'Ragtime' in the Greene Space

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Ragtime" in the Greene Space

Podcast: All Of It with Alison Stewart
Host: Alison Stewart, WNYC
Date: August 7, 2026

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Overview

This special "Broadway on the Radio" episode of All Of It brings listeners inside The Greene Space at WNYC for a live event with the cast and creative team behind the Tony Award-winning revival of "Ragtime." The discussion, interspersed with stirring live performances, delves into the musical’s enduring relevance, personal connections to its themes of identity, change, and the American Dream, and the collaborative artistry behind this acclaimed production.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Power of Ragtime: Personal and Historical Resonance

• Opening Performance: The episode opens with a performance of “He Wanted to Say” by Joshua Henry (Coalhouse Walker, Jr.), Shayna Taub (Emma Goldman), and Ben Levi Ross (Mother’s Younger Brother), immediately highlighting the show’s message of shared humanity.
• Connection to American Identity: The panel reflects on how "Ragtime" serves both as a lens for viewing America's multifaceted history and as a mirror for current times.
  • Alison Stewart (host): "What does the show have to say in 2020?"
    • Lierre Debessonet (director): "People are hearing lines differently... We say, 'No, every word is what it was originally,' but we are hearing it differently. Because theater always is meeting us in the present moment." ([13:31])
• Memory and Hope:
  • Shayna Taub quotes theologian Walter Bruggmann:
    • "Amnesia produces despair in the same way memory produces hope." ([15:12])
    • She emphasizes the importance of national memory and storytelling in fostering hope and critical engagement.

2. Character Exploration: Emma Goldman, Mother’s Younger Brother, Tateh, and Mother

• Emma Goldman (Shayna Taub):
  • "A joyful anarchist...her vision of anarchy...was predicated on the idea that human beings, when left to our own devices, cooperate. She brought a spirit of joie de vivre and humanity to all of her protests." ([05:02])
• Mother’s Younger Brother (Ben Levi Ross):
  • He identifies as "a little messy" in contrast to Emma, more impetuous, but with an earnest heart.
  • On historical inspiration:
    • Hearing "Daddy’s Son" as a child was "the most intensely...all-encompassing emotional experience I’ve ever heard in a musical." ([07:13])
• Tateh (Brandon Uranovitz):
  • Shares his journey as an immigrant in search of self-actualization and safety for his daughter, contending with disappointment and persistent hope.
  • "Despite the oppression, despite the roadblocks...he never gives up hope ever for one second." ([21:00])
• Mother (Casey Levy):
  • On her character's growth: "She is fundamentally changed by each of these interactions...she is mothering herself and parenting herself through the biggest shift in her life." ([22:53])
  • "She is just trying to do the right thing at all turns...her moral compass is very strong, and it gets stronger as the show goes on." ([28:16])

3. Artistic Process and Impact

• Large-Scale Orchestra and Epic Staging:
  • Lierre Debessonet (director): Revels in orchestrating one of Broadway’s largest ensembles: "The epic nature of Ragtime is actually because of its subject matter. American history...requires a grandness." ([11:30])
  • Ben Levi Ross: Describes performing with a 28-piece orchestra as, "like a dream come true...I feel it, like, rumbling up through me." ([12:03])
• Legacy and Healing:
  • Brandon Uranovitz shares returning to "Ragtime" nearly 30 years after being cut from the original Broadway transfer as a child: "It was like a deeply traumatizing experience for me...To me, this entire thing, it’s so surreal coming sort of full circle now...it just feels like a cosmic realignment, and it’s been an incredibly healing experience." ([25:18])

4. Ragtime’s Relevance: Then and Now

• Reinterpretation Over Time:
  • Lierre Debessonet notes that while the script has not changed, its lines land differently now, reflecting America’s ongoing struggles and hopes ([13:31]).
• Themes of Inclusion and the American Dream:
  • Cast members share personal stories of connection, from family immigration to finding representation as artists and individuals on stage.

5. The Transformative Power of Live Theater

• Community and Catharsis:
  • Reflecting on performing "Ragtime" and "Suffs" during the 2024 election, Shayna Taub says:
    • "I felt so lucky to be with my theater community, to be with my New York community on that day and process it together in one of our public spaces." ([10:13])
• Music as Identity and Resistance:
  • Joshua Henry (Coalhouse): "Music is everything to him. His position in the community as an accomplished musician, there's a lot of esteem there. A lot of who he is is based around music." ([44:01])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Shayna Taub (Emma Goldman): “She brought a spirit of joie de vivre and humanity to all of her protests.” ([05:02])
• Ben Levi Ross (Mother’s Younger Brother): “He’s like, ‘let’s just blow some stuff up. Let's just burn it to the ground.’ Like, he’s a little crazier, but his heart is in the right place.” ([05:47])
• Brandon Uranovitz (Tateh): “He lives at the sort of intersection of, like, rage and buffoonery, and that is, like, exactly where I exist, I think. And it just feels like a cosmic realignment, and it’s been an incredibly healing experience.” ([25:18])
• Shayna Taub: “Amnesia produces despair in the same way memory produces hope.” ([15:12])
• Joshua Henry (Coalhouse): “Each project is specific...you’ve got to really experiment...listen to your body and hear your voice and observe the incredible folks around you.” ([41:06])
• Nichelle Lewis (Sarah): “It feels surreal to be able to tell her story in such a beautiful way...it is a moment of visibility as well because I feel so many women go through what she’s going through.” ([37:56])

