NYCO to Present Ragtime, Directed by Galati, in '08

According to the New York City Opera's website, the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime will be presented during the company's 2007/2008 season.

Frank Galati (The Pirate Queen), who received a 1998 Tony Award nomination for staging the musical's original production on Broadway, will return to helm Ragtime in April of 2008.

Casting, specific dates, and more information will be announced.

Ragtime, based on the epic novel by E.L. Doctorow and featuring music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and a book by Terrence McNally, is a panoramic story of American life at the turn of the 20th century that follows such characters as African-American musician and activist Coalhouse Walker Jr., Coalhouse's beloved Sarah, the Mother and Father of a white New Rochelle family, Russian-Jewish immigrant Tateh, and historical personages such as Evelyn Nesbit, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford and Harry Houdini.

Ragtime, which opened at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts on January 18th, 1998, ran for 834 performances on Broadway.  It won Tonys for McNally, Ahrens and Flaherty, star Audra McDonald and orchestrator William David Brohn.  In addition to McDonald, Ragtime starred Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, Peter Friedman, Mark Jacoby and Judy Kaye, amont others.

Visit www.nycopera.com for more on New York City Opera.

Photo of Frank Galati by Ben Strothmann