Ragtime

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Ragtime Revisited With Leonard Barrett

From initial conversations, it was agreed between Michael Duran, Executive Director for Boulder’s Dinner Theatre and Jeffrey Nickelson of Shadow Theatre Company that Nicholson would play one of Ragtime’s lead characters, Coalhouse Walker Jr., from the beginning of the run and Leonard E. Barrett, Jr. would take over the huge role May 1.

There were many conversations before the show opened with people asking, “which performance should I go to, Nickelson’s or Leonard’s?” a question nearly impossible to answer. A horrendous decision either way the cake is sliced. Both would bring strength, heartbreak, and power to the role of the professional piano man, who falls deeply in love with Sarah, a washerwoman, lose track of her, and find compassion from Mother (Shelly Cox-Robie) who takes her and her baby into their household fielding strong racial hatred.

On April 18 on his way to see the show, Barrett received a frantic phone call from Duran. Nicholson was sick. Barrett would have to go on that night, without rehearsal. The word from several sources was that Barrett blew out the walls of the theatre.

Barrett stepped into the tight cohesive cast of Ragtime with “smoothicity” maintaining the cohesiveness, the drive, the energy, projecting a Coalhouse surrounded by honest believability. The role of Coalhouse not only demands a huge powerful voice, but the ability to project emotion from happy frivolity, to quiet determination, to deep seated anger over his being treated as a “Nigger,” to destruction of his shiny new Ford, to the brutal death of his beloved Sarah, to taking a firm stand on what he believed, to wanting justice, to being treated as a crazed man, Nickelson took the breath away with the depth of his character, and Barrett carries to the role the same awesome power, and heartbreak, owning the character as he understood him to be. He demonstrates no signs of stepping into the shoes of Nickelson with any indication of intimidation. If you saw Nickelson, go back and see Barrett.

On the night I had the honor of returning to experience Barrett, Reynelda Snell who plays Sarah was sick and Lea Chapman stepped into the role the night before. Chapman maintained the quality, owning her own Sarah singing through her soul into the heart of Sarah. She was dynamite.

This time around Kaleb “Tank” Owen played Edgar bringing innocence surrounded by wide eyes, and honest little boy questions. Ashley Baldwin played The Girl, Tateh’s (Wayne Kennedy) daughter portraying the sad innocence of a young girl having lost her mother, traveling from Latvia with her father to the new world filled with hope, imagination and a sense of freedom, and total despair and disillusionment. When illness overtook The Girl, Baldwin demonstrated a frailness that captured the heart as she watched her father grow into a rage over a lost dream. Even in his rage, Tateh remains devoted to his little girl, and she to him. Desperate to keep her smiling, desperate to keep her happy, he stumbles onto a simple toy with moving pictures and Tateh reinvents himself into the Baron of motion pictures. It’s fun the second time around to watch the development of Tateh with Kennedy’s strong expertise through the eyes of a young girl who believes in her father no matter what and through the eyes of a young actress who believes in her role.

With four different people in the cast, the cohesiveness remained strongly in tact for this already critically acclaimed production, and, if anything, has gathered strength and power throughout its run including cast changes and all.

Ragtime brilliantly follows three distinct groups of people: the wealthy and sheltered, the Negro, and the Immigrant through trials and tribulations of the early 1900s. It remains a mystery how in a hundred years we as a nation have come so far in so many areas, and so little distance in human relations. BDT’s timing is incredible in the midst of the national crises of illegal aliens with politicians talking out of both sides of their mouths. “We have to stop the illegal traffic, but without the illegal traffic our economy would suffer;” racial tensions continue to bubble under the veneer of tolerance and bubble wrapped prejudice.

The music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens swing with its soulful, joyful celebratory ragtime beat with hope and freedom as strongly as Tateh holds close to his heart. In spite of the horrendous circumstances as long as Kennedy’s Tateh hopes and dreams, and Cox-Robie’s Mother grows in thought and courage, and Father (John Scott Clough) dares to question the changes taking place, and Brandon Dill’s Young Brother continues to stand against his Father because he understands justice, and Barb Reeves’ Emma Goldman speaks her truth there is hope whirling on “Wheels of Dreams”, and that makes it all worthwhile.

Ragtime is too important a production to miss. Just don’t. Call now for reservations before there aren’t any more. It speaks through Michael Duran’s direction. It sings through Neil Dunfee’s music, and it dances through Alicia Dunfee’s and Hugo Sales choreography with a cast who has laid its heart and soul on the boards.

Ragtime, currently playing at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre is a Beyond show!!!

Wayne Kennedy, Jeffrey Nickelson and Shelly Cox-Robie in Ragtime.

It is beyond spectacular, beyond fantastic, beyond astonishing, beyond awesome. There is no word in the English language to describe this phenomenal collaborative production between BDT and Shadow Theatre Company directed by Michael J. Duran.

It is a masterful slice of history, a masterpiece of musical theatre, where cast, lighting, sound, set, music, storyline, and crew dance in sync to the score of perfection.

