Champaign Urbana Theatre Company production of Ragtime: The Musical

Nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, Ragtime: The Musical is the winner of the 1998 Tony Awards for Best Score, Book and Orchestrations, and both the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and Best Score.
Its recent Broadway revival won four 2026 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, and Best Sound Design in a Musical.
Written by the award-winning composer/lyricist team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (Once on This Island, Seussical, and Lucky Stiff), noted playwright Terrence McNally, and based upon E.L. Doctorow's distinguished novel of the same name.
Called by TIME Magazine "A triumph for the stage," and by the International Herald Tribune "the best musical in twenty years," Ragtime: The Musical is filled with pageantry, emotion, and hope, bursting onto the stage like none other.
Performed as part of the 35th season of the Champaign Urbana Theatre Company, with live orchestration. Doors open 45min before each show.
Ragtime: The Musical
This highly acclaimed, sweeping musical portrait of early-twentieth-century America tells the story of three families in pursuit of the American Dream.
At the dawn of a new century, everything is changing... and anything is possible. Set in the volatile melting pot of turn-of-the-century New York, three distinctly American tales are woven together – that of a stifled upper-class wife, a determined Jewish immigrant, and a daring young Harlem musician – united by their courage, compassion and belief in the promise of the future.
Together, they confront history's timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair... and what it means to live in America.
The Tony-winning score is just as diverse as the melting pot of America itself, drawing upon many musical styles, from the ragtime rhythms of Harlem and Tin Pan Alley to the klezmer of the Lower East Side, from bold brass band marches to delicate waltzes, from up-tempo banjo tunes to period parlor songs and expansive anthems. A truly unique and powerful portrait of America, Ragtime: The Musical is sure to inspire!
Book by Terrence McNally
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens