BWW Reviews: Oakbrook Terrace Produces a Wonderful, World-Class RAGTIME

Is "Ragtime" the Great American Musical? Certainly a grand argument in favor of that statement is now on display at the Drury Lane Theatre in Chicago's western suburb of Oakbrook Terrace, where one of the strongest home-grown musical productions in recent memory very nearly floored the opening night audience this past Wednesday night. The cheer that went up from the crowd at the end of the first act sounded like the one that greets well-known rock stars at gritty, mid-size downtown venues.

And I suspect that local critics will be falling all over themselves in the next few days in search of the right superlatives to heap upon this ambitious, emotionally moving, visually stunning and thought provoking production of this fine piece of inventive musical theater writing. At the end of the show, the vision of a happy, unified America, a family by choice, beamed out across the orchestra pit toward me. And I thought, "This is what the American musical theater is capable of doing. But it so rarely does all of this, all at once." Let me be completely clear: "Ragtime" is absolutely stunning.

The show, which ran from 1998-2000 on Broadway (winning three Tony Awards), launched the renovated Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, in Chicago and was recently the first musical of the 1990s to be revived on Broadway. It is without a doubt the masterwork of composer Stephen Flaherty, lyricist Lynn Ahrens and bookwriter Terrence McNally. It is unified, tragic, exhilarating, melodic, stirring and special. Its story of race and class relationships one hundred years ago could be ripped from today's headlines. It is state-of-the-art in its field. And what a privilege it is to see it like this! 

In fact, the production might as well be on Broadway, in London, or in any high quality theater anywhere in the world. With the right economy and the right publicity, it could tour for years. I'm telling you, the cast looks and acts exactly as these characters would. Director-choreographer Rachel Rockwell's pacing and emphasis seem just right. She and her design team, led by the jaw-dropping backdrop projections of New York-based Sage Marie Carter, created crisp, photo-clear and memorable moments of dramatic theater that etch themselves into the audience's mind.

Drury Lane favorite Jesse Klug's lighting seems to define not only space, but time itself. Kevin Depinet's set (yes, there's a medium-sized elevator) and the properties of Michelle N. Warner are spare only in the sense that there is absolutely no clutter--every piece is there for a reason, populating the stage space above and below as well as on the wooden Americana deck itself. Santo Loquasto's costumes (from the 1998 original Broadway production directed by Chicagoan Frank Galati, and augmented here with additional pieces by Brenda Winstead and lovely wigs from Kaity Licina) perfectly define the archetypal fictional characters we come to know, and clearly evoke the historical figures that popular the show and its E. L. Doctorow source novel. 

Sound design by Garth Helm and Ray Nardelli allows the great-sounding cast to be heard clear as a bell, and the nine-piece orchestra of music director Roberta Duchak and conductor Ben Johnson plays apparently new orchestrations by Carey Deadman and John Kornegay with hardly a break at all in the proceedings. 

And then there's that much-touted 33-member cast, led by Quentin Earl Darrington as Negro musician-turned-vigilante Coalhouse Walker, Jr.  They all look simply superb, and the choral numbers sound exceptional. Darrington, who played the same role in the just-shuttered Broadway revival, is a handsome, dark and muscular man who seems as erudite and refined as his character. His singing is only slightly less impressive than the focus, passion and refinement of his acting. He knows exactly what he is doing up there, and is a pleasure to watch.