Ragtime musical songs6/23/2023 Key for the production was casting the leading role of ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. Shakespeare Festival production of ‘Ragtime.’ sings ‘Wheels of a Dream’ with the strong-willed mother of his child, Sarah, played by Destinee Rea, in the Pa. When Doctorow wrote the title for the novel, I think he was thinking about that music epitomizing that era of massive societal change.” “We hear every style of ragtime music, from wonderful dances to hymns to soaring anthems to plaintive lullabies,” Razze says. The songs in “Ragtime” the musical go beyond tunes from a film soundtrack. Ragtime music enjoyed a revival in the early 1970s after the blockbuster movie “The Sting” (starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford) used Scott Joplin’s songs such as “The Entertainer” and “Maple Leaf Rag” in its score. And they’re all based around the style of ragtime music.” “I like to say it’s an embarrassment of riches because there are so many good songs in it that will stick with you. “I think it’s one of the best musical scores that has been written in the last 25 years,” Razze says. The show premiered on Broadway in 1998, garnering 13 Tony nominations and winning best book, best score, best orchestration and best featured actress in a musical for Audra McDonald. It has also meant finding the right voices to do justice to Stephen Flaherty’s score. “The scope is large and cinematic, so it’s really challenging me as a director in terms of how to tell a story clearly that has so much complexity in it.” “I find myself in rehearsal every night staging massive protesting, ocean liners leaving a dock with huge crowds on the shore, political rallies, a funeral that involves a whole section of downtown New York,” Razze says. With those sweeping changes also comes spectacles, including Harry Houdini’s character, played by Freddie Kimmel, who does the trick of getting out of a straight jacket while hanging upside down. “It’s covering vast historical and societal change.” “There are theaters around the country doing cut-down productions of it with small casts, but to be really truthful to the scope of the story it needs to be of a certain magnitude,” he says. Razze says casting such a large show - the production has 39 actors - was a huge endeavor that took from January through April. The company of the musical ‘Ragtime’ at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, representing the citizens of New Rochelle.
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