RAGTIME
ARTISTS
For the original Broadway production of RAGTIME in 1998, Flaherty and Ahrens won the Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and received two Grammy nominations. Following the show’s revival in 2009, LCT’s production will be its third Broadway incarnation and Ahrens' and Flaherty's fifth show at Lincoln Center Theater. The artistic collaborators worked on the animated feature film ANASTASIA, for which they were nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes and which was subsequently adapted for Broadway. Collaborators since 1983, their many mutual credits include SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, ANASTASIA, MY FAVORITE YEAR, and A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Musical).
STEPHEN FLAHERTY (music) and LYNN AHRENS (lyrics)
TERRENCE MCNALLY (book)
McNally (1938 – 2020) was an American playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer, described by The New York Times as “the bard of the American Theater.” One of the few playwrights of his generation to successfully pass from the avant-garde to mainstream acclaim, McNally redefined American playwriting for six decades and was the recipient of five Tony Awards (RAGTIME, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!, MASTER CLASS, and the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement). He received the 2011 Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (Vice President of the Guild from 1981 to 2001), the 2015 Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award, and inductions into the American Theater Hall of Fame (1996) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2018). McNally’s legacy lives on through his final creative act—the Terrence McNally Foundation—which champions early career playwrights and LGBTQ+ causes, as McNally did throughout his life.
Behind the Music: What is Ragtime?
Ragtime is a distinct genre of music created by Black Americans. It first emerged after the Civil War in southern and midwestern U.S. states and was popularized by figures like Tom Turpin, James Scott, and Scott Joplin, known as “The King of Ragtime”. Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” published in 1899, was a big hit at the time and is one of the most famous pieces of ragtime music. Ragtime fell out of popularity in the 1920s but has had a lasting influence on other musical genres like jazz, rock and roll, hip hop, and musical theater.
Ragtime is characterized by its syncopated – or “ragged” – melodies, giving it its signature unpredictability.
Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag"
Musician Jon Batiste plays a mashup of "Survivor" by Destiny's Child and "Maple Leaf Rag"
The musical RAGTIME is based on E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel of the same name. One of the novel's central characters is Coalhouse Walker Jr. Doctorow was inspired by German writer Heinrich von Kleist's 1811 novella titled “Michael Kohlhaas.” Kleist’s novella is set in 16th century Germany and follows a horse dealer who seeks justice after being swindled by a corrupt nobleman. One man’s search for revenge turns into a violent rebellion against the ruling elite, a path that’s echoed in RAGTIME. Kleist based his novella on the real-life Hans Kohlhase, a German merchant who, in 1532, sought vigilante justice after his horses were confiscated by a Saxon nobleman.
From Novella to Novel to Musical