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Live Performances & Timestamps for Highlights

• "He Wanted to Say" — Joshua Henry, Shayna Taub, Ben Levi Ross: [02:09–04:39]
• "Gliding" — Brandon Uranovitz: [18:08–20:30]
• "Our Children" — Casey Levy and Brandon Uranovitz: [30:06–32:17]
• "Your Daddy's Son" — Nichelle Lewis: [33:35–36:55]
• "Wheels of a Dream" — Joshua Henry and Nichelle Lewis: [46:59–50:24]

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Additional Insights

• Personal Impact: Many cast members shared stories of encountering Ragtime as children or students, and the profound effect the music and narrative had on their sense of self and aspirations.
• Creating Empathy: The production’s themes are called timeless—offering both critique and hope: "Not like a simple, easy, everything’s going to be okay hope, but a hope that demands that we look at our past and ask ourselves how we’re being complicit in the present." (Shayna Taub, [15:12])
• Intersectionality and Representation:
  • The actors speak to crossing lines of identity—immigrant, Jewish, black, female—and finding resonance in each other’s stories as well as their characters’.

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Conclusion

This live Greene Space event offers an intimate, profound exploration of "Ragtime"'s place in American musical theater and cultural conversation. Through song, story, and spirited dialogue, the cast and creative team illustrate how art can bridge past and present, comfort and challenge audiences, and underscore the necessity of remembrance, empathy, and action.

For full performances and further insights, visit WNYC's show page or the "Broadway on the Radio" YouTube channel.

Transcript

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart. Happy Friday, everyone. I'm really glad that you're joining us today. Later on in the show, we'll have today's installment of our American History Friday series. Every Friday this summer, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we're sharing some of the conversations of about the lives of some of the great Americans who have helped shape the nation's history. Today we'll hear about lbj, not President Lyndon Baines Johnson, but his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. We'll take a deep dive into her life, her environmental advocacy, and what it was like for her to support her husband, who became president in the wake of a national tragedy, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We'll hear more about Lady Bird Johnson in just a bit, but for now, let's get things started with a little Broadway on the radio. Earlier this year, Team all of it held an in person event in WNYC's performance venue, the Green Space with the cast and creative team behind the new revival of Ragtime, which is having its final show on Aug. 16 at the Lincoln Center Theater. The musical is based on E.L. doctorow's 1975 novel. This year it took home four Tony Awards for best revival of a musical, Best sound design of a musical, best performance in their categories for Casey Levy and Joshua Henry. So let's get things going and hear some music from the original cast of Ragtime with a performance of He Wanted to say. We'll hear the voices of Joshua Henry who plays Coalhouse Walker junior Shayna Taub who played Emma Goldman and Ben Levi Ross who played a young man making a choice. It's a song about how and why we aren't that different from each other. Here's He Wanted to say, what is it you want?

[Ben Levi Ross]

Well I wanted to I know that

[Shayna Taub]

if I were he wanted to say

[Casey Levy]

I am here because I have to

[Shayna Taub]

be he wanted to say I am

[Casey Levy]

here for what is right Every day

[Shayna Taub]

I wake up Knowing what you've lost

[Casey Levy]

and what is owing I would shed this skin if I could to stand with you and fight.

[Shayna Taub]

He wanted to say I am not who I appear to be he wanted to say do not blame me for my past we have different lives and faces but our hearts have common places this was deep inside me and you helped me find it at last. Two men meeting for a moment in the darkness One turning from one waking to America to a man of finding For a moment in the darkness they're the same. He wanted to say how I envy you, your innocence. He wanted to say by your side, I could be brave. If there's such a thing as justice, let me help you find your justice. This I do for you and for Sarah, who lies in her grave.

[Casey Levy]

But all he said was,

[Ben Levi Ross]

I know how to blow things up.

[Shayna Taub]

Two men meeting for a moment in the darkness. For a moment in the darkness.

[Alison Stewart]

Shana Taub, Ben Levi Ross and Joshua Henry singing He wanted to save for Ragtime. We're live in the green space for the stars and the creative team from our series Broadway on the Radio. Joshua, he's gonna rest his vocals a little bit. We expect a little more from you later on the show. I'll talk to Shayna and Ben first. Shayna, you play Emma Goldman.

[Casey Levy]

Yes.

[Alison Stewart]

How would you describe her?

