‘Ragtime’ to open on Broadway this fall

The acclaimed production previously had a limited run at New York City Center in fall 2024 and will now return to Broadway for the first time in 15 years.

It is the music of something beginning! The award-winning musical Ragtime will return to Broadway this spring, with performances beginning on September 26 ahead of an October 16 opening at Lincoln Center Theater’s Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Ragtime paints a portrait of the sociopolitical landscape of New York in the early 1900s through the lens of three groups: Black New Yorkers, upper-class white suburbanites, and Eastern European immigrants. The lives of real historical figures and fictional characters intersect in various ways in this adaptation of the 1975 same-named novel by E. L. Doctorow.

Ragtime first played on Broadway from 1998-2000, winning four Tony Awards including Best Book of a Musical (for book writer Terrence McNally) and Best Original Score (for composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens). A short-lived revival took place from November 2009 to January 2010, and the 2025 revival marks its first time on Broadway since.

This production, a stripped-back concert staging, first had a limited Off-Broadway run at New York City Center in fall 2024. It played to critical acclaim under the direction of newly minted LCT artistic director Lear deBessonet, who will also stage the Broadway run.

Returning to the Ragtime cast from the Off-Broadway production are Joshua Henry as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Caissie Levy as Mother, and Tony Award winner Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh.

Additional Broadway casting for Ragtime has yet to be announced. The Off-Broadway cast also included Colin Donnell as Father, Ben Levi Ross as Younger Brother, Shaina Taub as Emma Goldman, Nichelle Lewis as Sarah, John Clay III as Booker T. Washington, Rodd Cyrus as Harry Houdini, Matthew Lamb as The Little Boy, Tabitha Lawing as The Little Girl, Stephanie Styles as Evelyn Nesbit, Tom Nelis as Grandfather, John Rapson as J.P. Morgan, Jacob Keith Watson as Willie Conklin, Jeff Kready as Henry Ford, Olivia Hernandez as Kathleen, and Tiffany Mann as Sarah’s Friend.

Check back for information on Ragtime tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

Photo credit: Caissie Levy, Joshua Henry, and Brandon Uranowitz. (Photo by Marc J. Franklin)