Why Ragtime remains so culturally relevant in 2026, nearly 30 years since Broadway debut
With themes including immigrant discrimination and keeping America ‘great’, Ragtime feels like it could have been written today
It has been nearly 30 years since Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Ragtime, an American epic tracking the intertwining lives of three families in New York at the turn of the 20th century.
Staged at Lincoln Centre’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre in New York, the musical – which won four Tony Awards on June 7, including best revival of a musical – is in its third run on Broadway. It is resonating the most with audiences this time, they say.
“Three is the charm,” Ahrens says.
Flaherty adds: “When we originally did it on Broadway, which was 1998, I think a lot of people, if not most people, were thinking about this piece as a period piece. I think now, people are responding to it as a contemporary story.”
The story
Adapted from the 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow, the show’s book is by the late playwright Terrence McNally. It depicts a broad sweep of the American experience in New York at the turn of the 20th century, from black Americans to Jewish immigrants to white upper-class residents.