By: Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens
At: Porchlight Music Theatre at Apollo Theatre, 2540 N. Lincoln
Phone: 773-935-6100; $46.50
Runs through: Aug. 26
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
It's inevitable when you attend long-running productions to have those slips of paper in programs announcing a slew of understudies. I hadn't expected that from Chicago's Porchlight Music Theatre, but it's understandable for its hit production of Ragtime.
Originally scheduled for a limited run at the Theatre Building Chicago, Ragtime made the leap to the Apollo Theatre for an extended summer run. Still, it's a bit of a shocker to count five cast changes in crucial roles at the July 29 performance.
Happily, each of those five understudies more than proved his or her mettle in this sprawling American musical epic based upon E.L. Doctorow's 1974 novel. Henry Michael Odum made for an effective Tateh, the Jewish immigrant who nearly gets crushed by early 20th-century capitalism before his ingenuity saves him and his motherless daughter.
In the supporting roles of Emma Goldman and Harry Houdini, A.J. Wester and Peter Oyloe, respectively, brightened up each scene they were in, while Bethany Thomas, as Sarah's Friend, showed off her powerhouse voice in the Act I closer Till We Reach That Day. Chuck Sisson was an appropriately blustery Grandfather.
The rest of the regular cast showed strong work, displaying why the show garnered such strong reviews the first time around. Jayson Brooks brought a strong and mournful dignity to the vengeful ragtime piano player Coalhouse Walker, Jr. As Coalhouse's wife-to-be Sarah, Alexis J. Rogers possessed a lovely voice, though she seemed a bit of a blank page dramatically.
In the ranks of the wealthy WASP family, Charissa Armon and Scott Sowinski both gave impassioned performances, respectively, as Mother and Mother's Younger Brother, who both free themselves from their sheltered and complacent views of the world. As the unchanging heavy, Bil Ingraham's Father also provided strong support.
Oddly, there were a few moments of actors flubbing lines—something you wouldn't expect this far into a long run, but still part of the live theater experience. Also noticeably missing was the final appearance of a child actor at the end of the show, possibly brought on by the difficulty of having the bustling Taste of Lincoln street fair outside the theater that same day.
Under the resourceful direction of L. Walter Stearns, Porchlight's Ragtime makes do very well without the teeming and historically segregated big cast utilized in the original 1998 productions in New York and Chicago. You may miss some of the pageantry and discriminatory context, but you more than make up for that with the intimacy and immediacy of Porchlight's strong production.
So catch Porchlight's Ragtime while you can during its extension. Even with a few cast changes, this intelligent musical adaptation of a great American novel is well worth seeing.