Ragtime

Last Thursday, I attended the a showing of Ragtime.  Ragtime dealt with some heavy topics, particularly pertaining to race, equality, freedom, wealth and poverty, and the American Dream.  It followed the lives of three very different families living at the turn of the century whose lives become intertwined through a series of events.  There is a white upper class family who finds the baby of an African American woman in her garden.  When the mother of the baby is found, the upper class family takes her in, and the father of her baby ends up finding her.  Meanwhile, the play also follows the story of an immigrant and his daughter who are poor and hoping to create a better life for themselves.

Needless to say, it was phenomenal.  From the very first song, I was enthralled.  The talented performers had me laughing, gasping, and crying in all of the right ways.  The play was very well casted, and every actor and actress seamlessly assumed his or her role and transported the audience back to the America of the turn of the twentieth century.  The dynamics of the characters was fantastic, and they all played off of each other extremely well.  The costumes were also incredibly done.  Each of these elements worked together to display the changes that occurred in each of the characters’ lives throughout the course of the play

The message of the play was the most powerful part.  I particularly like how relevant the play is to current-day America, as many of the issues that the play addresses still need to be fixed.  Although many Americans seem to believe that issues of race, economic status, and freedom are not relevant any more, these problems are still confronted by people every day.  This play brought them to the forefront of their minds once again and showed the audience the good that can come from tackling those issues.  The message, and the portrayal of this message, made the play absolutely incredible and touching in all of the right ways.  Props to the Elon University musical theater department – Ragtime absolutely blew my mind.