Ragtime.....huh? Huh??

Spoilers I guess. This show was bad and I left at intermission. No question there was a lot of talent onstage but just about everything else was lacking for me. I started to think about leaving when an hour in there was essentially zero character development and I still had no idea what the actual story was or any inkling about where it was supposed to be going. This show was old timey in the worst way--the hammy-ness reminded me of when 30 Rock occasionally made fun of how silly & overearnest Broadway could be. Exhibit A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZx6TnBRuAk

The nail in the coffin for me was when Sarah, suffering from great trauma and mental illness so bad she abandoned her baby and apparently had a full psychological breakdown, seemed to decide spontaneously to take Coalhouse back and start caring for her baby again after months of him visiting once a week and playing the piano downstairs while she hid upstairs in a bedroom. We have zero insight into her thought process or characterization, she just suddenly runs down the stairs and embraces him and they go on their way (with the baby that another woman has been looking after for months) without further comment--then five seconds later they're singing Wheels of a Dream about how great their lives are going to be CUZ 'MERICA. They couldn't even get a real car onstage even though half the show seems to revolve almost entirely around this f*cking car. With the exception of the good performers, the whole production seemed lazy in addition to being very outdated for our current world. I hope they put this show to bed for good real soon.