With Ragtime raking in receipts at the Ford Center on Broadway, attention has already turned to the show's touring plans. The musical will open at the National Theatre in Washington DC, April 26, after beginning previews there April 14. Tickets went on sale Jan. 26.
Following its Washington engagement, the tour will travel to Denver (August) and then Minneapolis. For DC tickets ($25-$75) call (800) 447 7400. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles company will travel to Vancouver and then (Oct. 27) Chicago's newly-reconstructed Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre.
Starring in the DC touring company will be Alton Fitzgerald White, who played Coalhouse Walker Jr. in the Toronto company. Other Broadway credits include Miss Saigon and Tommy.
Tateh will be played by Tony-winner Michael Rupert (Sweet Charity). Rupert, also Tony nominated for Falsettos and The Happy Time, recently turned to directing Off-Broadway (The Lunch Anxieties). Cris Groenendaal, an original Phantom of the Opera cast-member, will play Father.
Also in the cast are Rebecca Eichenberger (A Grand Night For Singing) as Mother, Darlesia Cearcy (The Goodbye Girl) as Sarah, Bernie Yvon as Houdini, Allan Louis as Booker T. Washington, Melissa Dye as Evelyn Nesbitt, Aloysius Gigl as Younger Brother and Teresa Tova as Emma Goldman. *
As for the company now in L.A., Garth Drabinsky, C.E.O. of Livent Inc, announced Mar. 2 that the old Oriental Theatre, one of the jewels in the North Loop theater complex, will reopen this fall with Ragtime and a new name: "The Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre."
Formerly a vaudeville house and Balaban and Katz movie palace, the grand old Oriental had fallen into disrepair since the late 1970s. The theatre has much renovation still to undergo, financed in part by a $17 million grant from the City of Chicago.
Its most interesting aspect is the annexation of an adjoining landmark building, whose carefully excavated innards will supply an additional depth of 30 feet to the Ford's capacious 118-foot wide stage.
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Ragtime, an epic musical about the dreams and realities of early 20th century America, opened on Broadway Jan. 18. Many theatregoers already own the Grammy-nominated, 1996 concept recording of "Songs from Ragtime, The Musical" on RCA Victor. RCA recorded the Broadway cast, with plans for a 2-disc set to be released Ap. 28 (delayed from the previously-announced Apr. 7).
Jay David Saks is producing, with James Nichols serving as recording engineer at the Hit Factory on West 54th St. The recording session is the first in a long-term deal between RCA Victor and Livent.
With music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and a book by Terrence McNally, Broadway's Ragtime plays at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, a brand new $22.5 million theatre built on the formerly blighted West 42nd Street expressly for this production. It stands on the site of two classic Broadway houses, the Lyric and the Apollo, which were demolished, but architectural details of which were incorporated into the new theatre.
Based on the novel of the same name by E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime underwent a two-year gestation under the auspices of Toronto mogul Drabinsky. The show opened in Toronto in Dec. 1996 and then in Los Angeles in June 1997, winning top theatre awards in both cities.
Playbill On-Line has traced the show's development since 1995. Here are a few of the stories we're posted with more details on the show:
Team Puts Final Touches on Broadway Ragtime
Ragtime Wins a Record 8 L.A. Ovation Awards
Ahrens and Flaherty Talk About Their Ragtime Experience
Preparing Ragtime for the Big Time
Ragtime a "Defining Moment" for Brian Stokes Mitchell
Playbill Critics Circle: Your Reviews of the Ragtime CD
Ragtime Sheet Music Now on Sale
Playbill Critics Circle: Your Toronto Ragtime Reviews
Ragtime Tinkers in Toronto With L.A. and B'way in Mind
Report From the Ragtime Workshop
Ragtime is directed by Tony winner Frank Galati (The Grapes of Wrath) of Chicago. Choreography is by Graciela Daniele, who staged Ahrens & Flaherty's Broadway musical Once on This Island. Ahrens & Flaherty also wrote My Favorite Year and Lucky Stiff for the stage, and the score for the animated film Anastasia, which opened in November 1997.
Librettist McNally wrote Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Lisbon Traviata and many other plays. Like the novel, his book mixes fictional characters and historical ones in telling the story of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a black man who buys a Model T Ford, setting off a chain of events that involve the highest and lowest levels of New York City society -- along with magician Harry Houdini, industrialist Henry Ford, celebrity Evelyn Nesbit, black leader Booker T. Washington, architect Sanford White, revolutionary Emma Goldman, Admiral Peary, a Latvian immigrant who becomes a movie director, and a not-so-quiet family in suburban New Rochelle, N.Y. All are characters in the sweeping musical.
The Broadway production features nearly the entire original Toronto cast, including two-time Tony-winner Audra McDonald (Carousel and Master Class) as Sarah, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Marin Mazzie as Mother. Mitchell starred in Ragtime's U.S. premiere in Los Angeles, as well as in McNally's Kiss, which was produced by Livent. McDonald won a Tony for her appearance in McNally's Master Class. Mazzie appeared in Stephen Sondheim's Passion.
The Broadway production also features stars Mark Jacoby (Livent's Show Boat) as Father, Steven Sutcliffe as Mother's Younger Brother, Peter Friedman as Tateh, Judy Kaye as Emma Goldman, Jim Corti as Harry Houdini, Lynette Perry (Grand Hotel) as Evelyn Nesbit, Tommy Hollis as Booker T. Washington, Larry Daggett as Henry Ford.
Many of these voices can be heard on a "Songs of Ragtime" recording released in 1996. Not all the songs from that CD are heard on Broadway ("Showbiz" was cut.) A booklet of sheet music from the show has also been published.
The 32-song score includes "Wheels of a Dream," "Gliding," "Back To Before," "Sarah Brown Eyes," "Buffalo Nickel Photoplay Inc.," "Crime of the Century," "Make Them Hear You" and the title number.
The production also carries Broadway ticket prices to new highs. Regular orchestra seats will cost $76, one dollar higher than the current top of $75 at some shows on Saturday nights. However, new VIP seating, which gives the ticket holder special services and privileges, go for $125. Tickets in other parts of the theatre and other nights range as low as $31. Tickets for the Broadway production are on sale at (212) 307-4100.
The $125 "VIP Suite Service" gets the buyer a center orchestra seat, a souvenir program, private washroom facilities, complementary beverages, coat and parcel check, a light snack, and access to a special VIP s lounge in the theatre's basement.
Mary Bryant, spokesperson for Canada-based producer, Livent Inc., said 50 of the VIP tickets are available at each performance. Those looking for a bargain can get the VIP Suite Service for $115 per person at Wednesday matinees. This VIP Suite service (available Dec. 26-May 3) has already been instituted by Livent at Toronto's Pantages Theatre and other Canadian venues.
The VIP Suite Service tickets recall the private suites becoming available at many sports arenas, though no special booths for the actual seats at Livent's 42nd Street Ford Performing Arts Center are proposed.
Bryant said 50 cents of the extra dollar goes to the 42nd Street Development Project and 50 cents goes "to keep the theatre up." Radio City Music Hall instituted a similar $1 surcharge during the 1996-97 season.