Garnering a standing ovation following last Friday night’s performance, it left me weak and speechless.

Based on the 1975 novel by E. I. Doctorow, Ragtime swung onto Broadway in 1998, nominated for 12 Tony Awards, and took home four including Best Original Score and Best Orchestration. When Ragtime first opened on Broadway, some critics insisted the music downplayed the issues examined within the context of the show, Au Contraire. The depth of the music and lyrics carries the importance of the issues far beyond what any dialogue could do. Just shows how off-center and small thinking some critics can be.

When Denver Center Attractions brought the Broadway touring company to the Temple Buell Theatre in 1999, it knocked me out with “cast, lighting, sound, set, music, storyline, and crew danced in sync to the score of perfection.” It reached out to the nearly sold out Buell audience and wrapped itself snugly, drawing everyone into the emotional roller coaster ride through the early 1900s.

Could BDT and Shadow match the quality? That was my initial question when I first heard over a year ago Ragtime was on the schedule.

Not only does it match the perfected quality on every level, it goes one step further. Within the intimacy of the small dinner theatre one can see even the slightest change of expression, lines on faces cross crossing, eyes lighting up with hope, peace, love, despair, and disappointment. Across the boundary of 100 years, this production pulls the audience into the lives of the people portrayed. Guess what? It wasn’t much different than it is today. The issues are exactly the same, and that’s scary, begging the question what have we learned? At the same time exciting the blood flow with that enchanting ragtime music.

Tracing the lives of three people from three different perspectives all chasing the American Dream finding growth, destruction, hope, tragedy, coming face to face with each other. In poignant juxtaposition immigrant meets comfortable white, touching elbows with the Negroes, wealth brushing against poverty, freedom and prejudice in checkmate, staunch family values challenging an expanded definition, hate standing firm in the name of the law, courage taking a stand, paying a price, and love digging deep to find accepted expression.

Wayne Kennedy disappears under a black beard and the persona of Latvian Jewish immigrant, Tateh, with his beautiful young daughter, The Girl, played by Jennie McPherson and Ashlee Baldwin. On Friday McPherson covered herself with The Girl’s soul. Tateh’s wife had died, and the two came to America to find The American Dream. What they found instead was mistrust, detachment, isolation, loneliness, hunger and illness, until the American Dream found Tateh through a creative idea he stumbled upon as he desperately searches for something, anything, to cheer up his daughter.

Kennedy’s voice lent to Tateh with his songs “A Shtetl In Amereke” and “Success” takes the breath away.

McPherson is adorable with an overflowing pocketful of talent. Although The Girl has few words, McPherson conveyed smoothly and delicately every ounce of feeling and emotion a child believing in her father, trusting him, coping with her mother’s death, living in a brand new world, with strange people and strange sounds, smells, and ways of doing things could experience.

Kennedy, on the other hand, with his incredible talent to become and own his character, brings Tateh so alive he climbs inside the heart melting it from the inside out, especially with the songs A Shtetl In Amereke and Success.

Shelly Cox-Robie inhabits the role of Mother, of a well to do family, living in a comfortable house on a hill, knowing her place as wife, and mother wearing beautiful clothes, content to live within the context of innocent obedience. When her husband, Father (John Scott Clough) leaves on an expedition with Admiral Perry, Mother knows how to run the house, until one day, while digging in the garden, chatting with her young son Edgar (Kaleb Tank and Owen Brewer), she discovers a new born Negro baby, and her world at that moment changes 180 degrees. On Friday night Brewer played Edgar with diligent perspective as though he knew what it was like to be a young boy in 1906.

In spite of the customs of the day, in spite of expectations, Mother demands the baby’s mother be found, and in the meantime, she will take care of the new born.

The mother is found, a frightened young servant Negro girl, too scared to speak, unable to take care of a baby out of wedlock. Reynelda Snell doesn’t just play Sarah, she hands Sarah over to the audience on a tarnished platter. With a gorgeous voice and immeasurable talent, Sarah breaks the heart with heavy eyes, and hopeless heart.

Word of mouth traveled relatively fast in a few months and the father of the baby is found. Ragtime music had become a part of everyone’s lives, and piano player Coalhouse Walker discovers he is a father. With puffed up pride he readies himself along with a Motel T Ford to see the girl he loved and lost.

Through May 6, Shadow’s Jeffrey Nickelson empowers Coalhouse with life claiming him as his own. Nickelson wears Coalhouse from the inside out revealing every ounce of fiber within his being. Powerful only points to Nickelson’s portrayal. It isn’t a big enough word to capture his Coalhouse. Through the Coalhouse journey in Ragtime, Nickelson controls every line on his face from joy, determination, love, and uncontrolled hatred. If it weren’t for the strength of the entire cast, it would be difficult to unglue the eyes from this portrayal.

PHAMALy’s Leonard E. Barrett Jr. takes on the role of Coalhouse after May 6. No question, Barrett contains the voice, power, and depth to maintain Nickelson’s Coalhouse portrait.

