By Harry Forbe
No one who saw the brief semi-staged concert presentation of composer Steven Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens 1998 masterwork at City Center last year should be surprised that the transfer to Lincoln Center is anything less than a splendid theatrical experience. Last year’s production was not part of the Encores musical series, but rather the venue’s annual fall Gala presentation.
It was, nonetheless, directed by Encores’ outgoing artistic director Lear DeBessonet who now assumes that title with Lincoln Center Theater. Her superb staging of “Ragtime” gets her off to a highly auspicious start. The work was adapted most skillfully by the late Terrence McNally from E.L. Doctorow’s acclaimed 1975 novel.
David Korins’ spare but effective scenic design, lighted by Adam Honoré and Donald Holder, adapts beautifully to the expansive Beaumont stage, and DeBessonet’s facility for dealing with large groupings of people, which she demonstrated so adeptly in her earlier work at the Public’s Delacorte and Encores, is on full display here.
McNally’s book streamlines the novel, trimming some of the plot turns, without losing its overall power. The life of a fictional upper crust New Rochelle family -- identified merely as Mother (Caissie Levy), Father (Colin Donnell), Mother’s Younger Brother (Ben Levi Ross), and their son (Nick Barrington) -- is upended while Father is away on an arctic expedition, and Mother gives shelter to an unwed black woman Sarah (Nichelle Lewis) and her new newborn baby.
The child’s father, ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker, Jr. (Joshua Henry) persistently comes to their home to win back the recalcitrant Sarah’s affections. Meanwhile, Tateh (Brandon Uranowitz), an impoverished Jewish immigrant, and his young daughter (Tabitha Lawing) face numerous vicissitudes as they struggle to forge a life in their adopted country.
All of this plays out against the historical events and true-life characters of the turn-of-the-last-century age: Emma Goldman (Shaina Taub), Booker T. Washington (John Clay III), Evelyn Nesbitt (Anna Grace Barlow), Harry Houdini (Rodd Cyrus), and other then bold-faced names.
The City Center principals are back and once again, we can admire Joshua Henry’s powerful Coalhouse, Caissie Levy’s warmly sympathetic Mother; Brandon Uranowitz’s immensely likable Tateh. But the cast is uniformly fine, and holds up well to golden memories of the pearly original lineup of Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra MacDonald, Marin Mazzie, and the rest. (The 2009 Broadway revival cast, Quentin Earl Darrington and Christiane Noll among them, deserves an affectionate nod as well.)
The show’s famous numbers get showstopping renditions here: Colehouse and Sarah’s “Wheels of a Dream” and “New Music”; Mother’s “Back to Before”; Coalhouse’s “Make Them Hear You” all land powerfully.
As before, the show tugs at the proverbial heartstrings and registers as immensely moving and, in its themes, as relevant as ever.
Production credits are all first-rate including Ellenore Scott’s choreography, Linda Cho’s costumes, Kai Harada’s sound, 59 Studio’s projections, Tom Watson’s hair and wig design.
Music Director James Moore leads the 28-piece orchestra impeccably. And William David Brohn’s Tony Award-winning orchestrations sound as splendid as ever.
(The Vivian Beaumont, 150 W 65th Street; lct.org; through January 4)
Photos by Matthew Murphy
Top: Nichelle Lewis, Joshua Henry
Below: Caissie Levy, Brandon Uranowitz
