Le monde des musicals

Set in the turn-of-the-20th century America, RAGTIME is the epric story of three very different families whose lives become dramatically intertwined . Chronicles of the journeys of a black man, a Jewish immigrant and an upper class family as they struggle to find their places in a rapidly changing America.

Original Broadway production
The musical had its world premiere in Toronto, where it opened at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts (later renamed the Toronto Centre for the Arts) on December 8, 1996, the brainchild of Canadian impresario Garth Drabinsky and his Livent Inc., the Toronto-production company he headed. The show had a pre-Broadway tryout in Los Angeles before opening on Broadway on January 18, 1998 as the first production in the newly renovated Ford Center for the Performing Arts (since renamed the Hilton Theatre, and now the Foxwoods Theatre). Directed by Frank Galati and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, Ragtime ran for two years, closing on January 16, 2000, after 834 performances. The original cast included Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, Peter Friedman and Audra McDonald, who were all nominated for Tony Awards, and also included Judy Kaye, Mark Jacoby and Lea Michele.

The production received mixed reviews, many critics noting that the dazzling production (with an $11 million budget, including fireworks and a working Model T automobile) overshadowed problems in the script. Ben Brantley's review in the New York Times was headlined "A diorama with nostalgia rampant." It led the 1998 Tony Awards with thirteen Tony Award nominations, but the Disney's The Lion King won as Best Musical. The musical won awards for Best Featured Actress (McDonald), Original Score, Book, and Orchestrations. According to The New York Times, "The chief competition for The Lion King was Ragtime, a lavish musical." The New York Times also noted that "The season was an artistic success as well, creating one of the most competitive Tony contests in years, with a battle in almost every category capped by the titanic struggle for the best musical award between Ragtime with 13 nominations and The Lion King with 11." The Broadway production was not financially successful, and some Broadway insiders consider its lavish production to have been the financial "undoing" of Livent.

2003 West End production
Following its European premiere in a concert performance at the Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theatre in 2002 (Which was later telecast on BBC Four), the musical was produced in the West End, London, by Sonia Friedman at the Piccadilly Theatre from 19 March 2003 - 14 June 2003. This production starred Maria Friedman in the role of Mother, for which she won the 2004 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

2009 Broadway revival
A new production opened at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, on April 18, 2009, and ran through May 17, 2009, with direction and choreography by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. The production then moved to Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre, with previews beganning on October 23, 2009 and the show officially opened on November 15, 2009. The cast featured Stephanie Umoh (Sarah), Quentin Earl Darrington (Coalhouse Walker, Jr.), Christiane Noll (Mother), Robert Petkoff (Tateh), Bobby Steggert (Younger Brother), Donna Migliaccio (Emma Goldman) and Ron Bohmer (Father). The production was directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. This was the first Broadway revival of the musical and the first Broadway revival of any 1990s musical. The production opened to critical acclaim but closed on January 10, 2010 after 28 previews and 65 performances. This production had a large cast and orchestra, resulting in a significant weekly running cost that demanded the show be a popular success in order to prove financially worthwhile. "There had been rumors in recent weeks that the show would not be able to survive into early 2010; there was apparently not enough of an advance sale to encourage the producers." Despite the closing, the production received seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of Musical, Best Direction, Best Actress in Musical, and Best Featured Actor in a Musical. One nomination, for Costume Design, was withdrawn.

Act I
Prologue: Ragtime – Company
"Goodbye, My Love" – Mother
"Journey On" – Tateh, Mother and Father
"The Crime of the Century" ‡ – Evelyn Nesbit and Company
"What Kind of Woman" – Mother
"A Shtetl iz Amereke" – Company
"Success" – Tateh, J.P. Morgan, Harry Houdini and Company
"His Name Was Coalhouse Walker" – Coalhouse and Company
"Gettin' Ready Rag" – Coalhouse and Company
"Henry Ford" ‡ – Henry Ford, Coalhouse and Company
"Nothing Like the City" – Tateh, Little Girl, Mother and Little Boy
"Your Daddy's Son" – Sarah
"The Courtship" – Mother and Company
"New Music" – Mother, Father, Younger Brother, Coalhouse and Sarah
"Wheels of a Dream" – Coalhouse and Sarah
"The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square" ‡ – Emma Goldman, Younger Brother and Company
"Gliding" – Tateh
"The Trashing of the Car" – Orchestra
"Justice" – Coalhouse and Company
"President" – Sarah
"Till We Reach That Day" – Company

Act II
Entr'acte – Orchestra
"Harry Houdini, Master Escapist" ≠ – Harry Houdini and Little Boy
"Coalhouse's Soliloquy" – Coalhouse
"Coalhouse Demands" – Booker T. Washington and Company
"What a Game" – Father, Little Boy and Company
"Fire in the City" – Orchestra
"Atlantic City" ‡ – 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 Company
"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) – Coalhouse, Sarah and Company

‡ shortened in the 2009 revival
≠ excised from the 2009 revival

Father
Mother
Mother's Younger Brother
Grandfather
Little Boy (Edgar)

Tateh
Little Girl

Coalhouse Walker, Jr.
Sarah

Evelyn Nesbit*
Harry Houdini*
Henry Ford*
Sarah's Friend
J.P. Morgan*
Booker T. Washington*
Willy Conklin
Emma Goldman*
Stanford White*
Harry K. Thaw*
Robert Peary*

*Historical Characters

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Ragtime

Instrumentation
Ragtime requires a large instrumentation of around 20 or so people. The original Broadway production had twenty-six musicians. The instrumentation requires three keyboards, a bass player, drums and percussion (with drums doubling on the second percussion part), banjo doubling on guitars, two trumpets, two horns, trombone and bass trombone, tuba, four woodwind players, and strings. The first woodwind player doubles on flute and piccolo, second woodwind player doubles English horn and oboe, third on B-flat and E-flat clarinet, and fourth on bass clarinet, clarinet, flute, and soprano sax. The first trumpet part also doubles on flugelhorn and piccolo trumpet. In the original West End production, the fourth woodwind part and bass trombone parts were removed. The 2009 revival switched the doublings for the second and fourth woodwind parts. The fourth woodwind part in the original Broadway production had doublings for flute, bass clarinet, soprano sax, and alto sax.