by Sheila Barth
BOX INFO: Two-act Tony Award-winning musical, based on EL Doctorow’s novel, book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, presented by Wheelock Family Theatre through Feb. 17: Friday, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday, 2 p.m. recommended for ages 10+. 200 Riverway, Boston. 617-353-3001, WFTTix@bu.edu, wheelockfamilytheatre.org.
Attending a Wheelock Family Theatre matinee recently, I wondered how the 31-strong cast, Director Nick Vargas and production crew could make its production of 1998 Tony Award-winning musical, “Ragtime,” family-friendly.
Based on E.L. Doctorow’s stirring novel, with book by Terrence McNally,
“Ragtime” isn’t a happy, tappy, song-and-dance musical. It’s set in the turn of
the 20th century and beyond, when immigrants came here seeking the American
dream, and immigrants, African-Americans, Jews, and others endured poverty,
racism, bigotry, social inequality and more. The 2-1/2-hour play ends on a sad
note, but with hope of a better future. It kinda sounds like today’s searing
headlines, with throngs of dreamers – oppressed, frightened people with the
same hope coming here – but they’re barred from entering our borders, families
separated, and detained in camps.
The play is set in the J.P. Morgan Library, where a young boy (the talented Ben
Choi Harris) selects a book to read, and takes us on a literary journey with
him. The opening number is a robust, ensemble prologue, “Ragtime”, as Music
Director Jon Goldberg and his excellent musicians revive the rhythmic, jazzy
era. The audience-inclusive production sweeps theatergoers into the action,
with actors frequently performing in the aisles, and all around us. The
production also is a vivid, historic snapshot, featuring prominent standouts
like activist Emma Goldman, (portrayed by Nicole Paloma Sarro), who wrote the
famous Statue of Liberty poem; immigrant illusionist-escape artist Harry
Houdini (Brad Foster Reinking); Henry Ford and Admiral Peary (Daniel Forest
Sullivan); Booker T. Washington (a terrific Davron Monroe); and infamous,
shallow songbird-actress Evelyn Nesbitt (Tara Deieso), who was raped at age 15
by her benefactor, architect Stanford White. He was murdered later by her
husband in the “crime of the century”.
There’s a dynamic parallel throughout the play that
eventually comes together in a triumphant love-success story. Tony
Castellanos is touching as an Eastern European-Jewish widower-father immigrant,
Tateh, who proves by working hard and following one’s dream, even a
downtrodden, widowed immigrant can achieve fame, fortune, and love in America. Anthony
Pires Jr. delivers a powerful, yet modulated portrayal of successful,
educated musician-turned-activist Coalhouse Walker, Jr., and Pier Lamia Porter
is marvelously tenderhearted as his ill-fated fiancé, Sarah. Pires and Porter’s
voices blend magnificently in their duet “The Wheels of a Dream,” and Pires’
voice soars in solos, “Gettin’ Ready Rag,” his demand for “Justice,”
”Coalhouse’s Soliloquy,” and his dying plea, “Make Them Hear You”.
Lisa Yuen sensitively portrays Mother, the kindly, white,
middle-class mother-wife of New Rochelle, NY, who’s dependent on her husband,
Father, (Peter Adams) for everything. Later, she’s determined to stand her
ground, taking care of Sarah and her baby boy. She also helps re-unite
Coalhouse with the two. Ever-popular, versatile Boston actor Robert Saoud portrays
Grandfather, and Jonathan Acorn is Mother’s younger brother, whom Nesbit
spurns. He becomes spurred into action, providing avenging Coalhouse with
explosives.
Most of the violence is inferred, not enacted, including when Coalhouse reunites with Sarah and their infant son, and is assailed, insulted and assaulted by ignorant, white firefighters, who destroy his spiffy car. Set designer Lindsay Fuori and props designer Elizabeth Rocha fashioned the car by having Coalhouse climb atop a desk, with a simulated steering wheel placed in his hands. Violence escalates in the second act, with bombings, murders, and more. Attempting to gain justice for Coalhouse, Sarah is stomped on, beaten and killed by a mob gathered to see the president, making his campaign swing through communities. But we don’t see it. We hear the crowd. We see Sarah carried aloft, and laid in her bier. In the end, Mother and her young son find love and happiness with Tateh and his daughter (Marissa Simeqi). This is a first-rate production of an emotional show. See it.
