Ragtime Returns To Los Angeles

Considering its award-winning creative team include American playwright Terrence McNally (Kiss Of The Spiderwoman, The Visit) and dynamic musical duo Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Once On This Island, Anastasia), it came as no surprise when ebullient turn-of-the-century musical Ragtime cleaned up at the 1998 Tony Awards, winning four of the accolades including Best Book and Best Score. Beyond Broadway, the historic rhythms of the production's march, gospel and ragtime-infused song and dance numbers have made it a popular choice for revivals across the US. 

Over two decades since its first showing in the City of Angels, Ragtime returns to the Pasadena Playhouse for a strictly limited run this winter. Its thrilling story is set in the melting pot of New York City in the early 20th century, a time of great upheaval and change. Told through the eyes of three very different classes of people, it offers a snapshot of the era's musical evolution and the growing connection between the city's residents.

There's Sarah, a beautiful young woman who lives in Harlem and is at the heart of the neighbourhood's new form of syncopated jazz, pioneered by the likes of Coalhouse Walker Jr. Worlds collide as her story interweaves with that of an upper-class white family from New Rochelle and a community of immigrants of the Lower East Side - such connections are further solidified by famous faces and names like Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit and Booker T. Washington.