[Casey Levy]

Oh, a joyful anarchist. I think Emma, you know, historically her vision of anarchy, I think from my understanding her writings was predicated on the idea that human beings, when left to our own devices, cooperate. And I think that's sort of a fundamentally positive, you know, anarchy can get a bad rap for being like negative. But I think that's beautiful, you know, and I think so. To me, I've tried to, you know, she is clear headed about the dangers and the violence and all the horrors facing the country at that time and our time as well, frankly. But I think that she brought a spirit of joie de vivre and humanity to all of her protests.

[Alison Stewart]

In the show, your character sees Emma Goldman, she sees her at a speech. How does that change your character?

[Ben Levi Ross]

Seeing her speak, it's. Well, to quote the great music of Ragtime, it's like a firework, unexploded, wanting life but never knowing how. That's what mother's younger brother is. He wants to dedicate himself to something. And as you were talking, Shaina, I was thinking, well, he's not as clear headed. I think he's a little messy with it. He's like, let's just blow some stuff up. Let's just burn it to the ground. Like, he's a little crazier, but I think his heart is in the right place. And Emma Goldman is that sort of. You say activist doula, right?

[Casey Levy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Levi Ross]

You describe yourself for me.

[Casey Levy]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

You once said that Showtime is one of your favorite shows. How did it become your favorite show?

[Casey Levy]

I was me. Yes. Sorry. I'm so excited. I love Ragtime. I was a little kid growing up in a small town in Vermont. My mom got me the two disc set of the original cast album for Hanukkah, I think, in 1998. And it just opened my world. I just. It was my portal into the past, into my own Jewish identity and history and opened me up to learn about experiences that weren't my own. And it just. Yeah, it gave me a real, real context for American history that I wasn't finding anywhere else. And that's what art can do, right? You can just like reach through the stage or reach through your CD player. Sorry, you know, from the eight. Let's bring back CD players. But yeah, it really.

[Alison Stewart]

We're trying.

[Casey Levy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

What's your history with Ragtime?

[Ben Levi Ross]

My history with ragtime is that when I was 11 years old, I remember being on a plane and my sister putting an earbud in my ear and playing for me. Andre McDonald singing Daddy's Son. And I was like, A, I'm gay and. And B, that is the most beautiful voice and most intensely. Just sort of absolutely all encompassing emotional experience I've ever heard in a musical. And then I did not do Ragtime until Lear Debessonet approached me about City Center a year ago. And I fell in love with this character very deeply because I didn't really know about Mother's younger brother until this experience.

[Alison Stewart]

For people who don't know, Shana wrote Suffs.

[Shayna Taub]

Yes.

[Ben Levi Ross]

Give it up.

[Alison Stewart]

She won two Tony Short. Was Ragtime an inspiration for Suffs?

[Casey Levy]

There would be no Suffs without Ragtime. It was my central inspiration. It's what set me on a whole. It was my North Star, my guiding light. Everything about McNally, Aarons and Flaherty's masterpiece was just sort of my, like, holy book. It was my Torah, you know, like, for this experience, absolutely. I just hoped I could inspire another young girl or any kid, you know,

[Alison Stewart]

the same way I'm sure you have. You play Emma Goldman in this. You played Alice Paul. Did you ever. They were on the opposite sides of women's suffrage a little bit.

[Casey Levy]

It's quite interesting. I wonder what they would have to say to each other. I don't think Alice Paul was radical enough for Emma.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Casey Levy]

You know, like Alice, while a radical, was, I think, trying to work within a system where, you know, get win a right to enfranchisement within a government system. And Emma was, to Ben's point, burn it all to the ground. She thought, why fight for a right within a system that fundamentally won't support you? And I see, I see. I understand both perspectives.

[Alison Stewart]

Just went to my next question. Which side are you on? Do you think?

[Casey Levy]

I'd be somewhere in the middle. Yeah.

[Lierre Debessonet]

All right.

[Alison Stewart]

You played Nick Carraway.

[Casey Levy]

Oh, yeah, I did, yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

And the Great Gatsby as well. And you're playing this part and you're thinking about Ragtime. And I was wondering, what do you like about playing historical characters?

[Ben Levi Ross]

Characters, I guess they just find me. No, I don't know that it's something that I set out to do. But I think that specifically with Nick Carraway, there is some. You know what I'm noticing between the two of them, like there is this sort of narrator figure that both, obviously Nick Carraway has, but that a younger brother actually takes on in this show, which I always find interesting because you get to sort of have like a direct line with the audience a little bit. We do. We. We do break the fourth wall in Ragtime. Like I direct address the audience multiple times in the show. And I think that that's. That that's cool to me.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Joshua Henry]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

All right. When Suff was running in 2024, you were in Suffs and Ragtime at the same time.

[Ben Levi Ross]

Election.

