Donald Coggin News

Walking into the Music Hall at Fair Park Tuesday night, I was extremely eager to enjoy Ahrens and Flaherty's lavish, Tony Award-winning score in the tour of RAGTIME. Together with Terrence McNally's dynamic script, RAGTIME is celebrated as perhaps one of the greatest book musicals of the past two decades. Unfortunately, in spite of all of its inherent strengths, technical troubles plagued the tour's opening night performance. I left the theatre completely disappointed.

The rich versus the working class. Immigrant crises. Police clashing with rioting African-Americans. Women discovering their independence. Celebrities in your face. Is it 2016 or 1916, and how do you know?

Thursday April 14th, McCain Auditorium of Kansas State University hosted the National tour of Ragtime directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge and produced by Phoenix Entertainment.

Rhode Island audiences, prepare to be dazzled. RAGTIME is - deservedly - one of the most highly acclaimed musicals of the last two decades and the touring production now playing the Providence Performing Arts Center does the show's rich legacy proud.

At the beginning of Act II of Ragtime, Terrence McNally's masterful musical adaptation of E. L. Doctorow's novel, journeyman pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr., decimated by the murder of his beloved Sarah, sings, 'Say goodbye to music / Say goodbye to light.' This sums up my feelings about Theater League's production of Ragtime, which arrived for a brief four-day stay at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on Thursday night. The original 1998 Broadway production won a Tony Award for Best Score, but many patrons who packed the Fred Kavli Theatre on opening night were dismayed to discover that Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's sumptuous, moving songs were being played from pre-recorded synthesized music tracks. Despite superb performances from the entire cast, Theater League's Ragtime suffers greatly from this omission, which was apparently a decision of Phoenix Entertainment, the independent theatrical producing and management enterprise in charge of producing the show.

**Results of the 2015 BroadwayWorld Regional Awards are being audited and posted. Check out the winners that have been announced in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Connecticut, Minneapolis, Wichita, Long Island, Raleigh, Madison, Central PA, West Virginia, Columbus, Chicago, Birmingham, Houston, Delaware, Miami, Portland, Boston, Dallas, Charlotte, Vermont, Seattle, Louisville, Denver, Baltimore, Nashville, Orlando, Boise, Maine, Cleveland, Phoenix, Austin, Philippines, Detroit, and Atlanta.  Don't see your region yet?  Stay tuned... more to come soon!

RAGTIME National Tour at North Carolina Theatre

Director and Choreographer, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, brings a realism to RAGTIME that I have never seen before in musicals.

At the dawn of a new century, everything is changing…and anything is possible.  RAGTIME returns to the road in an all-new touring production that Bloomberg News hails as "explosive, thrilling and nothing short of a masterpiece." North America will be swept away by this ravishing and relevant production, with performances starting Tuesday, October 27 at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas.  BroadwayWorld has as first look at the cast in action below!

NYU Steinhardt's Program in Vocal Performance presents A Man of No Importance, the award-winning musical, this weekend, February 5-9, 2015. The show features book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. John Simpkins directs.

NYU Steinhardt's Program in Vocal Performance today announced it will present A Man of No Importance, the award-winning musical, on February 5-9, 2015. The show features book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. John Simpkins directs.

Joe Iconis and his merry band of musical theater punks were back by popular demand in this seventh annual insane celebration of all things red and green. Featuring brand new holiday songs, old favorites, tiny elves, enormous reindeer, an inebriated Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and an ungodly number of candy canes, it was the happiest holiday hoedown you've ever seen.

James Monroe Iglehart, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Suzanne Vega, Amy Spanger, Chip Zien, and more join The 7th Annual Joe Iconis Christmas Spectacular, presented this weekend, December 19-20, at 54 Below.

James Monroe Iglehart, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Suzanne Vega, Amy Spanger, Chip Zien, and more join The 7th Annual Joe Iconis Christmas Spectacular, presented December 19-20, at 54 Below.

TriArts Sharon Playhouse, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Simpkins and Managing Director Justin Ball, presents William Finn and James Lapine's Tony-winning musical FALSETTOS, running now through July 20. FALSETTOS Original Broadway cast members Michael Rupert, Stephen Bogardus, Chip Zien, Jonathan C. Kaplan, and Heather MacRae attended the Saturday, July 12 performance of 'Falsettos' with a talkback afterwards. Scroll down for production photos and pictures of the Broadway cast!

TriArts Sharon Playhouse, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Simpkins and Managing Director Justin Ball, presents William Finn and James Lapine's Tony-winning musical Falsettos, tongiht, July 11 through the 20th.

TriArts Sharon Playhouse, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Simpkins and Managing Director Justin Ball, has announced casting for William Finn and James Lapine's Tony-winning musical Falsettos, July 11-20.