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'Ragtime' Story and Characters | The BSB Podcast · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome back to another episode of the BSB Podcast.
• 0:03
  In today's episode, we're examining big history, intimate lives, and a score that feels like the nation learning how to breathe in rhythm with our ragtime discussion.
• 0:12
  But before we dive in, please like, follow, and subscribe to BSB Insider on all social media platforms @bsb.insider Spoiler warning, we are discussing the narratives and stories
• 0:21
  of ragtime.
• 0:22
  So you haven't seen the Lincoln Center revival, pause this video and resume once you've seen it.
• 0:27
  RJ.
• 0:28
  This was the show that you really wanted to see as we were going into New York.
• 0:32
  As we were planning this trip, I feel like this was the one that I don't want to say you wouldn't stop talking about, but I heard a lot about Ragtime.
• 0:40
  We got to go see Ragtime.
• 0:41
  You were sending me clips of Ragtime.
• 0:43
  You were obsessed with Ragtime.
• 0:48
  And I say that in a loving way.
• 0:49
  Don't give me that look.
• 0:50
  uh But you were really excited about this one, correct?
• 0:55
  Yeah, I mean, I think I, I can't say that I've heard so much about it because I haven't.
• 1:02
  I've seen the PR.
• 1:04
  I knew that it was a revival production and that it was very...
• 1:12
  old-timey, I guess you could say, which felt like a good opportunity, a good uh thing to go see.
• 1:21
  Because it is truly a Broadway classic, right?
• 1:24
  I would say yes.
• 1:27
  Okay.
• 1:28
  What did you like, did you know of ragtime before this?
• 1:32
  I know that you I think that you mentioned you had sang a few of the songs beforehand.
• 1:35
  I don't want to say I don't want to speak out of turn, but I feel like you said that with quite a few different shows we saw.
• 1:40
  So I can't remember if ragtime was one of them.
• 1:42
  But you knew of ragtime prior to this revival enough to warrant being like, okay, this is a classic that pretty much needs to be seen.
• 1:52
  Yeah, I mean, I knew it existed.
• 1:54
  I've seen posters of it throughout my acting career.
• 1:59
  I've seen, you know, community theaters do productions.
• 2:04
  I mean, I didn't see the productions, but I've seen that they were doing them and that it was popular.
• 2:08
  um And so, yeah, I figured it's about time.
• 2:14
  But yes, I did.
• 2:16
  I was familiar with a song or two um from the score.
• 2:22
  listeners, do want to let you know when he says career, he has been acting for three decades.
• 2:28
  So it's an extensive acting career.
• 2:33
  Don't don't give me that face.
• 2:34
  It's bet you're in your third decade.
• 2:36
  Okay, uh there was a big gap decade in there.
• 2:40
  I mean, you still were an actor.
• 2:43
  You were still acting for three decades of your life.
• 2:46
  There's been odd enough aspects of acting.
• 2:49
  So to say that this show has been around for a long, that's what I'm trying to drive here.
• 2:52
  The show's been around for a long time.
• 2:54
  It's been percolating through your career, but this is the first time you sat down for a production of
• 2:59
  Okay, now listeners, this is where we differ.
• 3:03
  As much as I love musicals, I had never seen Ragtime.
• 3:08
  In fact, this is the funny part of this.
• 3:10
  We were halfway through the show.
• 3:12
  I might've been at the end of the show, but it might've been intermission, so RJ, feel free to correct me on what aspect it was.
• 3:18
  I turned to RJ and said, I think I read this book in college, never connecting the fact that it was a novel that I had read in my English literature class.
• 3:29
  that it was also a show.
• 3:32
  It never crossed my mind, which feels probably a little blasphemous.
• 3:36
  And I didn't really connect until I went to uh the stand to buy your mug and they were selling the book there.
• 3:42
  And I said, I'm pretty sure that's sitting on my bookshelf right now.
• 3:46
  And it was.
• 3:47
  Which is just wild to think about that.