[Alison Stewart]

And the election. What was that like for you the

[Casey Levy]

day after the election? 2024? I did SUFFS in the afternoon, in the Wednesday matinee, and then Ragtime in the evening. And I was so grateful. I mean, to be in a theater, right. This is one of the places that we all get to come together and feel out loud in public. We're not sitting in our silos, scrolling on our phone. And whether that's in a moment of big social celebration, social commiseration, an election that went our way, an election that didn't, that the theater is here for us to not be alone in those feelings. And to me, the great works of art, which I think Ragtime is one, is expansive enough to contain how you feel on either day. So for me, I felt so lucky to be with my theater community, to be with my New York community on that day and process it together in one of our public spaces where in America we're still allowed to tell these stories on stage. And I think we need to exercise that right as much as we can.

[Shayna Taub]

Yes, yes.

[Alison Stewart]

And joining us now is Lierre Debessinet, the director of Ragt. Lear. You have a 28 piece orchestra, possibly the largest orchestra on Broadway. You have a huge cast. What was the challenge behind orchestrating such a huge group of people?

[Lierre Debessonet]

Oh, I love making epic events. It's actually my favorite thing to do as a director. And I think that the really, the epic nature of Ragtime is actually because of its subject Matter. I mean, American history and the complexity, beauty, pain of the American Dream. I think requires. There's just. There is a grandness baked into the questions of this piece. And it feels like the only way to tell the story.

[Alison Stewart]

Do you like performing with the huge orchestra?

[Ben Levi Ross]

It's like a dream come true. It's amazing.

[Alison Stewart]

What's interesting about it as a singer?

[Ben Levi Ross]

Well, it feels. What's our stage at the Vivienne Beaumont is a thrust stage that sort of. We feel encompassed by the audience. And the orchestra is beneath us. And I swear, sometimes I can. Like, maybe it's just an energy thing, but I feel it, like, rumbling up through me. And to have 28 brilliant musicians at the top of their game underneath it. It feels like something that I'm standing on. Like, it truly feels like I'm standing on the. The brilliance of this score and of this music. And you hear it in its grandeur with that many instruments.

[Lierre Debessonet]

Part of what has been so exciting for me about this moment is Ragtime is the first production in my new tenure. As the artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater. And coming in, I felt like there is this tradition at Lincoln Center. Of being able to do musical revivals. With an orchestra the size that it was written for. And being able to step into that tradition and really honor this music. Felt like such an important way to begin this next chapter.

[Alison Stewart]

Ragtime takes place in the early 20th century. The novel came out in the 1970s. The premiere of the original happened in the 1990s. What does the show have to say in 2020?

[Lierre Debessonet]

The show invites the audience to hold space together. In a uniquely live way. Where you're sitting there with over a thousand other people. That are feeling and breathing at the same time as you. And we're invited to think about, essentially, the meaning of America in this moment. Which is more. Is so completely complex and different for every person in the audience. But I think the reason that I believe Ragtime is resonating even beyond what we had hoped. Or, like, beyond our wildest dream, honestly, of how we hoped it would resonate. Is I think people are fine. People are hearing lines differently that actually have always been in the script. But many people have said, did you update anything? And we say, no. This is every word is what it was originally. But we are hearing it differently. Because theater always is meeting us in. In the present moment. And this story. Looking at the early 20th century. And the ways that different groups of people come together in pursuit of the American Dream. Some encountering, you know, great elation and promise. And others really facing, you know, holding the wounds of this country. I think it just is meaning a lot right now. And we're so grateful for it.

[Alison Stewart]

Shane, the show just got extended until August, I believe it is.

[Casey Levy]

Yes, August 2nd.

[Alison Stewart]

And it'll be running through the 250th anniversary of the United States on July 4th. How do you hope people will think about American identity, whether they're watching it now or they're watching the show? What do you think they're going to think about American identity through Ragtime?

[Casey Levy]

There's a quote I love by, I think, a theologian named Walter Bruggmann that says amnesia produces despair in the same way memory produces hope. And I love that, right? Like when we forget where we've been and we forget our country's past, then we despair and we fall into this seductive embrace of cynicism because we think we've never been here before. But memory and an active national memory, right? A national imagination where we're allowed to tell our stories on public broadcasts like WNYC and at the Smithsonian and on PBS and all these places that they're attacking because they know how powerful storytelling is, frankly. They know that's their show. They know how powerful it is when people get in a room and they reckon with the past, as Lira saying, with the. She always says, the promise and the wound of our past. So I hope that the memory produces a hope that goes hand in hand with critical thinking. Not like a simple, easy, everything's gonna be okay hope, but a hope that demands that we look at our past and ask ourselves how we're being complicit in the present.

[Alison Stewart]

Ben, you recently performed in the New York City subway.

[Ben Levi Ross]

Yes, we did. Together.

[Casey Levy]

We're osc.

[Alison Stewart]

How do you think about New York differently after performing in the subway?

