Upon Ragtime's official opening night performance at Broadway's Neil Simon Theater last November – when the curtain rose and the crowd saw fancily-clad Americans (in early 20th century chic) standing atop a three-story steel and wood set – the audience erupted in applause. And the clamor did not die down for a full two minutes. The combination of colorful costumes and an omnipresent, multi-tiered set made an immediate impression on theatergoers that night. The contrasts of the different classes of people and their physical surroundings are certainly integral to a show about cultural and class collisions in an America where immigrants are pouring in the world over.
Simple, Elegant, Complete
Indeed, it seems that the goal of scenic designer Derek McLane – a Yale School of Drama graduate whose recent Broadway credits include Lestat, Grease and The Threepenny Opera – had been achieved. Among those goals, he says, was "trying to achieve a simplicity that created a sense of inevitability and importance (and) to create a set that was simple and elegant, and yet still felt complete." In reviewing the show for The New York Times, Ben Brantley wrote, "With a tiered, skeletal set that suggests a majestic phantom railroad station, this Ragtime puts the emphasis on people – as makers of history as well as its pawns – instead of what surrounds them."
The set pieces are fairly sparse, whether depicting a tenement street scene, suburban house setting, or a train station. Oftentimes it was the implication of the smaller set pieces – the posts (with injected foam details) certainly fit naturally into a scene that takes place in an Irish fire station – that helped spark imagination of the audience. For a scene in the slums, clotheslines were hung from the top two stories. Moments aboard an ocean liner play out atop the third level, center stage. At other times, rolling staircases are abutted against the walkways where specially designed gates swing open to allow people to walk down or up. There is even a movable bridge that connects walkways on the second and third stories, which descends and ascends in and out of view when needed.
"The three levels are there for a few reasons," explains McLane. "One is that the show is largely about three different groups of people: the white folks from New Rochelle, the black people from Harlem and the European immigrants. And to create the sense of a soaring, impressive structure, I wanted the set to be as high as possible. The rolling stairs came out of early meetings between myself and the director, Marcia Milgrom Dodge. We knew we needed stairs in different places, we knew we wanted the show to feel actor driven, and as we worked on it we discovered different uses for the stairs. I decided to make the bridge move to solve some sightline issues in the Neil Simon Theatre. Without a moving bridge, various moments in the show would have been blocked from view, in particular from the mezzanine. By flying the bridge up, we are able to create a clear view of staging on the upstage levels. Because of its weight, automating it was the only way to make it move."
Inspiration from Innovation
McLane says that his inspiration for this Ragtime set was the story. He looked at images of architecture from the period, including buildings by Stanford White, glass and iron pavilions and the old Penn Station. "The exposition pavilions from around 1900 were the main inspiration," he reveals. While he did see the original, Tony-winning Broadway production of this musical in 1998, the scenic designer was interested in telling the story in a different way this time around. "The cast iron and glass pavilions were exciting to me because they represented a great technical innovation of the time," remarks McLane. "Architects including Stanford White were flexing their engineering prowess with these new, soaring, magnificent structures."
The 1998 production of Ragtime featured a large number of expensive set changes, including a library filled with walls of books and a working Model T Ford. Those do not exist here. Even the car is a movable prop that offers the shell of an automobile without seats. Clearly the director wanted to focus on character over flashy stage gimmicks. When asked about the differences between the Broadway incarnation and the recent production at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., McLane replies: "The design is basically the same, just slightly re-proportioned for a different size theatre; the Broadway theatre is a few feet smaller than the Kennedy Center. Some of the detailing has been improved for Broadway, but in general, the design is the same."
Ragtime's three-level set looms over everything without overwhelming the action, especially as the walkways wrap around the stage rather than cut across it, although arches soaring above the set frame it nicely. And a backlit wall of varying hues as well as smart stage lighting allow the set to change from a rustic rural location to a sunny beach setting to a vibrant jazz nightclub without the need for numerous props or set pieces. As it is, the set pieces and stairs are moved by cast members themselves. "This was something both the director and I felt strongly as we started working the show," says McLane. "We both were interested in creating a production that felt story driven and actor driven. We wanted to create a world in which the actors could move the pieces and help tell their own story."
Seeking a Path
McLane worked closely with lighting designer Donald Holder to make sure that issues involving lighting the set were addressed. "Don and I have collaborated on other projects, and we work closely together to figure out how to achieve certain images in certain scenes," says McLane. "That said, it is a very challenging set to light, as there is so much structure to it that it is not easy for the lights to reach various parts of the set. Having so many levels and so many uprights provided plenty of obstacles for Don to light around, so it was a challenge for him to find paths for light to reach parts of the stage. At the same time, it gave him many surfaces to light as beautifully as he did."
Judging from the audience reaction on opening night, many people are pleased with the results. When pressed as to whether or not he feels that he achieved his goal of a simple, elegant and complete set for Ragtime, McLane modestly replies: "I will leave that question for others to answer."