• 3:50
  We have two very different intros into how we learned and or experienced our time prior to seeing this production.
• 3:58
  m So speaking of ragtime, this is a book by Terrence McNally.
• 4:03
  um And I found myself as I was writing this up.
• 4:09
  thinking about like, is the narrative of ragtime?
• 4:12
  And so I'm gonna throw that at you, RJ.
• 4:15
  What is the narrative of ragtime?
• 4:18
  Or is there a narrative of ragtime?
• 4:20
  Is maybe a better question.
• 4:23
  think it depends on what you mean by narrative.
• 4:25
  I think there's a lot of themes that ragtime attempts to conquer, many of which feel incredibly applicable to today, which is actually probably my draw to it now, and I think
• 4:42
  probably the draw to it in general.
• 4:45
  It's a revival that feels incredibly relevant, unfortunately, in some ways, to our current...
• 4:52
  you want to call it politics or socioeconomic uh worldviews currently occurring.
• 4:59
  um
• 5:02
  But a narrative, of course, ultimately just following a family, following a family or two or three's story and how we can all relate to that in some facet, whether we are the
• 5:22
  parents, the children, the cousin, you know, like any facet of...
• 5:29
  oh
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  the multi-level...
• 5:31
  ah
• 5:33
  themes that are tackled from that perspective.
• 5:38
  Yeah, I mean, so if you're not familiar with the story, everybody, it's set in the early 20th century, so the early 1900s, and it tells.
• 5:46
  And this is where I struggled, as you can see on the notes, RJ, I have multiple bullet points here.
• 5:52
  There's so many characters.
• 5:53
  And so I was thinking as I was writing this up, was like, what is the central story in conflict?
• 5:59
  And I really do think that it boils down to the three families that you mentioned.
• 6:03
  So we have the family of just the mother and the father, and they all have very generic names.
• 6:09
  You have the story of Tateh and his daughter, Tateh, correct?
• 6:15
  I believe that's how you say it.
• 6:16
  um
• 6:19
  accent, yes.
• 6:21
  uh And he is an immigrant coming to America to find the American dream and finding out that the American dream isn't exactly what it's promised.
• 6:31
  And then you have Sarah, Coalhouse, and their son who are African-American individuals in society, in a society that doesn't appreciate that.
• 6:41
  And what I think is interesting is that if you're going to pick a central theme, in my opinion, I'm going say this, and the central theme is literally the socio-economic
• 6:51
  societal pressures of everybody, but also the way that everybody interacted with each other and how that really was about breaking down those walls.
• 6:59
  But there is so many layers of themes here that's really hard to determine, like, which one's the most important?
• 7:05
  They're all kind of prevalent.
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  And how do they factor into the story?
• 7:08
  And there are other characters, there's other people that are kind of swirling around each other, but it's really these three central families and the conflicts that bring them
• 7:15
  together or tear them apart.
• 7:16
  Yeah, I would agree.
• 7:17
  The intersectionality of all three and what that meant at that time specifically, and then obviously that kind of existential crisis for us as an audience, what does it mean for us
• 7:33
  today?
• 7:33
  oh
• 7:35
  So of the families, I do wanna talk about, I think I'm gonna start with mother and father, okay?
• 7:39
  They don't have names.
• 7:42
  They are mother, father, mother's younger brother, grandfather.
• 7:49
  We kind of talked about this after the show, but I think that's a really good point in that.
• 7:52
  Why do you think that these characters don't have names?
• 7:55
  I mean the representation, people can identify.
• 8:01
  again as any of these titles rather than
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  a specific name.
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  And I think it makes us
• 8:13
  kind of reconsider or maybe identify more vastly with said character because it's so general.
• 8:22
  Like you can be a mother and be five, six, seven other things, right?
• 8:31
  You can be a father, same thing.
• 8:32
  um But also...
• 8:38
  I would argue considering they are the only ones without names.
• 8:42
  oh
• 8:43
  I almost feel like there's a little bit of satire happening now that I think about it because we're talking about people who were elite.