[Ben Levi Ross]

Well, after. I mean, that there are nice acoustics. I don't. You know, but. But I do think my grand great grandparents came through Ellis Island. And when we were first rehearsing Ragtime at City Center, I took a long walk after rehearsal, one of the early days. And I swear I found myself on Orchard in Rivington, which is a street that Tate sings about in Success. And I. I could not stop crying for, like, about 20 minutes. I called my dad and I was like, this is just. I feel, like, very connected to my ancestors right now. And so I think of New York through the lens of Ragtime. Every day that I'm performing the show,

[Alison Stewart]

you are listening to Broadway on the radio from all of it on wnyc, we'll have more after a quick break. This is all of. This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Welcome back to our Broadway on the Radio event. With the cast and crew behind Ragtime, we'll pick things up with a song from Brandon Uranovitz, who plays Tate, a European Jewish immigrant to New York, explaining to his daughter why it's important to imagine. Here's that song called Gliding.

[Shayna Taub]

See the silhouettes? It's a little book of silhouettes.

[Brandon Uranovitz]

When you flip the pages, they move.

[Shayna Taub]

Look how nice

[Brandon Uranovitz]

this is.

[Shayna Taub]

You on skating turning pretty figure eights on this smooth, cool eyes. We are gliding, gliding on a pond Close your eyes, close your eyes we are gliding, gliding far beyond Close your

[Lierre Debessonet]

eyes,

[Shayna Taub]

close your eyes Feel the wind as you ped away Are you happy yet? Are you happy yet? Your mama would tell you Imagine you're fearless Imagine you're fearless and soon you won't fear When I am afraid I imagine your mama, she skates just ahead. Can you see her?

[Alison Stewart]

She's here.

[Shayna Taub]

And we're gliding, gliding, riding a far

[Lierre Debessonet]

away,

[Shayna Taub]

you know, X figure eights, silver skates just down the track. Collide with me, little one Collide with your topic. We'll never look.

[Alison Stewart]

That was Brandon Uranovitz as Tate performing gliding from Ragtime. This is Broadway on a Radio event from wnyc. We're live in the green space. Let's give it up for the band one more time. And we're going to invite Casey Levy on stage, who plays mother. Aw, that's very sweet. Brandon, you play Tate.

[Brandon Uranovitz]

I do.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's put people in the show. What's been going on in Tate's life before he sings gliding

[Brandon Uranovitz]

a lot, a lot of discovery. I would say he comes to America to pursue the American dream like so many of our ancestors did. And I think as an artist, he hopes that he will find self actualization and freedom in a country that allows him the space to be himself. And he learns pretty quickly that this may be not accessible to him and his daughter. And he's, you know, he's really looking for a better life for his daughter. Specifically. You know, it's different in the the novel by E.L. doctorow than it is in the, the show. But in the show, in Ragtime, Tate's wife is no longer with us. And so I think he's trying to start a clean slate for him and his, his daughter. And he learns very quickly that that's not necessarily possible. But the thing about Tate that I find so moving and I hope that, you know, reaches across the fourth wall and into the audience. And something that Shaina talks so beautifully about is despite the oppression, despite the roadblocks, despite all of the obstacles, despite everything in his way, he never gives up hope ever for one second. And that's what this song is about, is teaching his daughter to how to hold on to hope. And I think that's what sort of launch is the launch pad for him in Act 2, when he finally succeeds and achieves the American dream.

[Alison Stewart]

I think your character is Mother Casey and she first encounters Tate early on in the show. What is she dealing with when they first meet?

[Lierre Debessonet]

She's dealing with quite a lot. She's been living in her house on the hill in New Rochelle for quite some time, very comfortably with her husband and her son. And her husband goes away on a trip and life begins to shift around her and she is opened up to the world around her. And she meets Sarah and Sarah's child and Kohlhaas comes into her life and she meets Tate and she is fundamentally changed by each of these interactions. And she, as she is, you know, we only know her as mother, as she is mothering everyone else. She is very much mothering herself and parenting herself through the biggest shift in her life. And in this next song that we're going to sing, this is a beautiful moment where Tata and Mother, who come from vastly different worlds, are finding common ground and watching their children innocently play and connect, unbothered by their differences that we as adults often get so tied up in and what we can learn from them. So it's a really beautiful moment for

[Alison Stewart]

people who don't know people who aren't ragtimers. This is not your first ragtime rodeo.

[Brandon Uranovitz]

It's not.

[Alison Stewart]

It's not. Do you want to tell people about that?

[Brandon Uranovitz]

Sure, sure. So I was introduced to, to ragtime about 30 years ago when I played the little boy in the pre Broadway tryout in Toronto with Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Peter Friedman, the late great mayor Maisie. Yeah, and it was an extraordinary experience. I grew up just outside of New York City in New Jersey, and I had dreams of being on Broadway. And here I was part of this massive, beautiful, epic production that was going to Broadway. And you know, the thing is, is I was playing a character that did not necessarily align with my own identity. I, you know, Lea Michele was playing the little girl and I kind of looked like her twin brother. And it was, you know, I think just in terms of meeting the themes of the show, it just was not a good fit. And they didn't bring me to Broadway, and I was the only one who they didn't bring. And it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you.

