Ragtime – 14 May 2026

When I saw Ragtime at Encores last season, I was, to put it mildly, super disappointed. The performance felt rushed and utterly devoid of nuance—but then again, the Encores rehearsal schedule is tough and people don’t have much time to really sit with their characters. Though aesthetically almost identical, this same cast, now on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, delivered a very different performance that really blew me away this time around. The clear hero of this production is director Lear DeBassonet, who infuses a sense of drive and purpose that lets this incredible score soar.

Ragtime is about one family that formed out of distinct oppressed groups in the early 1900’s: African Americans, immigrants, and women. Despite its criticism of America, this play is deeply patriotic in the way it shows the fabric of our country as a place of chaos, uncertainty, and injustice while also being a place of changing ideas, innovation, and possibility. Joshua Henry, Brandon Uranowitz, Caissie Levy, Nichelle Lewis, Ben Levi Ross, and others give truly commendable performances. Part of what made this production work is the vocal sculpting of each song. Rather than sing every moment in the loudest, proudest belt they can muster, the actors were directed to start somewhere and find places to build in nuance and progressively freer singing until they reached their most impressive peaks. Those peaks meant infinitely more with these dynamically sculpted performances. They even used this technique in the finale of the production, using quiet moments to keep the audience at the edge of their seats.

Everyone’s costumes (Linda Cho) were color coded to show which groups they were a part of with individual flair, and costuming was key to keeping track of the many, many characters that make this slice of life musical so impactful. One element of this production that is working against its success is the scenic design (David Korins). There’s no nice way to say it—the scenic design looks phoned in. Some of the background drops and images look like Google Pixel home screens. There are only two beautiful scenic moments—the storm when the white fabric sheet first comes out, and the moment when an American flag is projected onto aforementioned sheet right before it is removed from the set. The rest of the scenic design was dreadfully disappointing. Lighting (Adam Honore, Donald Holder) made an effort, and was beautiful from the mezzanine. The precision involved in the scene where Coalhouse (Joshua Henry) dances with his deceased lover Sarah (Nichelle Lewis) was a chillingly brilliant lighting feat I’ll not soon forget.

Message wise, Ragtime is about shared humanity, and this production moved me to tears. In today’s troubled times where we are regressing on civil rights, it’s more important now than ever to, “make them hear you.” And this production definitely did.

I did not attend this performance on a press pass.