Director Lear deBessonet, who is making her debut as Lincoln Center Theater’s new artistic director with this month’s revival of the musical Ragtime at the Vivian Beaumont stage, is no stranger to time travel. Her first New York production, staged in a Gramercy Park church basement when she was in her early twenties, was an original play about Jerusalem syndrome—a rare form of religious mania in which visitors to the Holy Land believe they are biblical figures.
To find inspiration for Ragtime, set in the early 1900s in and around New York, deBessonet and I met on a bright late-summer morning outside the Tenement Museum on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In the musical, Tateh (played by Brandon Uranowitz), an artist newly arrived from Eastern Europe, lives in a tenement near where the museum stands today.
As we stepped inside, my eyes were still adjusting to the dimly lit entryway with its tin ceiling and worn wooden banister when deBessonet noticed a painted decoration high on the soot-stained wall: a small, glowing oval showing a little house beside trees and fields under a clear blue sky.
“I wonder who painted that,” she said, as we gazed at the peaceful image—so different from the crowded, stifling hallways we imagined from a century ago. We later learned the artist was unknown—perhaps a tenant who traded painting skills for cheaper rent, or sought solace through art in a pastoral vision of the American dream.
Ragtime presents its own sweeping, complex vision of the American dream—its enduring promise, and the pain of those denied it—during the turbulent early 20th century. Based on E. L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel, the kaleidoscopic story follows three families: a wealthy white couple and their child, a fractured Black couple trying to reunite around a newborn, and a Jewish immigrant widower and his young daughter. Their lives intertwine with each other and with historical figures like anarchist Emma Goldman, vaudeville star Evelyn Nesbit, and civil rights leader Booker T. Washington.
The story begins in suburban New Rochelle, where Mother (Caissie Levy) bids farewell to Father (Colin Donnell), a fireworks maker and amateur explorer joining Admiral Peary’s Arctic expedition. As their ship departs, it passes a “rag ship” headed for Ellis Island carrying Tateh and his daughter (Tabitha Lawing). Meanwhile, Mother’s orderly life is upended when she finds an abandoned Black baby in her garden and offers shelter to both the child and his desperate mother, Sarah (Nichelle Lewis). Soon, the baby’s father, Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Joshua Henry)—a gifted African American pianist who once wooed Sarah with ragtime music but later wronged her—begins driving from Harlem every Sunday to win her back.
Is it any surprise things go terribly wrong? Terrence McNally’s original script and Lynn Ahrens’s lyrics seem to foreshadow today’s divisive political rhetoric: Admiral Peary refers to immigrants from “cesspool” countries; banker J.P. Morgan boasts of men who “make a country great”; Tateh, a new immigrant, keeps his daughter on a leash, terrified of being separated from her. Add racism, celebrity obsession, and police brutality, and you have the ingredients of a modern American tragedy.
Yet Stephen Flaherty’s epic score—which traces the characters’ transformations through syncopated ragtime, jagged jazz discord, mournful dirges, stirring ballads, and klezmer influences—also carries glimmers of hope and resilience.The expansive and generous American sound, reminiscent of Aaron Copland, carries within it a sense of longing and hope.
RED ALERT
Director Lear deBessonet, wearing Gabriela Hearst.
Upstairs at the Tenement Museum, deBessonet and I explored the circa-1902 apartment of Jennie and Harris Levine, a Russian Jewish couple who ran a garment factory while raising their five children in these three small rooms. The director drew inspiration for her set designs from the Levines’ oxblood-colored armoire and pale blue printed wallpaper. Next door, in an apartment still under restoration, I was moved to tears by a few simple toys uncovered by excavators: four glass marbles and a tiny doll, no bigger than a child’s finger, made of black metal. (Full disclosure: According to family stories, my late father was born and raised in a tenement just across the street, where he lived with his parents and six siblings in two cramped rooms.)
Over lunch at Russ & Daughters Cafe just down the block—I had cold borscht; deBessonet chose smoked salmon, eggs, and latkes—my enthusiastic companion spoke about growing up in Baton Rouge, where she discovered a passion for directing at an early age. She would enlist her younger sister, neighborhood children, and even the family dog in impromptu performances. Today, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two young children. In her free time, she enjoys neighborhood potlucks, cheering at her son’s baseball games, and singing in a local choir.
She traced her interest in theater as a collective endeavor—she founded and ran Public Works, a celebrated program at New York’s Public Theater for nearly nine years, which brings together community groups and professional actors in large-scale productions—back to what she called the “theatrical texture” of her childhood. She described it as “the constant presence of events like Mardi Gras, football games, and church, which are filled with pageantry, music, and color, and bring together people of all ages and backgrounds.”
During her freshman year at the University of Virginia, deBessonet traveled to New York to see the original Broadway production of Ragtime, featuring a legendary cast that included Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Marin Mazzie, and an 11-year-old Lea Michele. (The musical won multiple Tony Awards, including for McDonald as Sarah, Terrence McNally’s book, Lynn Ahrens’s lyrics, and Stephen Flaherty’s score.)