• 8:55
  They had the money, they had the riches, they had historical wealth and influence and yet...
• 9:07
  their names are insignificant.
• 9:11
  So it kind of feels like we're flipping a coin on its head because then we have people who were considered below status, but they have names and we get more backstory on them than
• 9:23
  we even, we get almost no backstory on mother and father.
• 9:28
  But maybe that is kind of in its own sense, proof that.
• 9:33
  that level, that elitism, like you didn't have to be anyone or do anything to get there as long as your family already provided that for you.
• 9:44
  I couldn't have said it better myself.
• 9:45
  Like that's exactly what I was thinking too.
• 9:47
  I think that if you would have on the flip side, let's say you would have given Sarah, who Sarah is uh Sarah and Coalhouse.
• 9:53
  They are the African-American couple in the story.
• 9:55
  Like let's say you had just given Sarah mother.
• 9:59
  We live in a society again today at that point where like people you P you already judged by the color of your skin or by the fact that you were a woman and stuff like that.
• 10:08
  Or, you know, for a plethora of reasons that like you already didn't have the power.
• 10:12
  You already were.
• 10:13
  A name didn't hold as much in that moment.
• 10:16
  And so in this story, they're actually giving the power to the immigrants and the the socio and economic people, individuals who didn't have any power.
• 10:26
  And also, I think it's an easier way psychologically to enter into the story of you're entering into the story of mother and father and you're supposed to learn why they're like
• 10:36
  why society is bad from their point of view, if that makes sense.
• 10:39
  And I get it like we're following them, but like we're watching them.
• 10:43
  mother actively changed her viewpoint throughout the show.
• 10:48
  We're actively seeing her revolt against what does it mean to be a white woman in society?
• 10:57
  What does it mean to be dutiful?
• 11:01
  What does it mean to judge somebody?
• 11:02
  And so I think that there were so many different layers on there.
• 11:04
  And I thought it was such an intriguing way of doing the story that I think
• 11:09
  this was the easiest way to also get people to think.
• 11:11
  I think that's my ultimate point.
• 11:12
  It's like, this is ultimately the way to get people to think about the story more than any other way.
• 11:17
  Well, and kind of creates a focus that you wouldn't...
• 11:20
  I don't think we would have focused nearly as much if we weren't almost distracted by the fact that they were called mother and father, right?
• 11:27
  Because we would have just been like, yeah, so and so.
• 11:33
  And she would have, I don't know, maybe she would have felt even more important with a name.
• 11:38
  um But yeah, it's an interesting dynamic.
• 11:44
  Although I do wonder historically...
• 11:47
  and I didn't get to look it up previously, if that really was, maybe listeners you can tell us, are we completely over analyzing and is that just the way people refer to them?
• 12:03
  know, like that is a status symbol, like you are a mother.
• 12:08
  So we're not calling you by your name, we're not calling you by your married name or your maiden name, we're calling you mother.
• 12:15
  because that's what you are, father, because that's what you are.
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  Not who you are, but what you are versus Sarah is who she is.
• 12:32
  And from that dynamic, but you know, we could dig deep, but we only got so much time, folks.
• 12:38
  I'm gonna dig one step deeper and then I promise I'm gonna let it go.
• 12:41
  But I think that the part that was so poignant to me was the fact of when we look at, and spoiler alert people, this is a real big spoiler alert for the show.
• 12:50
  When you're looking at Sarah & Coalhouse specifically, these are two individuals that lose their life throughout the show.
• 12:57
  And I think that in today's society, and like any society, but like today's society, we get this moment where sometimes the people who lose their life,
• 13:07
  We don't say their name enough.
• 13:10
  don't, like the power of that is gone.
• 13:12
  They're just like a, like they're a victim in, you know, I'm getting in my soapbox right now, but what's happening in our world.
• 13:19
  And so the fact that they had names and that you remembered them and why they were important and what they did, that struck me really hard as well, because like, yes, father
• 13:30
  dies too.
• 13:32
  But it didn't have the same impact as when we lost Sarah.
