Review of Ragtime on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theatre

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I used to live in New York City when I went to college, as I attended the Fashion Institute of Technology for my undergraduate degrees, but when I left the city because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never really returned, I knew that I was regretting my time in college not taking advantage of student deals for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

Granted, I had never been exposed to that kind of environment, or theatre at all, so when I started working in New York theatre and spent some time in that world, I jumped back into it. This blog has been a way to document my journey as a theatre lover and watcher, especially considering I don’t like to do short-form video. Written criticism has always been my thing more.

I was planning on coming up to New York in December 2025 all the way back in September of this year, and booked an Amtrak ticket then because I was able to get a good deal ($50 roundtrip? That’s such a steal!). This trip really didn’t end up the way I planned, as I unknowingly contracted the flu and was feeling ill for most of it, but the two tickets I had bought for the Saturday, which I had felt fine for, were Ragtime and Hadestown.

I bought both on TodayTix. For Ragtime, I was in the Right Loge, Seat 7. I paid $120 for my seat, which is the most I’ve ever paid, but most seats in the Vivian Beaumont honestly have a great view. Just don’t sit on the far sides—I thought the view from my seat is honestly one of the best balcony views I’ve ever had.

I was seeing a matinee, but the only person who was out was Ben Levi Ross, which was disappointing, but I accepted it. Ben is someone I’ve always wanted to see since I was seventeen—I remember I was applying to YoungArts for writing, he had recently won, and I was enamored with their performance at YoungArts week.

Let’s get into the review! I’ll just note that I went into this show completely blind—I knew nothing about Ragtime going into this beyond a very basic synopsis.

The story of a Black man and his justice, an immigrant and his pursuit of the American Dream, and an upper class white woman in the early 1900s.

I’m going to avoid spoilers with the plot in this review, but if you want to know the entire story and whatnot, there are places to read about it online. Ragtime isn’t really a new show. The premise of it is that it takes place early in the 1900s and has three storylines that come together.

One is about the talented Black pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr., who’s looking for his love Sarah. He’s been moderately successful, despite being a Black man during this period, and has enough money to buy a new fancy Ford car and nicer things for the time. Sarah, who has given birth to their son, has been taken in by Mother and her wealthy family after she discovers Sarah abandoned the child in her garden.

Tateh, an immigrant from Latvia who came to the US with his daughter, is looking for a new life in the United States. He makes art on the streets and then ends up working in the poor conditions of factories just to feed and clothe them, but, as we see from the anarchist Emma Goldman, there’s a breaking point for men like him.

All of these characters come into contact with each other, albeit in a forced manner in some ways (I found Tateh and Mother’s storyline to be a bit clumsy and not believable, especially when it comes to their ending). The American Dream and how people can rise up is an early hope in the show, but as we see throughout its run time, it squashes some who are naive and lifts others at the brink of death.

Act II is much darker than Act I, and while I found it to be weaker than the first act in that sense, I understand deeply why the story went where it went. People around me were sobbing by the end, but it felt a little too neatly wrapped up as well.

This is combined with show stopping numbers, and this is a cast to beat for sure. I’ve seen Uranowitz and Levy in Leopoldstadt when it was running on Broadway, but their musical number chops were incredible to see in-person. Joshua Henry is someone else I’ve seen before and he nailed this role. I think there’s a Tony in his near future.

Nichelle Lewis was my personal favorite of the cast. I think whatever she’s cast in soon, after this production closes, I want to see her in. Her numbers were fantastic and deeply emotional, which is hard to pull off when you’re mainly alone on stage with few lights or props. Yet she still sucked us deep into the sorrow and grief of her world at that time, which was a revelation to see.

Something to note is that this is a transfer of a NYCC production onto Broadway, so if you’re expecting lavish sets, then this is not going to be the show for you. They’re very bare bones—when I saw Into the Woods, also with Joshua Henry and NYCC, it was also the minimum staging aesthetic. Parade was a bit better.

Anyways, the set design is minimal but fine for this production. Some touches were nice, such as the scene where Father is encountering the immigrant boat, but others had me wondering about the decisions, such as the American flag project as Coalhouse is in the midst of his redemption arc.

Overall Thoughts

First things first: I think this is a wonderful production and I have absolutely no regrets going to see it when I did. I had a blast watching these performers sing and act their hearts out on stage, and this is a story that deeply interests me. I minored in American Studies in college and debated getting a PhD to study the early 20th century, especially when it comes to race relations and cultural depictions of it, so this was right up my alley.

Considering I had no attachment emotionally to the material going into this, I’d say it’s a solid story. The strength clearly comes from the music and the cast, as you’re not getting much else with this production (e.g. with the sets). I was also feeling that 28-piece orchestra in my bones. They did such a fantastic job, making this a good show for someone who genuinely loves music.

The choreography, too, is something I was noting as well done. It shows up immediately in the opening number, as we see this large ensemble cast coming on stage and navigating around each other in a very calculated fashion, especially considering how immigrants and Black folk were seen during this time, and I was keeping an eye on movement throughout the show. It was consistent!

I say go see this if you want an excellent quality show and have some money to spend. It’s a hot ticket, so prices are high right now, at the time of typing this, but if you can swing a decent seat and not have it set you back financially, I would definitely recommend it.

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