Stephen Flaherty

The syncopated story of America

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By John Lyle Belden

In the United States’ current social and political climate, approaching a significant celebration of the Fourth of July, it is fitting that Summer Stock Stage presents “Ragtime.” The epic musical by Terrance McNally with songs by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, based on the E.L. Doctorow novel, was a massive hit and Tony winner both in 1998 and the current revival. With a combined cast, crew, and orchestra nearing around 100 – mostly high school and college students – this exceptional production is directed by SSS Artistic Director Emily Ristine Holloway.

Set around 120 years ago, this is an appropriate tribute to America for many reasons.

It is the story of what was then considered an exemplary family. They are introduced by the observant Little Boy (Adam Palumbo), whose Father (Justus Palumbo) became wealthy enough from fireworks and other paraphernalia of patriotism to travel the world, leaving behind Mother (Allie Niethammer), Mother’s Younger Brother (Collin Alber), and Grandfather (Milo Ellis). Mother and Brother become central characters in the narrative, with Niethammer especially showing strength of voice and her role’s character. With clumsy charm, Alber embodies the American restless spirit, always searching for something he’s not sure of, seeking to give his life meaning. While Mother and Brother have transformative dramatic arcs, Father is stuck in an era he too late realizes has gone, naïvely unaware that his beliefs and attitudes are part of the problem.

It is the story of celebrity. The novel and its adaptations mix real historical figures in with the fictional exemplars of various classes. Many names are still familiar, including J.P. Morgan (Graham Bodkin), Henry Ford (Sam Funk), Booker T. Washington (DeMarae Bradley), and Harry Houdini (Max Frank). We also meet the scandalous vaudeville star Evelyn Nesbit (Olivia Steele); the events surrounding the Girl on the Swing described in “Crime of the Centry” are factual. Steele plays her with confident flair while presenting the ego that would outlast her famous beauty. Another notable personality was anarchist agitator Emma Goldman (Lilah Hern), presented with stubborn bravery, persistently and constantly calling out injustice.

It is the story of unending racial struggle. Aside from Mr. Washington’s righteous pontificating, we are presented with the Harlem community that gathers around pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Michael Washington), master of Ragtime music. He had been a carefree traveling musician but realizes his heart belongs to Sarah (Cori Hughey), who he discovers had given birth to his child. However, she had felt abandoned and betrayed by him, leading to desperate actions that result in her taking shelter in Mother’s home. Coalhouse’s story is the central narrative of the musical – from romance, to confrontation with the bigot Willie Conklin (Simon Allen), to tragedy and dire consequences. Hughey and Michael Washington acquit themselves excellently as Sarah and Coalhouse, bringing on heartfelt tears and rapturous applause. Also notable is Asha Smitherman as the soloist in the haunting rendition of “Till We Reach That Day.”

It is a story of immigrants. We see a number of arrivals with little more than the rags on their backs, exemplified by hopeful Latvian refugee Tateh (Luke Aguilar) and his daughter (Gracie Reckamp). He lays bare the whole newcomer experience – the humor, the horrors, and the spark of inventiveness that finally brings him to his part in the American Dream. Even in moments of despair, he perseveres for his little girl, and we can’t help but want him to succeed. To help escape dire circumstances, we get clever minds-eye cameos by fellow immigrant Houdini.  

Family, celebrity, racial tension, immigration issues – this 1906 story echoes like a 2026 campaign, set to music that was new and uniquely American. We highly recommend seeing this if you can; however, performances this Friday through Sunday (June 26-28) at Schrott Center for the Arts are swiftly selling out.

SSS’s next show is a different musical, still set around the same place and time: Disney’s “Newsies,” an entertaining examination of the 1899 New York Newsboys Strike. Performances are July 15-19, also at the Schrott Center, next door to Clowes Hall on the Butler University Campus (610 W. 46th St., Indianapolis). 

Get information and tickets at summerstockstage.com.   

Footlite celebrates love on ‘This Island’

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By John Lyle Belden

Footlite Musicals provides a taste of the tropics with its young artists production of “Once on This Island,” the Broadway hit by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, based on Rosa Guy’s “My Love, My Love,” a Caribbean retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid.” It copies the original mostly in theme and a few plot elements, standing as its own as a story of love, sacrifice and the forces that work around – and often against – us.

Sometimes it takes a village to tell a story. Aside from the named characters, we meet a chorus of 21 Storytellers who introduce the tale and carry it along. They relate that on this island, a small French possession in the Antilles, they honor the local Afro-Caribbean gods including Asaka (Imani Ruffin), Mother of the Earth; Agwe (Kori Smith), lord of Water; Erzulie (Caileigh Jones), goddess of Love; and Papa Ge (Noah Lee), spirit of Death.