Historical figures make their appearance: Dwayne Carrington appears as Booker T. Washington, Barb Reeves blasts onto stage as the sure footed outspoken Emma Goldman, Joanie Brosseau-Beyette as Evelyn Nesbit swings with gleeful Whe-e-e’s as the country’s most beautiful girl in a pink scanty costume lapping up Atlantic City attention, Scott Beyette struts Houdini magic as Houdini, Brian Jackson oversees his power as Henry Ford.

All aspects of the culture entangle themselves through these historical characters representing unresolved aspects of early 20th century life with racial snarls, and strikes by people demanding a decent living, intertwining a part of yet separate living in their own worlds, shuttering when elbows touch, coming together out of need, rallying through desperation, and authority figures shoving around their self-imposed power knowing they can get away with it.

Brandon Dill narrates a good part of the story as Younger Brother to Mother. Dill exposes narration in courage taking a strong stand against Father representing an opposite point of view, one of the most powerful scenes in the sow when the two meet eyeball to eyeball stripped of all pretense.

On a five level set designed by Amy Campton allowing distance, time and space too disappear and reappear with the specified dramatic lighting designed by Nicholas Kargel, and the shuddering sound designed by Kennedy, appropriate perfected costuming designed by Linda Morken, and accompanying slides depicting scenes from the early 1900s, the ragtime music directed by Neal Dunfee with an orchestra far bigger and grander than its size, the portrait of Ragtime blends together harmonically.

Alicia Dunfee captures the mood, and tempo with creative unique choreography, with special pieces being done by Shadows Hugo Sayles. From its slow stylized moments, to its let it all hang out “ragtime-ish” expected demands, the choreography challenges and engulfs the dancers who roll, tap, slap, and kick. The ensemble creates a collective being moving and dancing as one.

Brian Norber’s crusty Grandfather with his spit of the words comments toward Mother taking in a Negro woman and her child, has some of the most humorous lines reflecting a good part of society. Humorous at first, cutting at best, honest on top of it all, poignant in reality.

A.K. Klimpke knows and wears comedy as though it were a costume especially designed for him with his incredible timing, but when his character calls for meanness, throwing around self-implied power and authority his angular disposition allows him to be frightening. As the Assistant Fire Chief, Conklin, he is down right frightening, taking liberties with aloof blown-up pride. Unfortunately, his character continues to live amongst us as Klimpke nails him to the wall.

Terrence McNally wrote the book with Stephen Flaherty writing the music and Lynn Aherns the lyrics. The story flows mostly through music with little dialogue featuring marches, gospel, ragtime, and cakewalks. The songs write the story, the cast carries the powerful intent with Good-Bye My Love, The Crime of the Century, What Kind of Woman, His Name Is Coalhouse Walker, Getting Ready Rag, Wheels of a Dream, What A Game, Fire In the City, Harlem Nightclub, Sarah Brown Eyes, Back To Before, and Look What You’ve Done.

When Father returns from his expedition, he discovers a new world has invaded his. Incensed over Sarah and her baby living in their attic, diabolical over Coalhouse’s presence, he finds a wife who developed a sense of herself with a backbone unafraid to stand up for what she believes to be true.

Conklin takes gleeful pride in destroying Coalhouse’s car developing frightening anger within Coalhouse. He’s a Negro after all. He has no rights. Sarah discovers strength within her to stand up politically and gets shot. The loss of his car, and the death of his love pushes Coalhouse into an angry man with force and no legal rights. With all of the violence swimming around us today, Nickelson’s Coalhouse paints a brightly colored portrait of why anger reaches its explosive nature. When all we see is the explosion, rarely what leads up to it, Nickelson gives it to us inch by inch.

BDT’s and Shadow’s production of Ragtime brings history, our history right up to our front door tickling curiosity, wanting to know more, which is what history should do to begin with. Would that every American History class within shouting distance of Boulder from elementary through University and night school classes make reservations now for the class to attend. American History would never be the same. The need to know names and dates would pale alongside the just wanting to know more about the people, their thinking, their limitations, and their cultural grounding.

The question has been raised, should parents take their children? By all means. It will open the door for family inquisitiveness and discussions that could carry them from the beginning of the 20th Century to right hear, right now. Not only could children learn a great deal, but also so could the adults. Yes, the language is strong, but nothing is heard on stage that isn’t heard every day at home, on the street, in school, at coffee shops, and in playgrounds. When a production has the power to accomplish that feat, and this one has, theatre does more than just entertain. Wouldn’t it be grand if all of America History, cold be transcribed into a powerful musical drama as Ragtime? No one would ever brush history off again as boring, then one-day wake up and wonder what happened to the world around them.

Whatever you do, however you do it, do not miss this production. It is a perfected ingenious marvel that will leave you speechless, pick away at the curiosity and you’ll want to know more. In our upside down current political affairs, now is the time to break through comfort zones.