Ragtime- Page 3

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 12/26/05 at 5:16am

Ohh yeah I think there was another discussion ealier. Isn't What a Game pretty early in the Act?

[Kass983]

Posted: 12/26/05 at 8:37am

5th song, 2nd act.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/26/05 at 10:48am

Jazzysuite82 --- I stand by my comment that Mother decides to leave her marriage during "Back to Before." It isn't a literal statement made, however. But she isn't turning into a suffragette on the pier in Atlantic City. She has decided to become an independent woman. Independent of her husband and her old-fashioned marriage. She stays behind when he goes back to New York.

"We can never go back to before," is sung directly in response to her relationship with Father. In fact, look at the lyrics again... this entire song is a "break up" soliloquy.

But I suppose, since she doesn't literally say, "I'm leaving my husband," it can be interpreted in other ways.

Updated On: 12/26/05 at 10:48 AM

[GClef2]

Posted: 12/26/05 at 10:53am

In my show-choir revue last year, we sang "Our Children" and the whole auditorium was pitch black and we stood on stage and a slide-show of our baby pictures flashed behind us. It was so beautiful, and all you heard the whole time was the sobs of our mothers. It was one of the most personal moments with the audience i have ever experienced.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 12/26/05 at 11:03am

I always thought one of the points that came out of "What a Game' is not just the changing of Father's Victorian values, but the change of Anglo-Saxon America with the influx of immigrants during the early 1900s. For me, it reinforced Father's bigotry toward all these "less cultured" and "low life" people coming in and changing his very refined and civilzed world.

[CompanyGuy]

Posted: 12/26/05 at 12:05pm

That is also very true, singingwendy. Which just adds to the importance of that song being in the show.
"Back to Before" is very much a marriage-lost song. Mother has grown so much in thw show. First she was the perfect wife, she finds an negro baby, she takes Sarah and the baby in, she helps the courtship of the negroes, meets a Latvian, falls in love with Latvian, her husband dies, marries Tateh, and has a three different racial kids. I mean, get that done in three hours today! (that last paragraph is in context of the show). Mother has to make a choice go back, or press ahead. And she NEEDS to press ahead with or without him. It is Father's decision, but he must learn to adapt.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 7:45am

I'm late to this thread, but I can never keep myself from professing my love of this musical. I was so taken with it just from the Cast Recording, that it inspired me to look more into Ragtime as a style. I wrote a research paper on Ragtime and it's effect on the nation while I was in high school. The only research paper I have ever truly enjoyed writing. I am lucky that there is a local ragtime festival that I can attend every year. I am also waiting for a chance to see Treemonisha.

[Sant]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 8:03am

RAGTIME is one of the most beautiful scores I've ever heard. It has probably the best Act I closing number that I know: "Til We Reach That Day".

I really liked this show even though I had no idea who some of the characters were (Emma Goldman, Booker T. Washington...)

The show should still be on Broadway.

[BwayLeadman]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 8:21am

I am DYING to see Ragtime. I've heard nothing but great things about the music, but I refuse to listen to a recording until I see it (all I've seen was a clip from Broadway's Lost Treasurer). If anyone knows about a production of Ragtime near NYC, please let me know.

[Cages or Wings]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 11:14am

This show is one of my top three without a doubt. What always strikes me about the score is the brilliant subtleties of the music. I think the reason that I love "Back to Before" so much (despite it being an enjoyable song on its own) is something that I heard Stephen Flaherty say in an interview. If you look at Mother's two solo songs "Goodbye My Love" and "Back to Before" they come at the extremes of the show (Very beginning very end). In the first we meet mother as a proper housewife, dependant on her husband wishing him farewell, and the song it self is sung in a very old-fashion, proper, style with no belty-ness (lack of a better word) to be seen. In "back to before" we see Mother has become independant, and changed from old-fashion to a modern woman. This change can be seen in the lyrics, as well as the style of music (i.e. she sings the "modern" broadway belty ballad). This change in musical styles alone represents mother's character arc, and it made me appreciate this show even more than i already did.


p.s. I am sorry if this is an obvious point, it just always impressed me.

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 1/1/06 at 11:18am

I still haven't allowed myself to believe that it has actually closed. I keep hoping against hope that one day they'll just randomly re-open it with the original cast.


One can dream, I suppose.