Ragtime Photos - Los Angeles

The White Plains Performing Arts Center is presenting ANASTASIA, playing now through January 7. Get a first look at photos!

Popular Broadway performer Jason Danieley will stage 'Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert with the Boston Pops May 12-13 at Boston's Symphony Hall, and July 8 at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley continues its 51st season with the hit musical Ragtime. This sweeping and stirring musical masterpiece paints a portrait of America at the dawn of the twentieth century, interweaving the lives of three families—an African American family, a Jewish Immigrant family, and a wealthy white family—finding their places and pursuing the American Dream in a rapidly changing world. Featuring a Tony Award-winning book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Terrence McNally (Master Class, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Rink) and a Tony Award-winning score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (Once on This Island, Anastasia, Seussical The Musical), this musical is based on E. L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel of the same name. Ragtime will be presented June 1-26, 2022 (press opening: June 4) at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets (starting at $30) and more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (877)-662-8978.

Live theatre is officially back and Concord Theatricals is celebrating! 'There's No Business Like Show Business' is a digital celebration that launched just last month, marking the return of live theater and all of the incredible people who help to make it happen. The celebration coincides with the 75th anniversary of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun and its iconic showstopper 'There's No Business Like Show Business,' a song that has more resonance than ever this year.

The first clue that ANASTASIA was going to be different than what I expected was a note on the title page reading, “Inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox Motion Pictures.” Plural? A savvy journalist, I quickly asked Siri to bring up the imdb page for “Anastasia”. Turns out Fox made ANASTASIA twice, the 1997 animated off-brand Disney princess movie and a 1957 film that scored Ingrid Bergman's second Oscar and marked Helen Hayes' transition to the big screen. And it turns out the musical version has more in common with LES MISERABLES and RAGTIME than BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Gone is the hell-wizard Rasputin, his talking fruit bat sidekick, and the singing demon caterpillars. At intermission, I asked my third grade niece, Adalyn, how she was liking it. “It's awesome…it's real people, like no Beast or anything. No animals.” We decide that Disney staged musicals are great but more it's more impressive when you can achieve the magic without a story that departs from reality. ANASTASIA is historical fiction hypothetical. It poses a “what if…?” that a daughter of the last czar of Russia (The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna) escaped when the czar's family was executed in 1918. Rumors persisted for decades that Anastasia did, in fact, escape. In 2007, DNA testing confirmed the remains of all four Grand Duchesses were in the Imperial grave. In this version, Terrence McNalley's book follows Anastasia's rediscovery of her identity after surviving the attack on her family and sustaining some plot enabling amnesia. Renamed “Anya” she grows up and makes a life in post-Revolution Russia. Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress (in a staggeringly moving performance by Joy Franz) has fled to France and offered a cash reward for anyone escorting the rumored alive Anastasia to Paris. The wily duo Vlad (Edward Staudenmayer) and Dmitry (Jake Levy) pull a My Fair Lady style makeover on Anya to collect the Dowager's prize. They are pursued by Gleb (Jason Michael Evans). A Soviet officer drawn to Anya romantically but tasked with finding and eliminating the last Romanov. Anya's memory becomes somewhat coaxed back, but the Dowager has stopped seeing Anastasia claimants after too much heart-break from countless frauds. It sounds dark, but with high-tech digital scenery and inspired performances across the cast it is delightful. Stephen Flaherty (Music) and Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics), responsible for bringing us RAGTIME, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, LUCKY STIFF, as well as the Oscar nominated songs carried over from the animated film. ANASTASIA is a perfect context for this pair. “Stay, I Pray You” (my favorite song of the evening) is evocative of RAGTIME's “New Music”. The two songs literally race my heart in a strangely specific way. My real test of a National Tour at Gammage is how fast I get the music playing in my car on the way home. At ANASTASIA I was already finding, “Stay, I Pray You” walking through the parking lot. The rest of the score is similarly haunting. Lila Coogan, as Anya/Anastasia, powers through the score with nuance, clarity, and passion. Tari Kelly, as Countess Lily, and Stadenmayer (Vlad) were Adalyn's favorite performances and I have to agree. This incredibly gifted pair take the “triple threat” designation (singer, dancer, actor) and go quadruple with the addition of flawless comic timing. The choreography by Peggy Hickey is masterful. It somehow combines inventive and traditional throughout and the ten-minute slice of “Swan Lake” infused into “Quartet at the Ballet” is the highlight of the second act. It's a fun-size version that gets an under-represented art form onto the plate. This kind of trope often means the plot putting the plot on hold. But here, it is the connective tissue between Anya, Dmitry, the Dowager, and Gleb as they each bring us up to speed heading into the show's climax. Ultimately, the show's success comes from applying a higher artistic standard to the “previously-animated-film-now-theatrically-staged” genre. It cashes in on the name draw of the 1997 film then gives the viewer something much more enriched than what they think they are coming to see.

Long Island's newest year-round professional theatrical venue, The Argyle Theatre presents the hit Broadway musical The Full Monty with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Terrence McNally, based on the 1997 film of the same name. Performances began September 12, 2019 for a limited engagement through Sunday afternoon, October 20, 2019 at The Argyle Theatre (34 West Main Street, Babylon, Long Island). Opening Night is Saturday evening, September 14, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. The Full Monty is sponsored by The Post Office Café (Babylon). Presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).