• 13:35
  And I think that goes back to like,
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  We learn hostage situations.
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  You give people your name.
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  You know what mean?
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  Because it means more.
• 13:42
  And so that piece definitely struck me about this as well.
• 13:45
  And I'll say I may have done a Google search and we are kind of on the right track in regards to representing an archetype ah of the evolving American woman.
• 13:58
  um Rather than having a specific name, it's just symbolizing a shift from
• 14:04
  a submissive traditional housewife, which is kind of that vibe that you get when he, know, opening scene calls her mother.
• 14:12
  That's some of the first lines that you hear comparatively to as we shift throughout the show and she becomes, I would say just more human, more...
• 14:26
  um
• 14:29
  From a political standpoint, yes, you could say more liberal, more progressive, whatever, um but the humanity uh takes a big step forward.
• 14:42
  And when we're looking at these three families specifically, we talked about two families here, and I don't want to miss the third one, what's interesting about the story of
• 14:48
  Ragtime as well is that it kind of shows you like achieving the American dream.
• 14:52
  And we have this in a few side characters that will reflect this, but we have Harry Houdini, who was the greatest magician of his time.
• 15:01
  We have Booker T.
• 15:01
  Washington, which is a real person.
• 15:03
  We have Henry Ford, all these people that were very, that were like revolutionary people in their fields.
• 15:11
  And so what's interesting about the story is we have Sarah & Coalhouse which I would say is the dark side of the American dream, you know?
• 15:18
  And then we have Mother, who shows a darker side of like suburban American dream of like what happens when your relationship falls apart.
• 15:27
  Like what hap- and then you have Tateh, who literally is the American dream achieved.
• 15:34
  Like throughout the story, he is a, he's an immigrant, he's-
• 15:39
  literally living for scraps on the on the streets to feed for his defeat his daughter and he ends up becoming a filmmaker and what I think is interesting too is and I don't know if
• 15:49
  I'm remembering this incorrectly so if somebody has seen it please let us know more recently but I think in the epilogue when he ends up with mother again spoiler alert um
• 16:00
  they refer to him as mother's husband which I thought was an interesting part too of like what happens when you just become a title and you've lose like you're losing that identity
• 16:07
  because you've achieved the dream
• 16:09
  which again, another spiraling thing, but how did you like that kind of comparative, like the dark side and the bright side of the American dream and achieving that?
• 16:21
  I mean, again, historically, I think it's a very important one and one that we like to try to forget as white Native Americans, which literally, let me just say, there's no such
• 16:37
  thing.
• 16:37
  ah Because there were Native Americans here before us, so we're gonna clear the air there.
• 16:44
  ah All that to say...
• 16:49
  the importance of what makes America and quote unquote the American dream is the fact that people wanted to come here to pursue something that they couldn't find elsewhere.
• 17:07
  And so it's it's obviously, it's still happening today, right?
• 17:12
  It's such a massive plot and reminder that
• 17:20
  Life can be so easy for some and so difficult for others just by the way that you look, by the way that you speak, where you're from.
• 17:31
  Not that it should be that way, because it shouldn't, but...
• 17:35
  just something historically, again, that America tries to pride itself on, being open to this, but then making more hoops for people who don't maybe fit what America thinks they
• 17:54
  should be exactly.
• 17:57
  sure for sure.
• 17:59
  I think it's definitely one of those shows that the story itself is not only necessary, but it's also really reflective of like the the journey we're still on.
• 18:12
  But and I'm not comparing this to any other show.
• 18:15
  I think it's interesting is because I feel like it's like a similar message to what Suffs was last year.
• 18:24
  Without uh
• 18:26
  the burning fire that I thought it was going to have.
• 18:30
  I don't know if that makes sense.
• 18:32
  Yes.
• 18:33
  I mean, and I think we talked about this a little bit.
• 18:39
  There's not a very obvious call to action with this show because it is, I would say it's more of a historical mirror.
