All Events in

Sponsored links

(A Joint Production with Music) This musical weaves together stories from early 1900's America: a WASP family, a Harlem musician, a Jewish immigrant. Historical figures such as Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, and Emma Goldman also appear in this saga based on the novel by E. L. Doctorow.

Director's Note:

In 1974, E.L. Doctorow introduced us to the world of the early 1900s in his novel, Ragtime, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.



In 1998, the Broadway musical Ragtime, created by Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Terrence McNally, opened at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts and garnered 13 Tony Award nominations…though it lost to The Lion King that year for Best Musical.

In 2012, we welcome you to our concert version of this illustrious and epic musical produced in collaboration with the UCF Music Department and featuring more than 80 student performers, musicians, and production assistants.

Welcome to the world of Harlem and ragtime music; immigrant families disembarking “rag ships” in search of a better life in America; and wealthy inhabitants of New Rochelle trying to learn how to live in a rapidly-changing world of social conscience.

Henry Ford and his Model T are here. So are J.P. Morgan, Emma Goldman, Booker T. Washington, Admiral Robert Perry, Harry Houdini, Harry Thaw, Stanford White, and Evelyn Nesbit. Tateh, a Jewish immigrant, and Coalhouse Walker, a Harlem ragtime pianist, also are here…both struggling with injustices of the world in their attempt to have a better life.

Thank you for joining us. And, “listen to that ragtime!”

--Director/Choreographer Earl D. Weaver