Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald and Marin Mazzie lead the original 1998 Broadway cast in a performance of the title song 'Ragtime' at the Tony Awards. www.songsfromthemusicals.com
SUCH an underrated show. I can't help wishing someone would make a movie version so that more people can be exposed to this absolute gem of musical theatre. Maybe Mandy Patinkin could play Tateh....
Yeah, there already was a 1981 non-musical version that was nominated for a slew of Oscars. It also starred Patinkin as 'Tateh' (as Steven Drake pointed out). Besides, at 64, he's much too old for the role on film, where the camera is not as forgiving as a darkly-lit, faraway stage
I feel like the reason that it lost to the Lion King is because Lion king was innovative. Broadway has never seen anything like that before, the sets, the costumes, the puppetry. It's pure magic. While Ragtime has a timeless message, a great ensemble, and a great story and acting. In any other year, Ragtime could have won best musical.
@@JPLEYONKO4 Agreed, and let's not forget, it did not go home Tony-less. That epic book and majestic score and orchestrations, not to mention Ms. McDonald's small but heartwrenching performance as Sarah, were all awarded.
@@JPLEYONKO4 Then Lion King should have won for best costumes and sets. It still defies belief that a show that won best score and book - what makes a musical - doesn’t win best musical.
@@EmilySullivanits I remembered in the soundtrack, the character Evelyn Nesbit was squealing "Weeee!!" after the line "there were 94 years to go", so I just Weeee-ed her part when I was watching hahahahaha
And still does. 😔 What's so sad about this was this was 1902. We still have a looooong way to go. Also. Can't get over that Audra was barely shown here. And that is for sure Lea Michele holy cow!!!
Come to London! The innovative Charing Cross Theatre are presenting it for two months from 8th October (2016). This theatre has just done a really terrific 'Titanic'.
My thoughts EXACTLY! I was just thinking that when I was reminded of this great musical today! They need to make a film musical! I think it would be awesome!
i love this performance so much! I don't know about anyone else but at the end when they are sing those final Ragtimes, I can always hear Audra hitting those high soprano notes & it gives me chills
There is no more telling an American tale than Ragtime. It is who we were, and sadly, who we still are. Today Marin Mazzi, Mother in this brilliant production, entered the ether. Broadway has lost an astounding talent, and the world a great friend. RIP Marin.
1998 Tony's will always be my favorite. I love Ragtime's choice to perform the opening number rather than "Wheels of a Dream" or another duet. This is the essence of the show right here. I was fortunate enough to see it on Broadway as a college Freshman with a Talk Back after the show. This is what it's all about right here. Shake up my emotions, be creative, and tell your story. Make them hear you.
the choreography, costume and set design as well as the lyric all showcase the theme behind this number. This segregation of urban centers, class divisions, and the overpowering suspicion between sects, ethnicities and races still haunts our social structure to this day. Only the names and identities have changed, not the dysfunctional and self-defeating dynamic. Its a great number.
Why didn’t this win best musical? It was brilliant. What a telling of history. It may have been uncomfortable at times, but the production was extraordinary. Thank you for this honor.
Anyone listening to this without an actual broad-band, hi-fidelity music reproduction system doesn't know what they are missing !!! The gut-thumping Oompah bass is thrilling as it was in the live theater! It actually dry-cleans your clothes.
My junior year of High school we performed this and I was blown away at how stunning it was. It saddens me to see this show so horribly underrated and under appreciated on the stages
I just went on a "Tony Awards performance" watching spree. I have a friend who LOVES this show and it's one of his favorite community theatre productions he's been in. I wasn't so sure I'd like it, but my passion for Victorian and Edwardian time periods intrigued me and OH MY GOD WHY ISNT THERE A FILMED OBC VIDEO?!
I traveled 1500 miles to see Ragtime on Broadway with the original cast. The new theater was huge and was jam packed. I've seen other productions since then but none compared to the original cast.
I have chills all over my face and arms. I'm crying as well. Such a beautiful concept for a musical. I believe it was originally a book but this is just so phenomenal. I keep listening to all these amazing shows I'll never get to see originals of. It pains me but this is all so amazing just the same.
I had the original concept album of "Ragtime" and fell in love with the music. I was sure when it eventually made it to Broadway it would sweep the Tonys. Unfortunately, 1998 was also the year of "The Lion King"...
