InTune

On opening weekend of the 2023 Spring Pops season, Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert will finally make its debut, after being originally scheduled as part of the 2020 Spring Pops and Keith Lockhart’s twenty-fifth season.

Set in early 1900s New York, this special version of the Tony Award-winning 1998 Broadway musical, based on the eponymous E.L. Doctorow novel, follows a melting pot of historical and fictional characters grappling with the American Dream while trying to adapt to the changing world. Though set over a century ago, the themes are oddly prescient, and Keith Lockhart, Julian and Eunice Cohen Boston Pops Conductor, believes the musical could have been written today with little alteration. “It’s all there: systemic racism, institutionalized violence, bigotry,” Lockhart says.

The Boston Pops’ long relationship with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, who won a Tony and were nominated for two Grammys for their score, began on July 4, 1998, when the Pops presented segments from Ragtime’s First National Tour. When the Pops expressed interest in the musical, the pair jumped at the chance, enlisting Terrence McNally to adapt his Tony-winning script. Jason Danieley, whose late wife Marin Mazzie starred in the original Broadway production, joined as director. Danieley also acknowledges the musical’s timeliness. “It’s an ugly and unfortunate truth that things haven’t really changed that much,” he explains.

Concert preparations were underway when, in early 2020, things were about to change. In mid-March, Lockhart had dinner in Florida with Flaherty, Ahrens, and Danieley, discussing what seemed to be a “looming cataclysm.” As they left dinner, they had no idea that three days later, their productions would be cancelled. Two weeks later, McNally was one of the first prominent victims of the pandemic. “I'm proud that we're finally performing it,” Lockhart says, “and want to dedicate our performance to Terrence McNally, a great figure in the American theater.”

When assembling the talent, Lockhart, Danieley, Flaherty, and Ahrens were all directly involved. “Just shy of a Broadway revival, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better-suited cast,” Danieley says. Beyond the seven principals, including past Pops guests Nikki Renée Daniels and Alton Fitzgerald White joining Tony nominees Elizabeth Stanley and John Cariani, the cast includes twenty-six local performers, including musical theatre actors, opera singers, and students and teachers from Emerson College and the Boston Conservatory. “There is so much talent in this city!” Danieley is sure to note.

“Ragtime would have been a highlight of my twenty-fifth anniversary season,” says Lockhart, and a burning desire has spearheaded its return. Bringing it to the stage was too much for the 2021 virtual and 2022 return seasons, but Lockhart sees it differently: “Maybe this means we really are back!” The score itself, Danieley believes, will be an experience for audiences. In an age of shrinking Broadway orchestras, this concert will take William David Brohn’s Tony-winning orchestrations, augmented by Kim Scharnberg, to embrace the epic story. “It gives the Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart a score to really sink their teeth into,” Danieley explains.

The perfect union of every aspect is why the concert must be shared with as wide an audience as possible, with Symphony Hall and Tanglewood both hosting the concert. “Music is a universal uniter,” Danieley believes. While the musical tackles heavy topics, it ultimately gives audiences hope. “Ragtime is also about the ongoing beacon of promise that is America, and it's about people overcoming their prejudices and gaining new understanding and empathy,” Lockhart reminds. Danieley is certain the musical will uplift audiences with the overriding good in the country’s conscience, the spirit of perseverance, and the greater good in all of us.

And at the end of the concert, Danieley has one hope. “I wish for the audience to float out of Symphony Hall on the gorgeous music, with a heart full of hope for our country’s future, and find a way to emulate that same spirit in their own lives,” he explains.

Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert at Symphony Hall is made possible by Bayberry Financial Services (May 12), Eaton Vance (May 13 matinee), and New Balance (May 13 evening). Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert at Tanglewood (July 8) is the Carol Reich Memorial Concert.

Tickets for the Symphony Hall concerts can be purchased here and the Tanglewood concert here.