Up next in 10
Character Breakdown: RAGTIME Cast Unpacks Their Roles
Nov 5, 2024
The music of Ragtime plays on at New York City Center until November 10! The annual gala presentation for 2024 is the sweeping, powerful musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel of the same name features music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and a book by Terrence McNally. An all-star cast brings the iconic characters to life onstage. Watch in this video as the cast unpacks their roles.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:30
that it's been really fun to sort of like peel the layers and figure out who she is in my version
0:37
It's really interesting to me that she is taking care of all the men in her life
0:43
And over the course of the piece, starts to find her own way, you know
0:47
and what her life means to her and how she wants to move forward. It's such a modern woman
0:52
And that's been very exciting to play. And such a 180 from Diana next to normal to go from that to this has been totally banana
0:59
but really exciting and really creatively satisfying. So yeah. So I play Sarah and I think what I love about her is that she looks at Cole House
1:12
this black man who I think in this time people weren really seeing black men this way but she sees the American dream and she sees someone who is so beautiful
1:24
someone who could change not only just her life, but a whole community's life
1:28
And I really think that is so important and spectacular and beautiful about her
1:34
What I love about Cole House, like I mentioned a little bit early
1:38
but he's a leader, he's aware of who he is in the community. He's aware of history
1:44
He talks about Booker T. Washington. He's inspired. He believes in the American dream
1:49
And, you know, no spoilers, but I love that that's where we find him
1:53
And I love that he falls and he eventually does the right thing
1:59
So you see this black man go from believing to possibly not to understanding his place and his time and his moment in history
2:07
I'm about to play Tata, the Jewish immigrant. who is pursuing, you know, the age-old American dream
2:16
That dream seems to be out of his reach. And then you come to find out that through his resilience
2:28
he is able to achieve that dream. And I think the thing that I am most impressed by and the thing that I most admire about the character is his resilience
2:41
And I mean, I can't just choose one thing because it's his resilience in the face of, like, adversity and othering and xenophobia and all of that
2:53
But it's also the love that he has for his daughter and the lengths he will go to
3:01
make her happy and and survive anything that comes their way. That's, to me, he just inhabits love
3:12
I'm playing father. What I love about him. You know, I just think that father represents a certain type of person in the world
3:27
and he's a nice foil for what else is happening. He's a guy who's stuck in his ways
3:33
And as the world is progressing, he's trying to push back against it and against it as he goes along
3:38
And there's a bit of an arc in the show for Father, which is wonderful to be able to explore
3:44
But you know I think the story it hard to work without this type of person I love how truly radical Emma Goldman is You know thinking of Emma Goldman in the context of Alice Paul who I play every night Emma Goldman actually wasn a huge fan of the suffrage movement which might surprise folks
4:02
But she was such an anarchist that she thought, why would we try and agitate for a right in a system that is inherently corrupt
4:09
Let's burn the system down. And I love that because feminism, it's not a monolith, right
4:15
There's so many different ways I consider Emma Goldman a feminist, but I bet she and Alice Paul would have, like
4:19
kind of fought over their principles in this way that it's exciting to me
4:24
I am about to play Mother's Younger Brother in Ragtime. And I think what I love about the part as an actor is that it is like there's a real 180 flip in this show that happens with him
4:39
And I think it's so cool that you get to see sort of who he is prior to this awakening and what this sort of moment with Emma Goldman does for him
4:49
And I think he really is, he has a heart. Like he's, he and mother are sort of kind of the only people in that new Rochelle family that are sensing the, what's going on in the world outside of their little bubble
5:06
And I think it's a really important character in this show
#Events & Listings
#Acting & Theater
#Drama Films
#Family Films
#Broadway & Musical Theater