Photos: First Look at RAGTIME at Moonlight Stage

Two veterans of Broadway join a cast of 38 along with a full-size pit orchestra of 26 performing live for Moonlight Stage Productions' revival of the epic musical experience "Ragtime" from August 17 through September 3. Tony Award nominee Charl Brown takes on the role of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a part he understudied in Moonlight's 2002 West Coast Regional Premiere production. Brown would go on to star as Smokey Robinson in the Broadway and West End productions of "Motown: The Musical." His Broadway appearance earned him a Tony Award nomination, and he also can be heard on the Grammy nominated Original Broadway Cast Recording. Geno Carr, well-known to San Diego audiences for his numerous regional productions, plays Tateh. Carr originated the role of Oz and Others in the award-winning hit musical "Come From Away" on Broadway.

"Ragtime" tells the story of three families trying to find their way during the turn of the twentieth century in New York City, each struggling with the changing cultural climate in America and each facing the promise of hope and new beginnings in the midst of prejudice and bigotry. A stifled upper-class wife, a determined Jewish immigrant, and a daring young Harlem musician are each united by their courage, compassion, and belief in the promise of the future. Together, they confront history's timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom, and prejudice, hope and despair and what it means to live in America.

Written by the award-winning composer and lyricist team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, and based on E.L. Doctorow's distinguished novel, "Ragtime" is the winner of the 1998 Tony Awards for Best Score, Book, and Orchestrations, and both the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and Best Score. Called by 'Time Magazine' "A triumph for the stage," "Intoxicating" by the Associated Press, and "Explosive and thrilling!" by Bloomberg News, this acclaimed musical is filled with pageantry, emotion, and hope, bursting onto the stage like no other show.

Also starring in "Ragtime" are Bets Malone as Mother, Brooke Henderson as Sarah, Jason Webb as Father, Jake Bradford as Younger Brother, Daxton Bethoney as Little Boy, Ralph Johnson as Grandfather, Emma Nossal as Evelyn Nesbit, Gerilyn Brault as Emma Goldman, Evan White as Harry Houdini, Bill Bland as Booker T. Washington, Leila Manuel as Little Girl, and Makenzie Burningham as Coalhouse Walker III.

Rounding out the company are Greg Bailey, Laura Bueno, Drew Bradford, Beatrice Crosbie, Zane Davis, Leo Ebanks, Deborah Fauerbach, Krista Feallock, Berto Fernández, Johnny Fletcher, Rachael Groeneweg, DarRand Hall, Cody Ingram, Jordan E Jackson, Shirley Johnston, Eleni Kutay, Jodi Marks, Kimberly Moller, Caroline Nelms, Greg Nicholas, Jupityr Shaw, Mashun Tucker, Erin Vanderhyde, and E.Y. Washington.

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