[Shayna Taub]

Yeah.

[Brandon Uranovitz]

And it was. It was like a deeply traumatizing experience for me.

[Lierre Debessonet]

No big deal.

[Alison Stewart]

And I can move on.

[Brandon Uranovitz]

It's easy.

[Shayna Taub]

No, no, no, no.

[Ben Levi Ross]

It's okay.

[Brandon Uranovitz]

This is very healing for me. No, but, you know, to me, this entire thing, it's so surreal coming sort of full circle now. And to me, it's just been a lesson in patience and meaning. And, you know, playing this character, Tate, who is so the opposite of what I was feeling when I was playing the little boy, I just so aligned with who I am. I feel him in my guts. You know, this is a man who lives who is not just sort of defined by his, like, Jewish identity, but he's. He's a character who sort of. I like to think he. He lives at the sort of intersection of, like, rage and buffoonery, and that is, like, exactly where I exist, I think. And it just feels like a cosmic realignment, and it's been an incredibly healing experience. So, Lear. Thank you. My God. Yeah, it's. So that's my history. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, thank you for being so candid. Appreciate that this is your first time with this crew because they've all been together since this first appeared at New York City Center. Yeah, I was. You were there. You were there. I'm sorry. When you came into the show, you said you wanted to concentrate on your relationship with mother's younger brother. Yeah. What did you find when you wanted to concentrate on that?

[Lierre Debessonet]

I just found, you know, doing the show at City center was magic and so fast, and I had just come off of doing next to normal two weeks prior in London. And so I was doing a really hard gear shift, and we had, like, 10 days of rehearsal, and I felt like I was just scratching the surface of what my mother could be. And I've just been such a fan of Ben Levi Ross for so long, and I just love the dynamic that exists between mother and younger brother. But there's not a whole bunch on the page, but what's there made me curious. And so it was one of the things I was looking forward to in coming to Broadway with the production is just the two of us getting to find those moments to connect and deepen this storytelling. And I think we've really done that, and it's enriched the way I see Mother in such a deep way, because the loss I feel, without giving all the spoiler alerts, the loss I Feel with my husband and sort of the fracturing that happens there. I then also lose this person. I've always been so aligned with my brother, and I have to go on without both of them and figure out who I am as a woman and a mother without the two most important men in my life. And so I feel like we've gotten to flesh that out in a really beautiful way this time around.

[Alison Stewart]

I was thinking through the entire show how Mother is sort of confined by her, her gender, and even her status in many ways. How does she try to affect change?

[Lierre Debessonet]

I think the thing I find inspiring about this character is that she is just trying to do the right thing at all turns. She's not trying to make a choice for people to notice and applaud her. She is literally just faced with challenges and people and trying to be a good human. And she doesn't really have an example to look to. We don't meet the women that might have influenced her in this story. So I have to invent that. And I think she's. Her moral compass is very strong, and it gets stronger as the show goes on, as she's making decisions and trying to do right by Sarah and by Coalhouse and by her husband and by herself, you know, and doing the right thing for her son. I don't know if that answered your question, but I find I'm learning things about her every single day because she's sort of incapable of lying. She's just telling the truth at every turn. Even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

[Alison Stewart]

The next song we're going to hear is Our Children Next. Do you want to set it up?

[Brandon Uranovitz]

Sure. Well, I think, yeah, Casey did a little bit. You know, this is us. Our connecting over the common bond that our children share and I think, reconnecting with our own innocence that has been sort of lost in some ways over the course of the show. And how seeing that in our children makes us see each other in a really special and unique way that ultimately. Well, I don't want to spoil anything.

[Alison Stewart]

This is our children from Ragtime.

[Shayna Taub]

How they play

[Alison Stewart]

Finding treasure in the

[Shayna Taub]

sand they're forever hand in hand Our children How they laugh she has never laughed like this. Every waking moment Moment bliss Our children see them running down the beach Children run so fast toward the future from the past how they dance unembarrassed and alone Hearing music of their own Our children one so fair and the other lithe and dark Solemn joy and a sudden spark Our children see them running down the beach Children Run so fast toward the future from the past. There they stand making footprints in the sand and forever hand in hand our children. Two small eyes silhouetted by the blue One like me and one like you. Our children, Our children Children.

[Alison Stewart]

That was Brandon Uranovitz and Casey Levy singing our children from Ragtime. You're listening to a Broadway on the radio event. We'll be back after a quick break. This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Welcome back. Let's return to our Broadway on the radio event. With the original cast and crew behind Ragtime, we'll pick things up with Nichelle Lewis, who plays Sarah in the show. Here she is singing her song, you daddy's son.

