Ragtime (musical)

Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty. The music includes marches, catwalks, gosepel and ragtime and the production is mostly sung-through.

Ragtime

• "And although the newspapers called the shooting the Crime of the Century, Goldman knew it was only 1906"
  "...and there were 94 years to go!"
  "Wheee..."

• "But what of the people who stay where they're put,
  Planted like flowers with roots underfoot?
  I know some of those people have hearts that would rather
  Go journeying on the sea."
  • Mother

• "There was a time
  Our happiness seemed never-ending
  I was so sure
  That where we were heading was right
  Life was a road
  So certain and straight and unbending
  Our little road
  With never a cross road in sight
  Back in the days
  When we spoke in civilized voices
  Women in white
  And sturdy young men at the oar
  Back in the days
  When I let you make all my choices...
  We can never go back to before "

• "Two men finding, for a moment, in the darkness,
  They're the same."
  • Father and Tateh

• "You and your music, singing deep within me, making nice to me, saying something so new. Play that melody, your sweet melody, calling my heart to you."
  • Sarah

• "He wanted to say, I am sick of the injustices. He wanted to say, give me something to believe! In my sould I am your brother, we are bound to one another, angered by the darkness in light, and the lies we perceive."
  • Emma

• "And her words rang out
  like arrows
  and they pierced him.
  He felt flushed and
  overheated as a boy
  as she filled and
  overwhelmed him
  with a fierce and sudden joy!"
  • Mother's Younger Brother

• "This is not the America he came here for. None of us did. None of us!"

• "In the gutters of the city
  I have tried to find some meaning
  In the arms of fallen women
  In the thought of suicide
  Like a firework, unexploded,
  Wanting life but never knowing how..."

• "And say to those who blame us for the way we chose to fight
  That sometimes there are battles that are more than black or white
  And Icould not put down my sword when justice was my right."

• "There are people out there
  Unafraid of revealing
  That they might have a feeling
  Or they might have been wrong
  There are people out there
  Unafraid to feel sorrow
  Unafraid of tomorrow
  Unafraid to be weak..
  Unafraid to be strong!"

• "With guns and dynamite, you are destroying everything I have fought for, sir."

• "Your situation is hopeless. And you will be responsible for the death of these young men."

• "You can't change your demands. You are betraying us. You said we would all go free or we all would die!"

• "Then they will see me come out with my hands raised, and no further harm will come to any man from Coalhouse Walker, Jr."

• "Your sword can be a sermon or the power of the pen" - Colehouse Walker Jr. (Make Them Hear You)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Ragtime (musical) on Wikipedia