"Ragtime, the Tony Award-winning musical that fans say got a too-short Broadway run after its 1998 launch- in the same season as The Lion King- is coming back to the Great White Way.
The news has been buzzed about for weeks, and on July 1 producers made it official: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' recent all-new and critically acclaimed production of Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Ragtime, based on the E.L. Doctorow novel, featuring direction and choreography by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, will begin Broadway previews Oct. 23 at the Neil Simon Theatre. Opening is Nov. 15.
Casting and ticketing information will be announced soon. Members of the Kennedy Center company will likely be offered their roles again.
Ragtime will be produced on Broadway by Kevin McCollum, Roy Furman, Roger Berlind, Max Cooper, Tom Kirdahy/Devlin Elliott, Jeffrey Sine, Scott Delman, Roy Miller, LAMS Productions, Inc., Wendy Federman, Emanuel Azenberg in association with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Milgrom Dodge's production debuted at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater on April 18 and played a popular limited engagement through May 17, 2009..."
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Huh. I would be really excited if they had waited another ten years or so. I'm not sure they're going to get much mileage out of this, especially once Addam's Family and Spiderman open.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
I am excited to see this show for the first time, but I think the NIGHT MUSIC revival is going to have more buzz and excitement surrounding it. It's been 36 years.
Actually I have a question, has there ever been a situation like this where a show gets revived while the original production of the show it lost the Tony to (i.e. Lion King) was still running? Seems like a fairly unique situation.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Ugh, one of my favorite shows (Hairspray) moves out and one of the worst theatrical experiences I've ever witnessed (Ragtime) moves in? The magic of the Neil Simon will be gone.
I'm glad this is coming back to Broadway. (It won't ever compare to the original though - Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell on the same stage!)
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
As it stands, this is the only show I'm looking forward to next season.
I think 9 years is a reasonable time before a revival. Shows used to be revived after only 3 or 4 years. Ragtime has only gained more appreciation since the original run, and as many commented in DC, the story is very fitting for our time, in a way that wasn't true in 1998.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never
knowing how