[Shayna Taub]

Daddy played piano, played it very well. Music from those hands could catch you like a spell he could make you love him for the tune was storm. You have your daddy hands you are your daddy. So. He never knew that you were on your way. He had other ladies to play up and left me. I just am in run the lion. You were a d. She was frightened crazy from the right

[Joshua Henry]

so I thought

[Shayna Taub]

no combat screams about the suness and pain the anger and pain the night and the pain I bow in my eyes and the ground and my ground when I.

[Nichelle Lewis]

Ground.

[Shayna Taub]

Daddy play piano but he's playing ski mama can't forget him. Don't suppose I will. God wants no excuses I. You are your daddy hands forgive me

[Lierre Debessonet]

you.

[Shayna Taub]

Sam.

[Alison Stewart]

So nice to meet you. I wish you could have seen your castmates watching you sing that song. They were on edge when you sing that song. Aww. That song is a show stopping moment. You're on stage by yourself.

[Joshua Henry]

Yes.

[Alison Stewart]

What are you able to do in that moment on stage by yourself? What are you able to do creatively? What are you doing with your, your character?

[Nichelle Lewis]

I mean, so hard. I'm like still kind of tearing up from singing. Feels. It feels surreal to be able to tell her story in such a beautiful way. And this song is one of those moments where she's first really speaking out about what she did and how she was feeling and why she did it and why it was so painful to go through. But also it's a moment of realization for her that she's going to be there for this baby. And regardless of the circumstances, she's there for that baby. And it's a moment of visibility as well because I feel so many women go through what she's going through and I just think it's so, so beautiful to tell that part of her story.

[Alison Stewart]

It's so Interesting, because you really are cheering up. Yeah. You relax. I'll talk to Joshua if you're ready. Joshua, you were introduced to ragtime by a professor in school. What did you learn that theater could do?

[Joshua Henry]

Well, the first. My first exposure to ragtime was in the music library, right? Professor was like, go listen to this. I was like, sure. Didn't know anything. Didn't know much about musical theater, but I remember hearing Brian Stokes Mitchell's voice and hearing him sing the iconic songs, the musical of a dream, and I just felt something, like, open up inside my chest. And I remember where I was sitting when I heard it, and I was like, I didn't know one could make someone else feel that way with their voice and the power of storytelling and sound. To me, at that moment, at what I think was 18 years old, that was. Something was born in me that was like, that's what I want to do. I want to tell stories and move people in that way. That was my first exposure to it. So, you know, actually fast forward to three days ago, seeing him. We were doing this panel on stage at the Vivian Beaumont, just about his experience with the show. You know, I'm sitting there with Michelle and Audra and Stokes, as we call him now, and I was like. I was like, I can't. One day, I'm gonna unload it on him. You know what I mean? One day. Not today, not now, but, you know, one day.

[Alison Stewart]

That must have been an amazing moment for the two. Tell us a little bit about that.

[Nichelle Lewis]

I mean, I was sitting right next to Audra, so, you know, for me, I was just sitting there trying to keep my cool. I was like, yum. But it was incredible to be able to talk about the black experience and ragtime with people that we look up to so much.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, my gosh. So, Joshua, I know you have to. You kind of got nerd out about taking care of. Of your voice. That's a very important thing.

[Joshua Henry]

This is true.

[Alison Stewart]

What is something that you've learned about the voice in doing this show that you would like to share with the audience?

[Joshua Henry]

Everybody lean in. One of the most important things that I've learned about my voice is that each project is specific, right? Like, I went into previews and ragtime thinking, I'm gonna warm up like this every day. I'm gonna do these trills. I'm do these scales. And then, like, two months in, I was like, no, because my voice was like, josh, we're not doing that. So each. What I learned is your vocal load. For eight shows, You've got to really experiment with it from week to week and take inventory on, well, I don't have to warm up. This part of my voice, for instance, this part of new music, if y' all really want to nerd out with me for a second, where he sings, Kohlhaas sings this high A. And it's like. I don't know, feels like an hour into the show, before the show, I was warming up, like, that part of my voice. And then when it came to performance, I was getting really tired, and I was like, ah. To me, I was like, okay, we can't do that. So I've learned throughout the process to ebb and flow with my voice. And also being on stage with these technicians and vocal masters has also been inspiring to learn from them. So listen and listen to your body and hear your voice and observe the incredible folks around you.

[Alison Stewart]

Michelle, this is only your second Broadway show.

[Nichelle Lewis]

Yes.

[Shayna Taub]

Right.

[Alison Stewart]

This gentleman has done a few Carousel. So y' all know, what have you learned from working on this show?

[Nichelle Lewis]

Oh, my gosh, I've learned so much. But I think something I've really learned is honestly more about myself, what I can and cannot handle. I think I doubted myself a lot. I mean, it's really hard doing Broadway, eight shows a week. And I think I just realized, like, I can do it. I can do this as long as I put my head to it, as long as I do my research. I've watched all of my castmates every single night, just getting up there and doing it and doing the work and putting their heads to it and. And also uplifting and supporting one another. It's. It is amazing to be a part of such a ultra talented cast, ultra talented group of musicians. It's. It's wonderful. And our director, incredible. Like, it's just. I've learned so much, and I continue to learn more every day.