• 18:50
  Like we're looking back on a not pleasant time of our history, reflective of
• 19:01
  the current time of our history um and how ultimately, and obviously this is up for interpretation for every person that comes to see the show because I'm sure not every
• 19:14
  person that comes is relatively liberal or progressive.
• 19:18
  So I can only imagine how this show makes them feel, but just like so blatantly obvious that we're still making the same mistakes that we were back then.
• 19:27
  um
• 19:28
  just with newer technology and on a different scale and on a different level, but treating people differently because we think we can.
• 19:41
  I do wonder if part of that fire or like the poignancy of the show was lost with the length of the show and the amount of characters in the show.
• 19:53
  ah Listeners, I'm gonna be honest with you.
• 19:56
  This is a three hour show.
• 19:57
  ah We sat up in the uh louge and the seats weren't very comfortable.
• 20:04
  um
• 20:07
  this show either needed to be trimmed a little bit or it needed extra intermission to give it a full three hourness of the show.
• 20:14
  ah Do you think that the fact that it was so long, and again, we have so many side characters.
• 20:19
  We have Evelyn, we have Harry Houdini, we have Emma Goldman, who I feel like out of all of the side characters, hers was actually the most important and I would have liked more time
• 20:27
  with her, because she's kind of the narrator that connects Tateh's story to the rest of everybody else's story.
• 20:34
  as well as what's going on with the persecution and uh immigration of Jewish individuals.
• 20:40
  um Do you think that's where some of the fire got lost?
• 20:45
  It's just like how long and how much supplementary material is going on in the show?
• 20:50
  Yeah, I think...
• 20:52
  they were trying to still make it a little bit, for that time, they were trying to still make it feel good.
• 20:59
  And so we'd have these darker moments and then we'd have ragtime, right?
• 21:05
  We'd have ragtime music, we'd have dancing.
• 21:07
  um Really, they were just trying to capture so much of America's pastimes too, right?
• 21:15
  We have the song about baseball, just...
• 21:19
  Truly doesn't add a ton to the plot.
• 21:22
  It really doesn't it's not actionable aside from the fact that baseball is considered oh America's sport uh
• 21:33
  So so much of it could be.
• 21:36
  mean, Lord knows there were a ton of ballads and.
• 21:41
  Just a lot, just a lot.
• 21:42
  ah
• 21:45
  It does make me wonder if stories like this, granted I know, integrity to the story, and you're honoring the novel that came before it.
• 21:52
  But I think the story could still be intact while keeping the story of mother, father, Tetah and his daughter, and Sarah the main piece here.
• 22:03
  Because all of their stories, in fact, I'll even argue Tetah and his daughter's story doesn't even really matter until the end when he comes back as a director.
• 22:11
  Like there isn't like a huge connective piece.
• 22:14
  almost felt like there was multiple shows running at the same time.
• 22:18
  And again, this is not me shitting on this at all, anybody.
• 22:21
  And I'm sorry.
• 22:21
  It feels like that.
• 22:22
  It's just like my knees were angry, but I enjoyed the show for what it was, but I was just like, does what I felt more called to action.
• 22:34
  If it was a little bit shorter and I focus a little more, I think on the Sarah and the Coalhouse storyline.
• 22:41
  of the show.
• 22:43
  Well yeah, because you're tackling, like you said, you're tackling three ultimately separate storylines that happen to intersect and it's hard to...
• 22:54
  So many pieces are tugging at your heartstrings you almost don't know which way to go.
• 22:59
  Not that there is a right way or a wrong way, but much like anything that's kind of darker, em we can only take so much.
• 23:12
  Right?
• 23:12
  Or like you can only handle so much.
• 23:15
  And so after some time, know, negative scene after negative scene, which really, there aren't too many positive things happening in the show overall.
• 23:30
  So you feel very weighted down.
• 23:32
  um
• 23:35
  in a beautiful way, but just still almost exhausted by, and maybe that's just it, like you are emotionally tired.
• 23:48
  I would say even by the end of Act One, and then you have another hour and a half, so.
