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“It was the music of something beginning, an era exploding, a century spinning…”
Ragtime is one of the most underrated musicals of the late twentieth century. With its powerful story, multifaceted characters, and fantastic music, it could easily have been up there with some of Broadway’s longest-running musicals. Sadly, it ran for only two years before leaving the Great White Way. Fortunately, the epic music and amazing performances of the original cast members were captured on this two-disc original Broadway cast recording.
Based on the E. L. Doctorow book of the same name, Ragtime chronicles the interwoven stories of three American families in 1906: one an upper-middle-class, white, Protestant family, one African-American family, and one immigrant Jewish family.
During this era of radical social change, these characters’ lives shift dramatically as they deal with issues of racism, justice, capitalism, poverty, sexism, and (perhaps justified) terrorism over the course of the show. Real historical individuals (including Emma Goldman, Harry Houdini, and J.P. Morgan) interact with the fictional characters throughout the story, and Stephen Flaherty’s musical numbers and score provide an effective backdrop to the action on stage.
One of the highlights of this recording is the opening title number: “Ragtime.” Clocking in at a whopping nine minutes and 25 seconds, this opening number introduces every single primary and secondary character and tells you everything you need to know about them—their station in life, their personalities, their hopes, their dreams, etc.—before the main action begins. And while the 2001 musical Urinetown claimed that nothing can ruin a show more than too much exposition (or a bad title), in the case of Ragtime, it really works. By the time the story actually gets off the ground, you already feel like you know these characters and can somewhat identify with them. Given the complexity of the plot and the sheer number of characters…this is a good thing.
This cast recording is really a “Who’s Who” of top Broadway artists: Marin Mazzie, Marc Jacoby, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Judy Kaye, and Audra McDonald are all giants of the musical theatre world, and their performances alone make this CD worth a listen. In addition, this show contains (in my anything-but-humble opinion) some of the best songs ever written for the stage. Between emotional numbers like “Wheels of a Dream,” “Till We Reach That Day,” and “Make Them Hear You,” it’s not uncommon for me to get a little choked up just listening to this recording.
I wish I could tell you to plan a trip to New York and buy yourself tickets to this wonderful slice of Americana. But since I can’t, I’ll just strongly recommend this cast recording. Ragtime deserved every one of its twelve 1998 Tony nominations (especially its two wins for best score and best orchestrations), so it’s definitely worth checking out.
Music: A+
Performances: A+
Overall: A+
