Elizabeth Stanley as Mother in "Ragtime" at Barrington Stage Company. I had fears that staging “Ragtime” in an attic would lessen its scope, but while some of the scenes lose weight - the racist destruction of Coalhouse’s car - the net effect of Brian Prather’s scenic design, is to sharpen the focus. Cohen fills the 520-seat theater like one twice its size, but director Calarco’s great accomplishment is to push the characters’ stories to the front. How wrong they were - and the Barrington staging sets the record straight. (Hi there, Adam Guettel.) The idea of centering the musical on a WASP, a Jew and black man from the book enabled Flaherty, Ahrens and McNally to focus on these three groups as emblematic of America’s changing ethnicity, and changing rhythms.įlaherty’s melodies soared like none since the golden age of musicals, leading some to mistakenly cavil that these were empty anthems. Doctorow’s masterful traversal of the early part of the 20th century came at the end of the millennium and was a melodic shot in the arm to a genre that had fallen into post-Sondheim musical doodling. The other actors congregate onstage and before you can say Harry Houdini, a musical breaks out.Īnd what a musical. The handsome African-American sits down at the piano and starts playing the opening chords of “Ragtime,” a la his soon-to-be persona, Coalhouse Walker. The light-hearted bearded guy becomes the woebegone Jewish immigrant, Tateh. The blonde woman in jeans gets into the corseted confinement of the open-minded if confused blue-blood, Mother. They then start donning the costumes they find there and morph into the musicals’ characters. It seems as timely as last year’s production that also touched on Black Lives Matter issues, “ American Son.” Zurin Villanueva as Sarah and Darnell Abraham as Coalhouse Walker in "Ragtime." (Courtesy of Daniel Rader/Barrington Stage)īarrington's “Ragtime” begins with a group of contemporary characters climbing into an attic, where they find memorabilia from their ancestors’ lives.
In this production, however, it’s director Joe Calarco, who goes beyond the predictable touchstones of ethnicity in the play to something more profound. And it has much to do with how the musical so neatly, if grotesquely, intersects with issues of immigration and Black Lives Matter. That “Ragtime” seems more relevant today than ever has something to do with the original, talented creative team - Terrence McNally (book), Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (lyrics) - all working at the top of their estimable games. If the new Barrington Stage version doesn’t improve on perfection it comes close enough for any lover of musical theater. (The New Rep trio of “Ragtime” women - Leigh Barrett, Stephanie Umoh and Aimee Doherty - lives on in the memory’s pantheon.) What do you do with a Broadway show of more recent vintage like “ Ragtime,” which debuted in 1996 with the perfect cast of Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie? There has already been a Broadway revival and it’s been a staple of several regional productions, including those at the New Repertory Theatre and North Shore Music Theatre. Well, actually, it is a bit of surprise since “Ragtime” did not seem to be in need of the rethinking that BSC had given “ Cabaret” and “ On the Town.” So it’s no surprise that its new production of “Ragtime” ( through July 15) is a stunner. (McPherson's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's "The Birds" is playing there now. Germain has had a number of his plays produced here and they named the second stage after him.
“Spelling Bee” co-creator William Finn (“Falsettos”) liked Boyd and the Berkshires so much that he joined up with BSC and now holds court at Mr.
By the turn of the millennium, musicals that began life at Barrington were transferring to Broadway - “ The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and “ On the Town.” In 2005 the company restored an old vaudeville theater in Pittsfield and then added two smaller spaces down the street. Both were better than Broadway revivals that followed a couple of years later. Two of their early productions, “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Cabaret,” transferred to Eastern Mass. Wherever they've performed, though, the quality was Grade A from the start. Now they’re the toast of Pittsfield, helping to lead the artistic revitalization of this less tony neighbor of Lenox, Stockbridge and Williamstown. The Barrington Stage Company has come a long way since Julianne Boyd founded the company in 1994, when its mainstage was a high school auditorium in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Anthony Crane (center) as Tateh and the cast of "Ragtime." (Courtesy of Daniel Rader/Barrington Stage)
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