• 23:54
  by the time they find the baby in the flower bed, which is literally like 20 minutes into the show, you're already mentally, like it just goes on from there.
• 24:03
  You know, it never stops.
• 24:05
  And it's very, very heavy.
• 24:08
  And that's kind of like when we talked about Operation Mincemeat, not that like, this is a story I think that you could take sugar and add it to it.
• 24:15
  But like, Suffs was also heavy, but not in a way that you felt.
• 24:23
  laden down.
• 24:25
  Yeah, well, and I would say obviously we're not that women's right to vote was smaller, but it is a very specific thing rather than because arguably not only are we tackling
• 24:39
  immigration, tackling oh racism, also tackling women, women's rights.
• 24:49
  I mean, they're just a household item at this point.
• 24:53
  uh
• 24:54
  And then the social classes, uh even regarding money amongst the different levels of white individuals and where they're coming from.
• 25:04
  And that random splattering also of, I am blanking on the character's name right now, but the...
• 25:17
  Evelyn?
• 25:19
  Yes.
• 25:20
  I knew it.
• 25:21
  m
• 25:22
  like how that also plays into it um in regards to like a woman in a less than desirable m
• 25:31
  profession at that time and how she was viewed like that even though that's not a part of the you know three main plots we're getting it is a subplot just like Harry Houdini and
• 25:43
  Henry Ford and um
• 25:46
  Was it JP Morgan?
• 25:48
  Washington.
• 25:49
  JPMorgan, Booker T.
• 25:50
  Washington.
• 25:51
  both of them.
• 25:52
  they all, everybody played their part in this.
• 25:58
  Absolutely.
• 25:59
  So of all the parts, because there's a lot of them.
• 26:01
  And guys, I'm just going to process it by saying we can absolutely not talk about every single actor in the show.
• 26:07
  There's so many incredible actors.
• 26:08
  I think this is one of those things where it didn't feel just like a Broadway show.
• 26:11
  It felt like a powerhouse uh example of like a mega show.
• 26:16
  It almost felt like a little bit like a Hollywood Bowl you know what mean?
• 26:21
  Where the people in the show are at the top of their game.
• 26:25
  Some names you probably know more than others.
• 26:28
  but they are super, super good.
• 26:29
  So we're going to talk about a few that we really like.
• 26:31
  um But I can't talk about anybody else.
• 26:35
  Let's talk about Sarah.
• 26:37
  Nichelle Lewis gave some of the best vocals.
• 26:40
  And actually, I take that back.
• 26:42
  She did give some of the best vocals.
• 26:44
  But um Coalhouse Joshua Henry also, the two of them were some of the biggest vocal warriors in the show.
• 26:53
  And that's what gave Sarah and Coalhouse some of the most
• 26:58
  prevalent weight to the show.
• 27:00
  At least in my opinion that was those were two of the names that just blew me away.
• 27:06
  I mean, yes.
• 27:08
  agree, it, vocally, I think that's what also drew me to the show because I just knew the music.
• 27:16
  While we love a show like Operation Mincemeat that's funny and witty and musically difficult in the sense that it's more pop, modern music.
• 27:29
  Ragtime is ragtime music, right?
• 27:32
  But musical theater centric.
• 27:35
  It's just, it's almost opera.
• 27:37
  It's so hard in the sense of the old, I would say old fashioned way of being hard.
• 27:44
  You've got these massive phrases that, you know, you need massive amounts of breath for and control and technicality.
• 27:55
  And it is next level.
• 27:57
  It's like at the Super Bowl of musical theater with these kinds of old school.
• 28:04
  shows.
• 28:06
  And with that being said, to no one's surprise...
• 28:11
  Casey Levy.
• 28:12
  Yes.
• 28:14
  Say no more.
• 28:15
  Uh, mother, just...
• 28:19
  in both the sense of the role and the fact of the-
• 28:23
  She's serving mother all the way, all the way around.
• 28:26
  um
• 28:28
  And she's got, obviously, an incredible resume for those of you who may have recently seen Next to Normal.
