It’s 1998, and you’re watching Ragtime a lavish and epic musical that takes the scale and scope of the 1980s British mega-musical and filter it through distinctly American voices and material. The expansive narrative focuses on three distinct groups in New York at the turn of the 20th Century—upperclass suburban whites, Eastern European immigrants, and African Americans—along with notable celebrities of the day like Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, and vaudeville star/murderess Evelyn Nesbit. It seems like a lot, but there’s an excellent opening number that explains everything quite clearly. Mother tends the home in New Rochelle. While Father is away on an expedition, mother discovers a black baby buried in her garden, which she learns belongs to a young woman named Sarah. Mother takes in Sarah and her baby, even as she knows her husband would find it unthinkable were he around. When the baby’s father, ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker, hears about Sarah’s condition, he woos her in his new Model T (befriending Mother in the process). Reconciled, the couple and baby take the car on a country picnic and imagine the world of opportunity available to them (“Wheels of a Dream”). As the narrative proceeds, a fire chief initiates a confrontation with Coalhouse and destroys his car. Sarah attends a political rally hoping to appeal to the Vice Presidential candidate, but when someone mistakenly claims she has a gun, the security detail beats her to death. Coalhouse leads a series of violent protests and demonstrations, ultimately dying at the hands of police. In the face of all this tragedy, the musical ends with a reprise of “Wheels of a Dream,” a radical act of hope that the true American dream of liberty and justice for all will prevail…eventually.
Catch up with all the songs to date!
