Theater: Ragtime

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Ragtime

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Ragtime is a musical based on E.L. Doctorow's distinguished novel which unfolds in such unique settings like Ellis Island, Broadway, Harlem, Penn Station, Atlantic City and Manhattan's Lower East Side. The story is interwoven with major historic events of the time. The crux of Ragtime is the story of three remarkable families: one upper-middle class, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, one socialist immigrant Jewish, and one Harlem Black whose lives have become dramatically intertwined with one another and with the historical characters and events of the period.

Ragtime provides theater audiences with a rich musical congregation of the American experience. It is a gorgeous spectacle that nevertheless manages a look of simplicity. It packs enough entertainment value and treads closely enough to E.L. Doctorow's novel to be the sort of show that attracts audiences from a diverse social strata. It chronicles different lifestyles of those blessed - and not blessed - with the American dream's fulfillment.

Coalhouse Walker Jr. is a fiery black piano man who demands retribution when his Model T is destroyed by a mob of white troublemakers. Walker's love interest is a young girl named Sarah who has been taken in by a WASP family ruled by "Father," a patriarchal figure who dominates his household with his overbearing presence. Tateh is a Jewish immigrant who unwittingly finds himself involved in the birth of the motion picture industry after inventing a flip book for his daughter.

The Jewish immigrants' and the black man's struggles are sometimes shocking and well presented. The musical doesn't make one feel ashamed but it does raise issues of how far the world has come and how far it has to go. Ragtime takes us back in the pages of time, it allows us the liberty to look into the lives of these characters in a turn-of-the-century America. The play also features historical figures like Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford.

The great thing about this show is that it so entertaining and enjoyable. If you miss it you'll regret it! Contact your on line ticket vendor and get the tickets.