Long Island's newest year-round professional theatrical venue, The Argyle Theatre presents the hit Broadway musical The Full Monty with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Terrence McNally, based on the 1997 film of the same name. Performances began September 12, 2019 for a limited engagement through Sunday afternoon, October 20, 2019 at The Argyle Theatre (34 West Main Street, Babylon, Long Island). Opening Night is Saturday evening, September 14, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. The Full Monty is sponsored by The Post Office Café (Babylon). Presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).

There's a fairly good chance that Lynn Ahrens wrote one of your favorite songs. Over the past few decades, she's written songs for beloved titles such as Schoolhouse Rock, Anastasia, Once on This Island, Seussical, and Ragtime. Alongside longtime collaborator Stephen Flaherty, she's been part of pretty much every theatre lover's life.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley kicks off its 48th season with the World Premiere of The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga. Drawn from one of the first ever graphic novels, set to an infectious ragtime and vaudeville score by local composer/lyricist Min Kahng, the comic musical follows four Japanese immigrants in a world of possibility and prejudice: turn-of-the-twentieth-century San Francisco. From a tumultuous earthquake to an exhilarating World's Fair, the quartet pursues the American Dream, despite limited options in the land of opportunity. Directed by TheatreWorks Associate Artistic Director Leslie Martinson, and developed at TheatreWorks' 2016 New Works Festival, the World Premiere ofThe Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga will be presented July 12-August 6, 2017 (press opening: July 15) at Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For tickets ($40-$100) and more information the public may visitTheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

The Original Broadway Cast Recording of the new musical Anastasia is now available, and the cast just celebrated its release at Barnes & Noble! ANASTASIA features a lush, original score from Tony Award winners Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics). The score also includes several of the most beloved songs from the 1997 animated film, adapted for the stage. The 75-minute album will include the Academy Award nominated favorite 'Journey to the Past' alongside new numbers from the show such as Christy Altomare's haunting 'In My Dreams,' Ramin Karimloo's passionate 'Still' and Derek Klena's heart-racing 'My Petersburg.'

What started as a 1997 animated movie with music by composers Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens is now a full-blown Broadway musical that's been twenty years in the making. Last night, Anastasia opened at the Broadhurst Theatre, and after the curtain came down, the company celebrated at the Marriott Marquis. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the special night and we're taking you inside the after party below!

Below, BroadwayWorld sends a fond farewell to those who passed away in 2015.

Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, have extended THE SOUND OF MUSIC, the Tony Award and Academy Award-winning musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, through January 8, 2012 due to popular demand. The production opened October 27. A captivating love story featuring some of Broadway's most popular music, THE SOUND OF MUSIC is directed and choreographed by multi-Jeff Award winner Rachel Rockwell (Sweeney Todd, Ragtime and Miss Saigon at Drury Lane Theatre), who was named 'Best Director' by Chicago Magazine in 2010. THE SOUND OF MUSIC features an all-star cast led by five-time Jeff Award nominee Larry Adams as 'Captain von Trapp' (the Broadway production and National Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, Drury Lane Theatre's Ragtime and The Music Man, and The Merry Widow at The Lyric Opera of Chicago), Tony Award-nominee Patti Cohenour as 'Mother Abbess' ('Mother Abbess' in the 1997 Broadway revival of The Sound of Music, 'Christine' in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, and The Light in the Piazza at the Lincoln Center) and introducing Jennifer Blood as 'Maria' (Falling for Eve Off-Broadway).

Last night, February 14, Town Hall continued its 'Broadway by the Year' series with the Musicals of 1921, licking off the series 90th anniversary season. Written, created and hosted by Scott Siegel, the cast featured Erin Davie (A Little Night Music), Stephen Mo Hanan (Cats) Kevin Earley (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Liz Lark-Brown (2011 Nightlife Award Winner), Tony Award nominees Bobby Steggert (Ragtime), Kate Baldwin (Finian's Rainbow), Jeffry Denman (Drama Desk Nominee, Yank!), Erin Denman (42nd Street), and KendRick Jones (The Scottsboro Boys). Also featured were the 10 'Siegfeld' Follies Girls that will help recreate the look and style of a Broadway that existed 90 years ago, the year when Town Hall, itself, was built. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the concert and brings you photo coverage below.

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director) and 1113 Productions (Steven Ullman, Executive Producer) announced casting for the World Premiere of FALLING FOR EVE, a new musical with book by two-time Tony Award- nominee (and recent two-time Outer Critics Circle Award-winner) Joe DiPietro (MEMPHIS), music by Bret Simmons ('The Megan Mullally Show') and lyrics by David Howard ('Galaxy Quest'). Performances begin July 6th, 2010 with an official opening set for July 15th at The York Theatre at Saint Peter's. The cast of Falling for Eve features Jennifer Blood (LIKE YOU LIKE IT at the Gallery Players) Krystal Joy Brown (HAIR), Nehal Joshi (LES MISERABLES), Adam Kantor (NEXT TO NORMAL, RENT), Jose Llana (SPELLING BEE, FLOWER DRUM SONG) and Sasha Sloan (RAGTIME, The Kennedy Center).

The Classic Stage Company production of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest,' starring Tony Award winner Mandy Patinkin, opens Thursday, September 18 at Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street.