The story centers on Ti Moune (Lauren Blackwood), an orphan found in a tree after a storm. Sensing the gods saved her for a reason, an old couple – Mama Euralie (Plezzance Lawrence) and Tonton Julian (Jalen Breiley) – take her in and raise her. Events transpire that Ti Moune encounters and saves Daniel (Colton Woods), son of the nobleman Armand (Edward Rayhill) whose family has governed the island for generations. She even makes her way to Daniel’s side of the island, where he lives in a luxury hotel. But she is not the only woman in his life; enter his lifelong friend Andrea (Rebecca Pinero). Ti Moune finds herself tested by both the trickery of Papa Ge and the discrimination of high society. What is her destiny?

Directed by Dennis Jones and Edward Trout, and excellently choreographed by Kevin Bell, with the island beat of an ensemble led by Gisele Dollinger, this Caribbean fairy tale flows beautifully as all the cast contribute, with Blackwood’s voice sailing through sun and storm. The gods get their due, with Ruffin shining in the song “Mama Will Provide,” and Lee embracing his role as trickster as well as Reaper.

This story with its ring of familiarity set in an exotic locale reminds us that love is noble and real in all cultures. The energy of its telling sweeps us along and makes us root for the girl in the tree.

Performances of “Once on This Island” run through Sunday, Aug. 18, at Hedback Theater, 1847 N. Alabama, Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at footlite.org.

Civic charms with historical mystery

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By John Lyle Belden

In 1918, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife, and their children were all arrested, then secretly executed in a mass of confusion, smoke and bullets. This much is historical fact.

Naturally, there were also rumors. The Bolsheviks were possibly not all happy with killing children. A persistent story soon arose that one of the Tsar’s daughters, 17-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, had somehow escaped and lived in hiding. Among supporters of Imperial Russia – while from its ashes the Soviet Union immediately ascended – this legend, at least, would never die.

This sets the stage for the musical “Anastasia,” presented by the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre.

The book by Terrance McNally takes inspiration from two motion pictures of the same name, a 1956 film by Authur Laurents and the 1997 Don Bluth animated feature, as well as a prior play by Marcelle Maurette. Musicians Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens added and adapted songs from the 1997 version. Here, as in all the scripts, some liberties were taken with history, so for those who accept more recent forensic discoveries on the matter, consider this a fascinating fairy tale in a parallel world.  

After opening scenes with Louisa Zabel, then Keegan Connor, portraying the authentic Anastasia, we find ourselves in St. Petersburg (renamed Leningrad by the Soviets) in 1927, ten years after the Tsar’s death. Hearing the rumors of the lost Grand Duchess, prospective con men Dmitry (Troy Bridges), a handsome grown-up street urchin, and Vlad (Steve Kruze), who used to work his grift among nobility as a faux Count, see a prospective payday in finding a young woman to present as Anastasia to the Dowager Empress (Jill O’Malia), the Tsar’s mother living in exile in Paris. (As a bonus, this also gets them out of the ever-worsening USSR.)

By chance they find Anya (Isabella Agresta), an amnesiac who had mentioned being a princess while in the sanatorium but now keeps that to herself, as it keeps triggering mysterious dreams. With this true backstory making her royal provenance possible, the three prepare to attempt their con, but Vlad notices she knows far more about Russian court life than she should.

Adding to their difficulties, Soviet secret police officer Gleb Vaganov (Nathanael Hein), who has his own personal connection to the Tsar’s family execution, is growing wise to their plans.

It’s a minor spoiler, but it’s in the program that Anya makes it to Paris for Act II. There we also meet Countess Lily (Nina Stilabower), the Dowager Empress’s lady in waiting, who is still sweet on Vlad despite seeing through his schemes. One climactic scene takes place at a ballet, during which we get an exquisite performance by ballerina Izzy Casciani.

Agresta manages to combine everyday girlish charm with regal bearing to keep us guessing while hoping that Anya is who she pretends to be, in a performance that shows the woman “pretending” less and less each scene. Bridges is great in these likable rascal leading man roles (think if Disney’s Alladin were a twenty-something Russian) and charms his way through this show as well. Meanwhile, Kruze is as smooth as top-shelf vodka.

In a standout performance, opera tenor Hein employs his powerful voice to add authority to his man on a dark mission, bringing more than expected to the story’s necessary villain. Overall, this show is a pleasing adventure with the feel of history and how people lived then, peppered with charming tunes like “Once Upon a December” and the powerful big number “Journey to the Past.”

Director Anne Beck noted she immersed herself in the musical’s story and the appeal of its what-if mystery, and it shows. The costumes by Adrienne Conces excellently reflect the story – brilliant white for Imperial glory, drab earth tones for Russia after its fall, then a swift shift to bright colors in the City of Lights. The production also effectively employed scenic projections provided by Broadway Media Distribution, enhancing the audience experience. Music director is Kayvon Emtiaz and Katie Stark is stage manager.

So, even in this bit of fiction, is she, or was she, that tragically lost girl? True nobility knows to be discreet, so you’ll have to see for yourself. “Anastasia” is at the Tarkington stage at The Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Carmel through May 11. Get info and tickets at civictheatre.org or thecenterpresents.org.