Marcia Milgrom Dodge to Helm Fall 2015 RAGTIME Tour

BroadwayWorld has just learned that Phoenix Entertainment has on its agenda a touring revival of RAGTIME to commence in the Fall of 2015. It will be helmed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, who received a Tony Nomination as Best Director for the 2009 Broadway revival. This new tour will be much in the spirit of that production which was nominated for 7 Tony Awards in 2010.

Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in the United States in the early 20th century: African Americans, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; upper-class suburbanites, represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York; and Eastern European immigrants, represented by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia.

Historical figures including Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Stanford White, Harry Kendall Thaw, Admiral Peary, Matthew Henson, and Emma Goldman are represented in the stories.

The musical opened on Broadway on January 18, 1998 as the first production in the newly opened Ford Center for the Performing Arts. Directed by Frank Galati and choreographed by Graciela Daniele, Ragtime ran for two years, closing on January 16, 2000, after 834 performances. The original cast included Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, Peter Friedman and Audra McDonald, who were all nominated for Tony Awards

A new production opened at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, on April 18, 2009, and ran through May 17, 2009, with direction and choreography by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. The production then moved to Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre, where it opened on November 15, 2009.

Bookings by The Road Company. www.theroadcompany.com or call (212) 302-5200 for more information.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos