Ragtime, the musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s bicentenary novel, follows three families of Americans between 1902 and 1916.  Mother (Caissie Levy) and Father (Colin Donnell) are the heads of an upper-class white family; Sarah (Nichelle Lewis) is a young Black woman in love with the pianist Coalhouse Walker, Jr. (Joshua Henry); and Tateh (Brandon Uranowitz), an Ashkenazi immigrant who raises his daughter (Tabitha Lawing) alone.  Their stories are interspersed with those of J.P. Morgan (John Rapson), Booker T. Washington (John Clay III), Emma Goldman (Shaina Taub), and other leading figures of “an era exploding, a century spinning.”  Like Our Town, the musical has an anthropological quality, offering a representative portrait of the nation during a brief frame of time.  It is quite sincere and is permeated by a sense of hope.

The current revival by Lincoln Center is a fantastic production.  There are at least four singers (Levy, Lewis, Henry, and Allison Blackwell) with moments that could serve as the centerpiece of a different musical.  The costumes (designed by Linda Cho) are spectacular, particularly effective when thirty-odd actors are onstage at once.  When Mother and Father make their entrance, from beneath the stage, their all-white outfits—white shirts, white coats, white dresses, white umbrellas—radiate in the darkness of the theater.  The set design by David Korins is minimalist yet still incorporates key scenic elements to ground the action: a hanging plant, a swing suspended from the ceiling, a Ford Model T.

As for the musical itself, it is an odd adaptation, losing most if not all of Doctorow’s irony (along with my personal favorite of the historical figures, Sigmund Freud).  At this particular time in history, it plays as something of a period piece, a remnant of the Clinton-era multiculturalism.  It feels strange to watch immigrants literally sing the praises of this country onstage while the immigrants in our communities are being rounded up by paramilitary thugs.  The music is outstanding, but the message falls flat.

Ragtime runs through January 4th at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.  150 W. 65th Street  New York, NY.  2 hours 45 minutes.  One intermission. Photograph by Matthew Murphy.