[Alison Stewart]

Ragtime shows how people are subject to forces around them, especially true for black people in the earliest 20th century. We see it in the show Joshua. There's a moment when Coalhouse is asked to play a minstrel song on the piano, and he plays ragtime instead. What does music mean to McCollhouse?

[Joshua Henry]

What does music mean to Cohouse?

[Shayna Taub]

Yeah.

[Joshua Henry]

One of the reasons I love Coalhouse so much is music is everything to him. And I say that about myself. I just. For Kohlhaas, his position in the community as an accomplished musician, there's a lot of esteem there. A lot of who he is is based around music. His community comes and watches him play. He goes and travels around with Jim Europe, an esteemed conductor at the time, to share the love and joy of music. So it means a lot to him. And the moment where this incredible woman comes into his life or the idea to go and find what is the highest representation of music for him means so much, and it gives him a sense of purpose. And I just really connect with that idea that music is, for me, a big part of my purpose, too.

[Alison Stewart]

Coalhouse and Sarah don't necessarily get a happy ending the way Mother and Tate do. But, Nichelle, how do you find hope in Sarah and Coalhouse?

[Nichelle Lewis]

His relationship, in their relationship, or just

[Alison Stewart]

how do you find hope in them?

[Nichelle Lewis]

I think they both carry a sense of hope throughout the entire show. They both. I mean, that is the ultimate goal. That's. I mean, we say the American Dream. That is what I think we all hold in our hearts. And I think they represent that so well throughout the show. And, I mean, especially in Wheels of a Dream, it is. It is the ultra moment of hope, of wishing, of grasping onto it and trying to hold onto it for as long as they can. And I think it inspires people because even though they don't get their dream at the very end, it still inspires people to move forward in a way that makes changes and hopefully make some positive change in the world. And, you know, even if we have to fight for it, even if we have to hold on and not let go, no matter what anybody says to us, I think that's like. I think that is who they are as a couple. They are that hope in the show.

[Alison Stewart]

That is the perfect segue to hear Wheels of a Dream. Ladies and gentlemen, Joshua Henry and Nichelle Lewis.

[Shayna Taub]

I see his face. I hear his heartbeat. I look in those eyes how wise they seem well, when he he is old enough I will show him America and he will ride. On the wheels of a dream. We'll go down south See your people all they take to him like cats to scream and we'll travel on from there California, who knows where and we will ride on the wheels of a dream. Yes, the wheels are turned in for us and the times are starting to roll Any man can get where he wants to if he's got some fire in his soul we'll see justice, Sarah and plenty of men who will stand up and give us our due. Sarah it's more than promise Heaven, Sarah, it must be true A country that lets a man like me Own a car Raise a child Build a life with you with you. Beyond wide road beyond this lifetime that God, full of love, will always be with the promise of happiness and the reap of Helen to know is trouble with a hand held high. Just as.

[Alison Stewart]

That was our Broadway on the Radio event with the original cast of Ragtime and director Lier Debessinet. Ragtime took home four Tony Awards this season for Best revival of a Musical, Best Sound Design of a Musical, and best performance in their categories for Casey Levy and Joshua Henry. Ragtime closes at the Lincoln Center Theater on August 16th. If you want to hear our other Broadway on the Radio events, head to our show [e-mail] you can also head to YouTube and search Broadway on the Radio WNYC to see the entire live event held right here in the Green space. We talked with the cast and crew behind so many hit shows including the Outsiders, Cat's, the Jellicoe Ball, Hadestown Chess, Hell's Kitchen, and Buena Vista Social Club. As you've heard, these events are chances for you to come and to visit the green space. Get up close and personal with all these incredible Broadway stars. Broadway on the Radio is taking a little break for the summer, but stay tuned for our upcoming events in the fall. And that is all of it for this hour, but after the news, another installment of our American History Friday series. We'll talk about Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, with Julia Sweig, author of the book Lady Bird Hiding in Plain Sight. And she's also the host of a podcast by the same name, Pacifico, the

[Ben Levi Ross]

crisp Mexican lager that wasn't brewed to blend in.

[Alison Stewart]

We were made for the moments when

[Ben Levi Ross]

you live like you mean it. When you don't just hear the music, you feel it.

[Alison Stewart]

When you let the bonfire burn into

[Ben Levi Ross]

the night and find places you'd never

[Alison Stewart]

spot on a map.

[Ben Levi Ross]

So when the moment calls, choose to reach for the bright yellow can choose yellow? Choose Pacifico 21 Discover responsibly Pacifico Clara beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL.

[Joshua Henry]

It's like math. McDonald's is now introducing all new Caesar sauce plus and even crispier McCrispy strip. This all equals a creamier creamy snack wrap. Try the new caesar sauce at McDonald's.