Ragtime
Opening Night: October 16, 2025
Theater: Vivian Beaumont
Website: www.lct.org
RAGTIME is a sweeping musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel that follows three fictional families in pursuit of the American Dream at the dawn of the 20th Century: Black pianist Coalhouse Walker, Jr. and his beloved Sarah, Jewish immigrant Tateh and his little girl, and a wealthy white family led by matriarch Mother. All grasping for the same dream, if only they can hold on to it.
BUY TICKETSREAD THE REVIEWS:
October 16, 2025
As the plot follows the intersecting fortunes of those three characters’ families, each seeking to redeem the country’s promise at a time of tumultuous change, old-fashioned musical-theater pleasures are very much on offer: a multitudinous cast clad in sumptuous costumes; riveting vocals undergirded by a 28-piece orchestra; a sprinkling of spectacle descending from above and rising from below. It works as rousing entertainment, full stop.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
From the moment the chorus rises from the stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater during the opening number of Ragtime, you know you’re in for something special—a big Broadway musical with what seems like a cast of thousands singing their hearts out over swelling strings and gutsy brass. This is a revival in the truest sense, returning to the stage one of the greatest musicals ever written, but also offering the unmistakable thrill of encountering a Broadway show in peak condition.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
It’s a thrilling experience, though on the Vivian Beaumont Theater’s vast stage this pageant of a musical feels a bit skimpy. Not that the musical needs opulent sets, but it does call for stunning stagecraft to match the awe of its aspirations. It’s achieved here only intermittently.
READ THE REVIEWOctober 16, 2025
Ragtime culminates with two huge 11 o’clock numbers, from Henry and Levy, a Tony-winner and Olivier-nominee whose names are rightfully big draws to the show. Yet the showstopping vocal moment still fresh in my mind is that of Lewis, who offers a haunting rendition of “Your Daddy’s Son.” Overall the trio of book writer Terrence McNally, composer Stephen Flaherty, and lyricist Lynn Ahrens meet in harmony: the characters connect, the score dazzles and the 28-piece orchestra more than rises to the occasion, accompanied by an ensemble of pitch perfect vocalists.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
Ragtime settles into a richer and more internal mode quickly, in a large part due to the textured performances of its leads and the thought they’ve applied to Ahrens and Flaherty’s score.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
The original Broadway production in 1998 featured career-changing performances from Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald and Marin Mazzie. Now, in 2025, you feel every bit as fortunate to be basking in the radiant glow of Caissie Levy playing Mother, Ben Levi Ross as Mother’s Younger Brother and especially the golden-voiced Joshua Henry as Harlem piano player Coalhouse Walker. The revival’s power is all in the pipes.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
While deBessonet could have better provided a certain focus or point of view – Ragtime‘s telling of America’s immigrant tale is, at this point in history, ripe for the picking – she certainly brings out the best in her uniformly splendid cast.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
Henry has been at the forefront of Broadway leading men for 15 years, but this show is his triumph. He takes one of the most demanding roles in the Broadway canon and he does it full justice.
READ THE REVIEW
October 17, 2025
One year ago, seated at City Center, I cried at both numbers and left the theater deeply shaken. If that same power hasn’t quite held, it is perhaps no fault of a broadly first-rate production. Hope is of less interest right now—it can feel like an almost irrelevant emotion. But when that finale arrived, and the voices joined gloriously as one, I felt it stirring once again. Not as strongly as before, perhaps. But still, that stirring of hope.
READ THE REVIEWOctober 16, 2025
Henry is, in a word, magnificent. His Coalhouse is a tower of strength and spirit, fueled by long-simmering anger and stubborn righteousness. It’s no surprise he elicits tears—and mid-show standing ovations—with the power ballads “Wheels of a Dream” (a duet with Lewis) and “Make Them Hear You.” Uranowitz, whose Tateh struggles mightily before finding success in America, pulls on some heartstrings of his own—especially singing alongside Levy in “Our Children”—and he’s a delight on the patter song “Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc.”
READ THE REVIEWOctober 16, 2025
Revived once again by Lear DeBessonet following last year’s outstanding City Center concert version, this nearly flawless Lincoln Center Theater production ranks among Broadway’s best of all time.
READ THE REVIEWOctober 16, 2025
Joshua Henry’s Colehouse feels younger than has been typical, less initially polite, more impassioned and, of course, his voice is the stuff of standing ovations. Nichelle Lewis’ Sarah is more fragile, which makes her crushed optimism especially moving. As Tateh, Brandon Uranowitz focuses on energetic joy. He expands the role and makes it all the more essential to the piece. Both Lewis and Ben Levi Ross, who plays the brooding Mother’s Younger Brother, bring qualities to those two characters I’d never seen before. They are doing the best work of the night; Ross, especially, fleshes out what mostly has been a caricature.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
At the end of three hours of Joshua Henry, Nichelle Lewis, and the company’s gorgeous singing, and a powerfully staged story of racism, immigration, and history that meaningfully echoes to the present-day, you may be wrung out in the best way by this enthrallingly mounted, directed, acted, and sung production (booking to Jan. 4, 2026). The melodically thunderous presence of Henry and this phenomenal company—they meld so beautifully as a collective—are the spellbinding reasons to book a ticket pronto.
READ THE REVIEWOctober 16, 2025
As at Encores, the three principal cast members carry us through the swirl and the sprawl, with their credible, impassioned performances and their golden voices; it helps that each is given some of composer Stephen Flaherty’s most distinctive songs, reflecting their character’s individual personality and culture. One can question whether “Ragtime” will be considered one of the great American musicals and still feel grateful to have been able to witness Joshua Henry, the Baritenor of Broadway, deliver a shattering “Make them hear you.”
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
Twenty-five years after its original run, the musical roars back not with spectacle but with purpose, and in doing so, it may finally have found the moment it was meant for. This revival, now at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater and expanded from last year’s high-powered City Center concert staging, arrives not as nostalgia but as a galvanizing statement, both thrilling and newly vital.
READ THE REVIEWOctober 16, 2025
The bare-bones staging keeps the focus squarely where it counts: on the cast of nearly 40, who are uniformly topflight and in sync when it comes to sparking emotional electricity. The simplicity of the production provides breathing room in a megamusical that often exhilarates, but also drains because of its tendency to always think bigger.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
It succeeds on the merits of the material and the powerhouse principal cast reprising their roles. Director Lear DeBessonet, in her first show as artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, makes some appealing use of the grand canvas, a promising sign for her upcoming tenure. But the production doesn’t always benefit from these bold strokes, which underline the pitfalls of a narrative told through archetypes and melodrama.
READ THE REVIEW
October 16, 2025
“Ragtime,” like “Les Miz,” gives anthems a very bad name. DeBessonet emphasizes their excessiveness by having her cast, especially Joshua Henry in the Coalhouse role, hold on to a note well passed its sell-by date. It’s difficult to tell if people are applauding mid-song because they’re impressed by Henry’s lung power or if they just want him to get off the note and finish the song. DeBessonet’s blunt direction only encourages us to applaud before the actors have finished singing.
READ THE REVIEW