Ragtime is a story of historical past repeating itself. The musical facilities on figures from three communities — Black People, immigrants and higher class whites — in New York on the daybreak of the twentieth century and what the American dream means to them as they intersect and, at occasions, conflict. Firm members from the Tony-nominated, Lincoln Middle Theater revival cease by the Tiny Desk to share a little bit of that American dream.
The musical by Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty addresses the fraught matters of racial injustice, staff’ rights, immigration, ladies’s autonomy, technological innovation, superstar worship and capitalism. Furthermore, Ragtime explores the complexities of affection, household, and neighborhood and what we owe one another. For a musical set within the early 1900s, these themes nonetheless ring loudly.
The journey into this present begins with “New Music,” a music that marks the monumental change that the present’s solid of characters face. Caissie Levy and Brandon Uranowitz’s efficiency of “Our Kids” is a captivating, parental reflection on the innocence of youth. Joshua Henry’s heat and enveloping voice completely compliments Nichelle Lewis’ candy tone as their characters Coalhouse and Sarah think about a brilliant future with their son in “Wheels of a Dream.” In “Journey On,” Colin Donnell, Uranowitz and Levy current very totally different relationships to America: one departing with a privileged ardour for exploration, one settled in a cage of consolation, and one arriving with hope for higher. As he performs “Make Them Hear You,” the present’s name to motion, Henry implores: “Exit and inform our story.” That story isn’t just of the precise story of those characters or this musical, however of what they signify and what we will be taught from them.
SET LIST
- “New Music”
- “Our Kids”
- “Wheels of a Dream”
- “Journey On”
- “Make Them Hear You”
MUSICIANS
- Joshua Henry: vocals
- Caissie Levy: vocals
- Brandon Uranowitz: vocals
- Colin Donnell: vocals
- Nichelle Lewis: vocals
- Ben Levi Ross: vocals
- Danny Percefull: piano
- Eric B. Davis: guitar
- Chala Yancy: violin
- Epongue Ekille: violin
- Tia Allen: viola
- Laura Bontrager: cello
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Mitra I. Arthur
- Director/Editor: Kara Body
- Audio Director/Combine: Josh Newell
- Host/Sequence Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Kara Body, Joshua Bryant, Elizabeth Gillis, Grace Raver
- Audio Engineer: Tiffany Vera Castro
- Manufacturing Assistant: Alina Edwards
- Tiny Desk Workforce: Maia Stern, Ashley Pointer
- Sequence Editor: Lars Gotrich
- Government Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Government Director: Sonali Mehta
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton
