(Below written during Shawnee-Mission Theatre in the Park’s Friday night production of Ragtime.)
Betsy is enjoying listening to the music while she reads here at Theatre in the Park. The show we are waiting to see is Ragtime and the music is, of course, ragtime.
We got here about 6:50 — the gates opened at 6:30 — and bought our tickets at the box office. There was no line. After purchasing our tickets we went back to the car and grabbed our chairs, cooler, drinks and entered the theater. With the way people had talked about getting here early we had expected to see some of our group already here. But the people were reasonably sparse and we didn`t see anyone else here from church yet. We have basically finished eating our supper (though there is still enough to snack on during the show) and still have not noticed the rest of the church group yet. It is currently 7:40 with the show set to start at 8:30.
intermission time on what is turning out to be a more pleasant show than i expected, even with the serious and mature theme that we ended the first act with.
We spotted Shannon almost right away in the ensemble. She was in a fetching yellow dress as one of the white Americans. Aaron was harder to be sure we knew it was him. We also saw Shannon later as an immigrant with a scarf over her head and Aaron both as Henry Ford and several other minor unnamed roles.
The acting and singing were pretty good. Coalhouse and Sarah, main characters in the plot, had excellent voices tha went well together. The plot was somewhat violent and ultimately hokey. The “lesson” it teaches about the use of violence is somewhat ambiguous. The message on marital love and roles was definitely though subtly unbiblical; it obviously played off modern sensibilities instead of the era it was portraying. But the music — and with a title like Ragtime music should be a central core of the show, story and plot — that was a true homage to the era. So I definitely recommend people go see the show — especially the one put on by Theatre in the Park.
At The Rainbow 