Ragtime!

Ragtime, the musical David and I saw at Barrington Stage last night, is an exuberant romp through the early twentieth century. The music by Stephen Flaherty, the lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and the book by Terrence McNally all won awards on Broadway and the production, directed by Joe Calarco is energetic and dramatic.

Darnell Abraham

The large cast, headed by Darnell Abraham, J, Anthony Crane, David Harris, Hunter Ryan Herdlicka, Elizabeth Stanley, and Zurin Villanueva is excellent, good actors and good Broadway singers all.

J. Anthony Crane        

It is very difficult to take an entire novel and turn it into a musical play. Opera composers have had to deal with this problem for years. This operatic musical needs pruning. Act One takes nearly an hour and a half. It has a number of big, climatic numbers that made me think the act was over long before it actually was. Act Two was an hour long.

  David Harris

Part of the problem is there are at least three separate story lines that have to be acted and sung involving an upper class white family, a black pianist, his girlfriend, their baby, a Jewish immigrant and his daughter, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, Emma Goldman, Evelyn Nesbit, and practically everyone else from that era. It's difficult to add music to this much story and not take too long.

  Hunter Ryan Herdlicka

The large cast sang with strong, Broadway voices. To this voice teacher, a 'Broadway' voice is one that has a sharp edge and a tendency to sing final high notes with a 'Judy Garland' terminal vibrato, after holding the note with no vibrato whatsoever.


  Elizabeth Stanley

 It is a very good musical that would be better with some editing.

   Zurin Villanueva