STAGE TUBE: Backstage with RAGTIME's Savannah Wise on LX New York

Following the closing announcement of Broadway's RAGTIME for January 3, the production was met with public dismay and a swell of strong ticket sales for the closing week.  As previously reported, the producer's have responded to public sentiment by extending the show by a week. The critically acclaimed new production of Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Tony Award® winning musical RAGTIME will now play its final performance on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. following 28 preview and 65 regular performances.

Said producer Kevin McCollum: "We're thrilled and grateful that audiences will have another eight chances to see RAGTIME."

Following a popular debut installment of the talk back series "Ragtime Talk Time," RAGTIME has also announced that Michael Kaiser, President of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, will now be able to fulfill his previously announced hosting engagement this coming Tuesday, January 5 following the 7:00p evening performance.

LX New York recently caught up with one of RAGTIME's stars, Savannah Wise, for a backstage tour of the production.  Check out the clip (and those costumes!) below.

Director/Choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge's production of RAGTIME debuted at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater on April 18, 2009 and played a sold out limited engagement through May 17 before transferring to Broadway where it began previews October 23 and officially opened Sunday, November 15, 2009.

The revival of Ragtime, is a musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel: a complex turn-of-the-20th-century tapestry that weaves together stories of a WASP family, an African-American musician and a Jewish immigrant as they make their way in the new New World.

RAGTIME features a company of 40, starring Ron Bohmer(Father),Quentin Earl Darrington (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Christiane Noll(Mother), Robert Petkoff (Tateh), Bobby Steggert (Mother's Younger Brother), Stephanie Umoh (Sarah), with Christopher Cox (The Little Boy), Sarah Rosenthal (The Little Girl), Mark Aldrich (Willie Conklin),Aaron Galligan-Stierle (Henry Ford), Jonathan Hammond(Harry Houdini), Dan Manning (Grandfather), Michael X. Martin (J.P. Morgan),Mike McGowan (Stanford White), Donna Migliaccio (Emma Goldman),Josh Walden (Harry K. Thaw), Savannah Wise (Evelyn Nesbit), Eric Jordan Young (Booker T. Washington).

RAGTIME also features Sumayya Ali, Terence Archie, Corey Bradley,Jayden Brockington,Benjamin Cook, Carey Rebecca Brown, Jennifer Evans, Carly Hughes, Lisa Karlin, Valisia LeKae, James Moye, TracyLynn Olivera, Mamie Parris, Bryonha Parham, Nicole Powell, Kaylie Rubinaccio, Arbender J. Robinson, Benjamin Schrader, Wallace Smith,Catherine Walker, Jim Weaver, Kylil Christopher Williams.

The production features direction and choreography by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, and a majestic 28-piece orchestra led by musical director James Moore.

RAGTIME originally opened on Broadway on January 18, 1998 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. The musical garnered four Tony Awards® including Best Book, Original Score and Best Orchestrations. The beloved Ahrens and Flaherty score features some of the award-winning team's best-known songs including the title song, "Make Them Hear You" and the anthem "The Wheels of a Dream."

RAGTIME tickets prices are $46.50, $86.50 and $126.50 (including $1.50 facility fee) and available by calling Ticketmaster at 212-307-4100 or visiting www.ticketmaster.com.