• 28:34
  She was...
• 28:35
  she starred in that.
• 28:37
  As well as being one of the Elsas from the Frozen musical.
• 28:44
  So...
• 28:45
  and the list goes on, right?
• 28:46
  Those are just a few of her most recent ones.
• 28:48
  um But insane.
• 28:52
  I mean, the power...
• 28:54
  I wish I could hold notes even a quarter as long as her.
• 28:58
  ah But same thing honestly with Joshua Henry.
• 29:03
  His tone, the tone of his voice is so unique, so deep, so rich, and just like smooth.
• 29:15
  Insane.
• 29:17
  If you haven't already listened, they do have a recording already out.
• 29:21
  So you should definitely listen to the album because we always love to support theater that way.
• 29:28
  um But absurd.
• 29:33
  The music in the show just overall, it's insane.
• 29:38
  Yeah, there's not really a performance across the board that is weak.
• 29:42
  even, think I was a little shocked when the guy from, the guy from Arrow, So Colin Donnell like even he, I knew him from a superhero show and he was also really good.
• 29:53
  Every person, I think that the only thing that I feel sad about is that we didn't get to see the original Emma Goldman.
• 30:03
  Other than that, but even the understudy was really good.
• 30:06
  Everybody was just so talented.
• 30:09
  Yeah, like if I could just chill in a room with all these people, that'd be fine.
• 30:14
  That'd be good, but-
• 30:16
  which makes me think as well with the structure of the story.
• 30:20
  And we can talk about it more when we go to the music as well, but this is one of those shows, and we saw another one that we'll talk about in a different episode, but this is
• 30:28
  more of a concert, it felt like, than a typical play, which would make sense as to why they're picking such strong vocal talents, because there's not a lot of set design.
• 30:36
  There's not a lot of story.
• 30:39
  This is a show that is a lot of singing, and they didn't do a lot going around like...
• 30:44
  There wasn't a lot of props.
• 30:45
  wasn't a lot of, again, there was not much going on.
• 30:49
  We were in a dark theater staring at these people singing.
• 30:51
  It was more of like an operatic show, not a musical.
• 30:57
  And maybe I'm splitting hairs there.
• 30:59
  Yeah, I think again in regards to the time in which it was written and created, that's what people came for, right?
• 31:08
  Like you could just come stand on a stage and yes, was set pieces that come on and off.
• 31:13
  They were, you know, the same three pieces or whatever.
• 31:16
  ah But you really came because if you close your eyes, you're still due to the vocals, you're still getting such a clear
• 31:29
  picture and so much color from the music that's filling the air, which I'm actually very curious how big that orchestra is because it's gotta be relatively sizable because most, I
• 31:44
  mean, I feel like most old shows are.
• 31:47
  I'm sure that had to be pretty close to a full orchestra.
• 31:53
  If I had to guess, the sound of it was huge.
• 31:57
  And we could kind of see from our angle a little bit down to the pit, and there was quite a few people in that
• 32:02
  28 pieces.
• 32:03
  So yeah, it's pretty sizable.
• 32:06
  I don't know, what is like, would you say is a typical sized orchestra for a musical?
• 32:11
  I mean, there isn't one.
• 32:13
  Because you have shows as we'll later chat about uh in shows like Chess where you have like eight people, right?
• 32:22
  Because it's really a band versus, and even Operation too.
• 32:26
  Couldn't have been maybe more than a dozen.
• 32:30
  So these big, big band, big orchestra, you expect that from something like this.
• 32:38
  You expect that from something like maybe
• 32:41
  My Fair Lady or Funny Girl or Music Man.
• 32:45
  that's when you're, that full sound is what you're getting.
• 32:48
  That big sound, absolutely.
• 32:50
  I mean, it makes sense.
• 32:51
  um But with that, we are running out of time.
• 32:55
  So stay tuned for part two of our ragtime discussion.
• 32:58
  Thank you so much for joining us here today.
• 32:59
  And until next curtain call.