Ragtime

Lear deBessonet directed the two-week concert run of this widely cherished 1998 musical at City Center last year. As the new artistic director of Lincoln Center Theatre, she now  reassembles that production's very impressive main cast to have a go at Broadway. Adapted by composer Stephen Flaherty, lyricist Lynn Ahrens and book writer Terrence McNally from E.L. Doctorow's great American novel, the show offers a panoramic look at seismic shifts in American culture at the turn of the 20th century, as exemplified through the interlocking stories of a fictional WASP family, a Black piano player and a Jewish immigrant. Broadway bold names Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy, Brandon Uranowitz, Nichelle Lewis, Colin Donnell, Ben Levi Ross and Shaina Taub lead the large ensemble.