in any detail. They all sounded great, though, with the possible exception of Stephen Zinnato, who sang the role of Father with an artificially wide vibrato that became annoying quickly. Standouts included Lawrence Hamilton and Lovena Fox as Coalhouse Walker and Sarah, whose quest for justice leads to tragedy, and Jim Corti, lending a touch of Groucho Marx to the role of Tateh, the immigrant who goes from rags to riches by inventing moving pictures.
Eugene Lee's original production design is noticeably stripped down for this tour, but unless you've seen the original you won't notice the compromises and in any case the real strength of Ragtime is in the music, lyrics and script, not in the sets. Ragtime plays the Fox Theatre through Sunday, and you can order tickets by calling 534-1111. Go see it - for the power, the passion, and the reminder that the last thing we need as we enter a new century is to return to the "Good Old Days" of this one.