Could someone please figure out how to hook up Stray Dog Theatre’s new production of Ragtime The Musical to an energy cell? They’re generating enough voltage to keep the lights burning all over south St. Louis with this show.
The musical, based on E. L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel of the same name (and a strong recommendation for that, if you haven’t read it), takes place in the early years of the 20th Century, spinning together the lives of three disparate families. Throw in Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Emma Goldman, Booker T. Washington and that new kind of music known as ragtime, and what have you got?
What you have is like a nuclear reaction, carefully controlled but with immense power. Director Justin Been handles the largest cast in SDT’s history, 26 people, with precision and strength. The blocking alone – think about moving that many people around on the small stage at Tower Grove Abbey – must have kept him up nights. But it works. In fact, it thrills.
An affluent white family lives in the New York suburb of New Rochelle. Father (Phil Leveling) makes patriotic things like fireworks and bunting. Mother (Kay Love) raises The Little Boy (Joe Webb), Mother’s Younger Brother (Jon Bee) lives with them and is the fireworks creator. Mother finds a baby on their doorstep, abandoned, and when the police are called, the cops discover the mother (Evan Addams) hiding in a shed on the property. She’s a young African-American woman who is at first almost mute. The baby’s father is Coalhouse Walker, Jr. (Omega Jones), a pianist who works in Harlem. At the same time, arriving at Ellis Island are the widower Tateh (Jeffrey M. Wright) and The Little Girl, his daughter (Avery Smith).
Someone behind me was puzzled that there wasn’t a story synopsis in the program. It’s not that the story is complicated; it’s just very involved to weave all these people together. The weaving makes a deeply complex pattern, not difficult to figure out but engrossing. More importantly, it’s relevant in a very contemporary way, talking about society and justice and opportunity, the sort of thing that theatre can do so well.
I admit that because I saw this show about two weeks after it opened on Broadway with Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell and a shining authentic Model T Ford onstage, I’m probably fussy about things. But Omega Jones’ Coalhouse Walker is incredible. His acting, his singing, makes this a major performance. Evan Addams’ Sarah, the mother of his childhas a marvelous voice, and pairs it to good effect working with Jones. Kay Love, as Mother, is strong, self-controlled, only her face and hands occasionally signaling her nearly supressed emotions. Her son, Joe Webb, is a delight, not cutesy, but a calm and mostly self-possessed young gentleman.
Tateh, the Yiddish name for “father”, is perhaps the most endearing adult in the play, who warmth and charm Wright evinces in both dialogue and song. Laura Kyro plays Emma Goldman, showing off the proper motherly firebrand Goldman should be. Evelyn Nesbit, here a precursor of the modern-day boopsie, is Angela Bubash, having lots of fun with things.
More kudos? Of course. The set, far more complex than it looks upon entering the theater, is from scenic designer David Blake, who provides lots of levels and passages for the considerable movement. And movement there is, onstage and off-, with even more action than usual in the aisles of the theater, plus Mike Hodges’ choreography. Eileen Engel’s costumes, particularly for the character of Mother, are notable. It’s a fine score from Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, overseen by music director Jennifer Buchheit.
This is not a perfect show – there are a few vocal glitches, and occasionally the sound needed some fine tuning. But Terrence McNally’s script, while not pretending to be historically accurate, reminds us that all Americans, whether newly arrived and full of hope and fear, or those who aren’t of majority groups or even WASPS, belong here and have much to contribute. It’s a rousing, satisfying evening – or afternoon. In fact, it may be the best thing Stray Dog has ever produced. Sales seem good – here’s hoping they will extend the run. (And if this is your first time, be aware parking spots go early and it’s open seating.)
Ragtime The Musical
through August 19, 2017
Stray Dog Theatre
Tower Grove Abbey
2336 Tennessee
314-865-1005