This is another masterpiece of an underrated and brilliant art on stage. In the 90's musicals were magnificent! Titanic, Cabaret, Chicago, Ragtime and some rivals were the greatest at that time. But this was ONE of my favorite musicals still to this day other than "Titanic" A New Musical. The two show stoppers were revivals back to back, and sold out shows every night. I was so blessed to see both shows lived with both original cast of that time.
my school is putting this on for our spring musical. right now, im just a freshman, so i am just a member of the immigrant ensemble, but i feel so lucky to be able to do a show of this caliber. rehearsals have been amazing so far!
I saw this back in 1998-it was fabulous….and it shows that nothing is new-we are a nation of immigrants, of dynamic tension and change…the "good old days" are always over even as we live them.
I absolutely Love the part where they all danced together in a group! Props to: The Jewish lady holding her baby Skipping Girl in Red Dress Accordion Guy Umbrella woman in White Tateh spinning with his daugther
In 1902 Father built a house at the crest of the Brodview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York, and it seemed for Some years thereafter that all the family's days would be Warm and fair. The skies were blue and hazy, Rarely a storm. Barely a chill La la la la... The afternoons were lazy, Everyone warm. Everything still. La la la la... And there was distant music, Simple and somehow sublime, Giving the nation A new syncopation- The people called it Ragtime! The days were gently tinted Lavender pink, lemon and lime. Ladies with parasols Fellows with tennis balls There were gazebos, and... The were no negroes. And everything was Ragtime! Up in harlem, people dance to a music that weres theirs and no ones elses, the sound of changing time, the music of a better days Listen to the Ragtime! Ladies with parasols, Fellows with tennis balls. There were no Negroes And there were no immigrants. They came from Western and Eastern Europe were the Thousands, no dream was too big, they would be the next J.P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit of henry ford it would be their century too it was oreland 1906 And there were ninety-four years to go! And there was music playing, Catching a nation in its prime... Beggar and millionaire Everyone, everywhere Moving to the Ragtime! And there was distant music Skipping a beat, singing a dream. La la la la A strange, insistent music Putting out heat, Picking up steam. La la la la The sound of distant thunder Suddenly starting to climb... It was the music Of something beginning, An era exploding, A century spinning In riches and rags, And in rhythm and rhyme. The people called it Ragtime... Ragtime! Ragtime! Ragtime! (p.s the lyrics is not full cause i can't understand the words they said, and some of the lyrics our wrong because i also cant understand what they were saying)
Lia michelle is in this. We all know. We get it already for the 100th time. For the love of god stop fucking stroking yourselves to glee and just appreciate the genious of Ragtime without having to mindlessly point out Lia Michelle.
Because it's too dark and depressing. If you noticed, the live musicals they've done (THE SOUND OF MUSIC, PETER PAN, THE WIZ, GREASE, HAIRSPRAY) are frothy and splashy. Also, they're put on during the Christmas season, when most people want light family entertainment, with the exception of GREASE, which was televised in late January. Incidentally, the original Broadway production of GREASE was raunchy and definitely not family friendly, but ever since the movie (which pretty much bowdlerized the play), every production has followed the film's changes, because it's lightweight and apparently more appealing to the masses. As good as it is, RAGTIME is not a crowd-pleaser. The original Broadway production did okay, but the 2009 revival flopped big time. It's just not a popular title among the populace, like the aforementioned musicals. At the end of the day, ratings and viewership are what matters most to the powers that be. (Too bad 'cause RAGTIME has never been more relevant than it is today.)
alaskanbltundra this is a show that either fox or NBC needs to do live, it's perfect for the current state of the us and the world, this is something the people need, not Jesus Christ Superstar.
Both this electrifying opening number and Forman's 1981 film remind us constantly what a near perfect act of 'easy' genius Doctorow's Bicentennial novel is - a near effortless and epic (though terse) evocation of the central experience of post-Civil War American life in 1905, in 1975, and, alas in 2025. [And don't please don't correct me on my dates: I know its not 2025 and I know the Bicentennial was in 1976 - but for those of us alive in the time, there was already a cultural and promotional build toward it as early as 1968.]
That is correct. Lea was the Little Girl in the OBC. The girl from Archie Bunker's Place, Danielle Brisbois, is about the same age as Audra McDonald and would have been nearing 30 when Ragtime premiered. She was in Annie from 1977 to 1983.
I marvel at the ineptitude of the person who "directed" this for TV - we want to see the staging, not be in people's faces so that you miss the entire POINT of what's going on on that stage. And these nitwits win Emmys.
The costuming is so interesting. The white Americans are wearing pure white. The African Americans are in darker colours and then there's the European immigrants in pure black. Really interesting and satisfying!
This show needs a revival keep the pilot songs and characters the same just set it in modern time. They do it with Shakespeare why not ragtime. I know it probably can’t work but with the times we’re living it makes sense
