TPAC Trust Produces: Ragtime
Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Williams Theatre
August 10, 2025
After a wildly successful and nearly sold out production of Fiddler on the Roof last year, TPAC Produces is back for another big blockbuster summer musical experience, Ragtime. Staged for the first time in Toronto in 1996 before transferring to Broadway two years later, Ragtime captures a moment in American history in which everything was changing: the turn of the century, when anything felt possible. The plot follows three individuals from vastly different backgrounds—an affluent white woman from New Rochelle, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia, and a black piano player from Harlem—and the unlikely ways that their lives collide in New York.
Sara Phoenix takes a second go at staging the musical, after directing it in 2017 with Theatre Tulsa. For this production, she brings back several cast members, including Michael Andreaus, fresh off a Broadway run in MJ the Musical, who reprises his role as Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Even with the celebrity talent on deck, I balked when I saw tickets starting at nearly $60. I see a lot of theatre in town and can usually snag a nosebleed in the Williams Theatre for $30. I got an opening weekend discount and chose a cheaper ticket in the back, which motivated me a little more to attend. However, the opening number made me reconsider my negative sentiment. In about 10 minutes, this competent company delivered energized vocals, precise and stylized staging and choreography on top of a gorgeous, live score. Oh, and an actor escaped from a straitjacket while descending from the ceiling, upside down, before singing his solo. I was hooked.
Both on and off stage, the talent is abundant. Claire Sbanotto’s Mother is precisely elegant and poised, delivering one-liners with a dryness that only stifled, smart mothers can. Sam Briggs carries the heart of this show as Tateh, the Jewish immigrant. His performance has weight, not only in the way that it fills the stage, but also with the emotional gravity infused in his performance. Watching him become disillusioned with the American dream made for real heartbreak.