Review: RAGTIME at Village Theatre

Dear Readers, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad production of “Ragtime” and the current production at Village Theatre is no exception.  That’s not to say it’s bullet proof, I’m sure a bad production has existed somewhere out there, but as long as you understand the heart of the show and more importantly you have killer voices to fill out the roles, then you should be golden.  But why would you do the show if you didn’t have those qualifications?  And the Village production has both in spades. 

With a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and based on the novel from E.L. Doctorow it’s hard to go wrong with this modern classic.  The show looks at early 1900’s America as the lines separating three disparate groups of Americans begins to blur.  There’s the affluent white Americans like our main family, Father, Mother, their son Edgar, Grandfather, and Mother’s Younger Brother (Matthew Posner, Allison Standley, Will Pengelly on the night I saw, Eric Polani Jensen, and Kooper Campbell).  They lead the idyllic American dream.  Then there are the negros such as Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Sarah (Yusef D. Seevers and Jaden Dominique) who strive for that dream of their own but backed by a Ragtime beat.  And finally, the immigrants such as Tateh and his daughter (Jed Resnick and Sawyer Settles) or the activist Emma Goldman (Jasmine Jean Sim) who came to the country for that dream.

The show is certainly one of my favorites.  I wore out the concept album CD and then proceeded to wear out the original cast recording.  I could practically sing the show with them and did mouth along (apologies to my theater companion).  It’s a stunning achievement of a show with not once ounce of superfluous material even with its almost three hour run time.  And don’t get me started on how it was robbed of the Tony Award for Best Musical losing out to that Disney monstrosity.  But as I said, it needs the right cast and crew.

Director Joe Calarco certainly understands the heart of the piece (thanks for making me cry) and managed the unenviable task of staging this large group on a smaller stage.  Aided in that effort with some wonderfully period choreography from Jimmy Shields.  I questioned the set from Christopher J. Mumaw as his attic themed scene made the stage even smaller but, honestly, it worked in the way they chose to convey the story.  Plus, it was gorgeous.  Equally gorgeous were those costumes from Sarita P. Fellows.  And kudos to music supervisors Tim Symons and Sheilah V. Walker for a near flawless sound. 

But it’s this ensemble that truly made it special.  You can do the show with an army or, like here, you can pare it down and have many in the ensemble double and tripling up on the roles, and they handled it beautifully.  And the principals nailed their respective moments with soaring voices.  Seevers and Dominique had everyone tearing up with their stunning vocals and heartbreaking love story.  Standley’s voice rang in the rafters and showed some brilliant acting chops as her character grows the most throughout and she was wonderfully matched with Posner’s stick in the mud Father.  Campbell too brought in some fantastic vocals and character to his dreamer of a Younger Brother.  Sim showed off some fantastic range in a role quite different than what I’m used to from her, and she nailed it.  Resnick turned in one of my favorite performances of the night with his doting father struggling to keep his daughter safe.  And I must call out Zhanea June as Sarah’s friend who lent some soul piercing vocals to the act one closer “Til We Reach That Day”.

The show, from top to bottom, is a solid one.  Stunning vocals in a masterful piece of theater.  And so, with my three-letter rating system, I give Village Theatre’s production of “Ragtime” a heart swelling YAY.  With the current state of our country, it’s important to see a show that shows how far we’ve come, and how far we have not.

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