McDonald—who had just finished a widely praised Broadway run as Momma Rose in Gypsy when we spoke—recalled the beginning of the 1998 production. “I knew I was part of something special from the very first workshop, when we heard ‘Wheels of a Dream,’” she said. “There was an electric energy in the room. We were nearing the end of a millennium and hoped the show would help move society forward in some way.”
For deBessonet, the show “had this epic quality, capturing movements of people and history, while also telling deeply personal stories with emotional intimacy,” she remembered. “Seeing how music in the show makes the pain and dreams of history feel real was revolutionary to me. I thought, That’s the kind of theater I want to make.”
She visited the city again during spring break of her senior year, when a chance encounter at LaGuardia Airport with Anne Bogart, an influential figure in experimental theater, led to a temporary job assisting Bogart. This experience gave her the confidence to move to New York. But breaking into directing proved challenging. “There are no auditions for directors,” deBessonet explained. “Who’s going to hand you resources, people to work with, or a space?” So she hustled, working day jobs—including overnight shifts at an illegal poker club—while staging plays in church basements and on rooftops. She eventually made a name for herself with her 2007 production of Bertolt Brecht’s SAt PS122, she saw a production of “Saint Joan of the Stockyards,” but what truly struck her was the narrow demographic of the audience. This experience fueled her community work, most recently through One Nation/One Project—a collaboration involving mayors’ offices, health centers, and local artists in 18 U.S. cities, all creating works that premiered on the same day last summer. Inspired by the 1930s Federal Theatre Project and its director Hallie Flanagan, whom she calls “the most visionary figure in American theater history,” deBessonet shares Flanagan’s belief that everyone deserves art as part of daily life.
After five years as artistic director of Encores!, a series reviving classic musicals at New York City Center, deBessonet now joins Lincoln Center Theater. Last October, around the election, her production of “Ragtime” ran for two weeks and was met with rave reviews. Audiences and critics alike found deep emotional resonance in the characters’ ideals and disappointments, reaching beyond politics.
As Mother, Caissie Levy performs “Back to Before,” a moving, early feminist ballad about love and change. Levy describes it as “one of those iconic songs that says so much about where we are as women, as people, as a society.” Shaina Taub reprises her role as Emma Goldman, whom she calls an “activist doula” for awakening the political awareness of Mother’s Younger Brother, played by Ben Levi Ross. Taub notes that Goldman, who thrived before audiences, shared deBessonet’s view of theater’s social role: “She called her speeches her ‘ecstatic song’ and wrote a book about how theater holds up a powerful mirror to society.”
With 33 cast members and a 28-piece orchestra, “Ragtime” is a major undertaking for any director. But Brandon Uranowitz, who plays Tateh and is a Tony-winning actor, says that under deBessonet’s community-focused leadership, the experience feels purposeful: “It’s like a community with a message. Being in such a large ensemble is like one big trust fall—we rely completely on each other.”
The ragtime music itself is central to the play’s impact, not just a backdrop. Joshua Henry, who plays Coalhouse Walker Jr., explains, “The music moves like a question America was asking itself then: How do we deal with these people, and who are we becoming?” For Henry, Coalhouse’s powerful late ballad, “Make Them Hear You,” speaks directly to our divided times: “How do we see and hear each other in such complicated moments?”
For deBessonet, the answer lies in a deep faith in theater’s healing power. “It comes from a release of truth,” she says. “It’s about how we create sacred space when we focus together on listening and receiving a story. ‘Ragtime’ is an epic with the full emotional range—a musical of ideas, passion, violence, romance, social movements, tragedy, and the hope found in community and the fight for justice.”
In this story:
Hair by Miwako Urasugi
Makeup by Marco Campos
Tailoring by Alanna Beneroff
Produced by Modem Creative
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about the new Ragtime revival on Broadway designed to be helpful for both newcomers and seasoned theater fans
General Information
Q What is Ragtime about
A Its a musical that weaves together the stories of three different groups in early 1900s America a wealthy white suburban family a Black musician from Harlem and a Jewish Latvian immigrant It deals with themes of racism immigration and social change
Q Is this a new musical or a revival
A Its a revival The original production opened on Broadway in 1998 and was a big hit winning several Tony Awards This is a new production for a new audience
Q When and where is it playing
A Its coming to Broadway The specific theatre and exact dates for previews and opening night will be announced by the production company Keep an eye on official Broadway news sources for updates
Q Who is in the cast and creative team
A Casting and the full creative team are typically announced closer to the start of previews This information will be widely publicized on the shows official website and social media
For Those New to the Show
Q Ive never heard of Ragtime Why is this revival such a big deal
A The musical is based on a famous novel by EL Doctorow and has a powerful beloved score Its considered a classic A revival is a big deal because it gives a new generation a chance to see a celebrated show that speaks directly to many issues still relevant today
Q What kind of music is in it
A The score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens is a beautiful mix of traditional Broadway ragtime gospel and folk music Its very sweeping and emotional
Q Is it appropriate for children
A The show deals with mature themes including racial violence and death Its generally recommended for older teens and adults You should check the official content guidance when its released
Relevance and Themes
Q Why is it described as strikingly relevant