Ragtime (musical)

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Ragtime is a musical by Stephen Flaherty (music), Terrence McNally (book) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) from 1996. The book is based on the novel of the same name by EL Doctorow , which was published in 1975.

Performances

The idea for the musical goes back to Garth Drabinsky, who with his company Livent Inc. had already successfully produced several concept musicals based on literary models. B. Kiss of the Spider Woman . He won the support of the skeptical EL Doctorow for the project, who was still struggling because of the one-sided implementation of the material as a film . The book was already available in mid-1994 and was further developed into a musical in numerous readings and workshops.

Ragtime premiered on December 8, 1996 in Toronto . The US premiere was in Los Angeles in 1997 and the production had its first Broadway premiere on January 18, 1998 at the newly opened Ford Center for the Performing Arts , it ended on January 16, 2000 and had a total of 834 performances and 27 previews. Frank Galati directed the choreography and Graciela Daniele . The production received mixed reviews but was a hit with the public and received the most Tony Award nominations in 1998 (13 nominations in twelve of a total of 21 categories), but had to admit defeat to the Lion King in most categories at the awards ceremony . Probably because of the high production costs of $ 11 million, the production company finally had to file for bankruptcy.

The London West End premiere followed in 2003. In 2009 there was a short-term reprint with a less elaborate production on Broadway, and also in 2012 in Canada and London, albeit all with moderate success. Criticism explains this by stating that socially critical material can only be successful in the USA if the Americans are doing well economically.

The German-language premiere (with English lyrics and German dialogues) took place on September 18, 2015 in the Braunschweig State Theater in a production by Philipp Kochheim . The elaborate production was enthusiastically received by both critics and the audience.

action

Ragtime largely follows the novel and tells the story of three groups of immigrants in the United States in the early 20th century: African-Americans, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem jazz pianist; Upper-class whites, led by mother , the matriarch of the family from New Rochelle, New York; and immigrants from Eastern Europe, the main character of which is Tateh, a Jew from Latvia.

Coalhouse demands justice and social recognition, but after initial successes it becomes a victim of racist violence and eventually drifts into illegality as a kind of American Michael Kohlhaas himself. Tateh tries to gain a foothold in the New World and make the American dream of washing dishes a millionaire come true. And mother longs for love and security, for which she would even leave her home in the posh suburb of New Rochelle behind.

The narrative includes many historical figures from the early 20th century. Among others: Harry Houdini , Evelyn Nesbit , Booker T. Washington , Emma Goldman , Henry Ford .

Music numbers

The musical, which is largely sung through, consists mainly of marches , gospel , cakewalk and ragtime numbers.

1st act
  • Prologue: Ragtime - Company
  • "Goodbye, My Love" - Mother
  • "Journey On" - Father, Mother, and Tateh
  • "The Crime of the Century" ‡ - Evelyn Nesbit and Company
  • "What Kind of Woman" ° - Mother, Kathleen, Little Boy, Younger Brother
  • "A Shtetl iz Amereke" ° - Immigrants
  • "Success" ° - Tateh, JP Morgan, Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, and Company
  • "His Name Was Coalhouse Walker" ° - Coalhouse and Company
  • "Gettin 'Ready Rag" - Coalhouse and Company
  • "Henry Ford" ‡ - Henry Ford and Company
  • "Nothing Like the City" ° - Mother, Edgar, Tateh, and Little Girl
  • "Your Daddy's Son" - Sarah
  • "The Courtship" - Mother, Younger Brother, Grandfather, Brigit, and Company
  • "New Music" - Father, Mother, Younger Brother, Coalhouse, Sarah, and Company
  • "Wheels of a Dream" - Coalhouse and Sarah
  • "The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square" - Younger Brother, Emma Goldman, and Company
  • "Gliding" - Tateh
  • "The Trashing of the Car" ° - Orchestra
  • "Justice" ‡ ° - Coalhouse and Company
  • "President" ‡ ° - Sarah
  • "Till We Reach That Day" - Sarah's Friend and Company
2nd act
  • Entr'acte ° - Orchestra
  • "Harry Houdini, Master Escapist" ≠ ° - Harry Houdini and Edgar
  • "Coalhouse's Soliloquy" ° - Coalhouse
  • "Coalhouse Demands" - Coalhouse, Booker T. Washington, and Company
  • "What a Game" - Father, Edgar, and Men
  • "Fire in the City" ° - Orchestra
  • "New Music (Reprise)" ° - Father
  • "Atlantic City" ‡ ° - Evelyn Nesbit, Harry Houdini, and Company
  • "Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc." ° - Tateh
  • "Our Children" - Mother and Tateh
  • "Harlem Nightclub" ° - Orchestra
  • "Sarah Brown Eyes" ° - Coalhouse and Sarah
  • "He Wanted to Say" - Younger Brother, Emma Goldman, and Coalhouse's Gang
  • "Back to Before" ° - Mother
  • "Look What You've Done" - Booker T. Washington and Company
  • "Make Them Hear You" - Coalhouse
  • Epilogue: Ragtime / "Wheels of a Dream" (reprise) - Company
  • ° not on concept album
  • ‡ shortened in the resumption
  • ≠ deleted in the resumption

Awards

Tony Award 1998

  • Best musical libretto (Terrence McNally)
  • Best Original Music (Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty)
  • Best Supporting Actress in a Musical ( Audra McDonald )
  • Best Orchestration (William David Brown)

Drama Desk Award 1998

  • musical
  • Book (Terrence McNally)
  • Music (Stephen Flaherty)
  • Lyrics (Lynn Ahrens)
  • Orchestration (William David Brown)

Laurence Olivier Award 2004

  • Best Actress in a Musical (Maria Friedman)

Drama Desk Award 2010

  • Sound design (Acme Sound Partners)

Recordings

  • Songs from Ragtime - The Musical (CD), concept album, BMG, 1996
  • Ragtime - The Musical (2CD), Original Broadway Cast, BMG, 1998

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marty Bell; From Page to Stage , in the CD booklet of the concept album
  2. ^ Ragtime , Internet Broadway Database website
  3. ↑ In Livent's Bankruptcy, a Cautionary Tale for Broadway , NY Times, November 10, 1998
  4. ^ No time for Ragtime , James C. Taylor, The Economist, 2013
  5. ^ Ragtime , website of the Braunschweig State Theater
  6. ↑ Musical against Racism  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , The German Stage, September 19, 2015@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.die-deutsche-buehne.de  
  7. ↑ It will never be the same again , Musicalzentrale, September 19, 2015
  8. ↑ 50 soloists, 400 costumes: Ragtime  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , New Brunswick, September 26, 2015@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.unser38.de