Like an intricate tapestry hanging in New York City's mammoth Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "Ragtime" is created from the intertwining threads of a variety of widely differing cultures.
Historic figures and fictional characters glide in and out of the story, which spans nearly 20 years during the era of ragtime music.
Ron Jewett, who is directing "Ragtime" for an eight-week run in Hale Centre Theatre, noted recently that "you don't realize the scope of 'Ragtime' and how big it is on every front. The conductor's score alone is several times larger than most musical scores."
Unlike the original Toronto and Broadway productions (and the first national tour), which literally bankrupted the Canadian-based Livent production company, Jewett and his creative team are thinking "light and simple," with scenery that is just suggested and abstract. (It was the gargantuan scenery and lavish special effects that financially drained Livent's original productions.)
Jewett, who saw the scaled-down second national tour, which played in the Capitol Theatre, as well as Pioneer Theatre Company's regional production a few months later, is focusing on the actors and the music.
"It's not just beautiful songs, the music furthers the plot and takes you from Point A to Point B. We're making use of Hales' wonderful stage," he said.
"Ragtime" takes place in and around New York City from about 1895 to 1915. Historic events and true-life characters figure into the story as it evolves.
Based on E.L. Doctorow's expansive novel, "Ragtime" follows a handful of key characters from three diverse cultures — a wealthy, privileged family in New Rochelle, black workers who have embraced the jaunty new strains of ragtime in Harlem and a Latvian Jewish immigrant and his young daughter, newly arrived through the teeming docks of Ellis Island.
These three elements come together throughout the show, along with such historical figures as Evelyn Nesbit (the notorious "girl in the red velvet swing"); her jealous husband, Harry K. Thaw, and esteemed architect Stanford White, who was slain by Thaw in 1906. This event is spotlighted in "Ragtime" as "the crime of the century" — despite angry anarchist Emma Goldman's comment that the "century" still had many more years to go.
Vaudeville headliner and illusionist Harry Houdini is also part of the action, with brief appearances by industrialist Henry Ford, financier J.P. Morgan, prominent black educator Booker T. Washington and adventurer Admiral Robert Edwin Peary.
Jewett notes that the period costuming does a lot to establish the time and locale of "Ragtime."
Many of the roles are double-cast.
The fictional family living in New Rochelle has no name, only "Father" (played by Scott D. Morgan and David Weekes), who maintains a fairly distant stance, and "Mother" (Meghan Parrish and Kathryn Little), whom he allows to run the household while he goes off on global adventures. Mother's "Younger Brother" (Brad Robins and Matt Armstrong) has a crush on Evelyn Nesbit. And Mother and Father's young son, known only as Little Boy (Kooper Campbell and Jordan Allen), acts as narrator.
When the family patriarch, Grandfather (Gordon Johnson and Walt Price), notes that life is pleasant in New Rochelle because "there are no Negroes or immigrants," the plot suddenly shifts into a crowded Harlem club where Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Trevor Jerome and Carleton Bluford) is beating out a ragtime tune on a piano, under the loving gaze of Sarah (Clotile Bonner and Josephine Scere).
These groups are soon joined by Latvian immigrant Tateh (musical director Kelly DeHaan and Thomas Every) and his frightened daughter, Little Girl (Natalie Barnes and Chantelle Goudie).
The lives of all three families become intertwined against the constantly changing backdrop of:
America traveling on "the wheels of a dream," the introduction of the classic Model T Ford.
Harry Houdini's dramatic escapes.
The advent of moving pictures.
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.
For the first time, Hale Centre Theatre has employed a dramaturg, Linda Jean Stephenson, to ensure the historical accuracy of the costumes and dialects.
Andrew Barrus, who handles HCT's technical aspects (including a Model T Ford that is destroyed during every performance), is co-director of the show, along with choreographer Marilyn May Montgomery. Anne Puzey is assisting DeHaan with the music.
"This show has beautiful underscoring," said Jewett. "A lot of times, you get rid of the underscoring because it doesn't support the script, but with this one it's a major element."
Jewett said he didn't know how they took so much from Doctorow's novel and put in the show, "but playwright Terrence McNally knew what he was doing." Music is by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics are by Lynn Ahrens.
If you go
What: "Ragtime"
Where: Hale Centre Theatre, 3333 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City
When: Monday through July 23
How much: $14-$21
Phone: 984-9000
Web site: www.halecentretheatre.org
E-mail: ivan@desnews.com