Springtime For Terrorists, In Washington…
by Larry O'ConnorPlaybill is announcing a revival of the musical “Ragtime” this Spring at the Kennedy Center. I love “Ragtime.” It’s a great piece of theatre. And it’s a completely, totally and entirely a left-wing wacko propaganda piece.
Brian Stokes Mitchell and the original cast of "Ragtime"
“Ragtime” is based on E. L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel of the same name which examines the cultural shifts in America at the turn of the last century. It cleverly uses real-life historical figures and intertwines their stories with a fictional family in New Rochelle, NY. The tensions between the influx of Jewish immigrants and the growing black population with the conservative white upper-class frame the plot and serve as representative of the integration of the culture in the 20th century. If you’d like a taste of Doctorow’s opinion of America circa 1907, you should read this speech he gave reflecting on America of 2007. It will be enlightening, if you can get through it.
But the central story line is that of Ragtime piano player Coalhouse Walker Jr., brilliantly played by Brian Stokes Mitchell in the original Broadway production. Coalhouse spends the first part of the show trying to win back the love of a young girl with whom he has had a baby out of wedlock. They eventually reunite and just as they are ready to start their life together some Irish, racist firemen harass him and vandalize his brand new Model T. After a tragedy leaves his new wife dead, Coalhouse has an epiphany and seeks deadly revenge on the firemen. He recruits a band of young, black followers and goes on a rampage killing firemen, burning down firehouses and, eventually taking hostages and threatening to blow-up a major New York landmark.
Basically, he’s a terrorist. And, of course, he’s the hero of the piece.
His final song, an anthem for civil rights struggles yet-to-come rationalizes and justifies his actions better than any Al Qaeda YouTube video could:
GO OUT AND TELL THE STORY.
LET IT ECHO FAR AND WIDE.
MAKE THEM HEAR YOU.
HOW THAT JUSTICE WAS OUR BATTLE AND HOW JUSTICE WAS DENIED.
MAKE THEM HEAR YOU.AND SAY TO THOSE WHO BLAME US
FOR THE WAY WE CHOSE TO FIGHT
THAT SOMETIMES THERE ARE BATTLES
WHICH ARE MORE THAN BLACK OR WHITE.AND I COULD NOT PUT DOWN MY SWORD
WHEN JUSTICE WAS MY RIGHT.
MAKE THEM HEAR YOU.
The next verse actually suggests that only God can judge whether his actions are right or wrong, but thankfully, there is no mention of 72 virgins.
So the question is: In this post-racial, Obama-happy, post-9/11 world, are we really ready for a musical that glorifies a terrorist who kills first responders and plans to blow up a major building in New York? And, is Obama’s Washington DC really the best place to premiere this revival?
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9 Comments
Wasn't _Ragtime_ James Cagney's final role?
(Could be worse, could be Raul Julia's last role :p)
(that'd be an interesting thread: worst last roles of great actors…)
ooo…dr. kenneth…I believe that would be “Street Fighter.”
Oldest and Wisest: Yes, it’s a great song. But you should see the way Graciella Danielle staged it. The workers on the production line are seen as parts of a machine, dressed in facist grey uniforms and when they sing the last, cynical verse: “Even people who ain’t too clever, Can learn to tighten a nut forever, Attach one pedal, Or pull one lever…[ENSEMBLE]For Henry Ford!” And they hold “Fooooooooooord” they all raise their right arms in a Nazi like salute… get it? Henry Ford was a Nazi! Ugh. Trust me, as great as the score is, it is presented with a severly leftward tilt… the villians are JP Morgan and Henry Ford, the hero is Emma Goldman.
Had to read Ragtime in college. What a bunch of contrived claptrap.
White guilt is the worst.
Stage Right:
“Henry Ford was a Nazi!”
Well, to play the Devil’s advocate, he may not have been a Nazi or a Fascist, but he sure as HELL was pretty close. The man had a thirty-year love affair with authoritarianism of one stripe or another- first the Militarist and Imperialistic tyranny of the Bismarckean Empire during WWI, and then with Hitler and the Third Reich during the leadup to and the early stages of WWII. He was one of the more repugnant members of the very repugnant America First (more accurately, Let’s Screw European Democracy!) and what he did in there actually was bad enough to tick off LINDBERGH for being too Pro-German. And if you got CHARLES LINDBERGH angry on THAT issue, then you can imagine what his sympathies were like when compared to his saner contemporaries.
So yes, I can’t say that criticism of him was entirely unwarranted. Do I think that is what the Doctorow was aiming at? No, but like I said, I’m playing the Devil’s Advocate.
Doctorow’s original fame developed during similar political conditions to the one we’re in right now, and with a similar feeling of inevitability on the left of the triumph of their ideology, in the wake of the Republican blow-out losses in 1974 and ‘76 and Jimmy Carter’s election as president. So a revival of “Ragtime” under the current political climate isn’t a big surprise.
As for the question of offing New York City police and firemen and being seen as a hero in the wake of 9/11, I think if you scratched the surface of E.L. or any of those championing this revival very deeply, odds are at least 50-50 you’d find a Truther hiding in there (which if you pushed them on the equivalence between Coalhouse, his followers and the Muslim terrorists, would be brushed off by questioning whether or not Muslims had anything to do with the 2001 NYFD and NYPD deaths).
I have only seen the movie versions of “Ragtime” and Doctorow other left wing tome “The Book Of Daniel”. The only thing that made “Daniel” watchable was the performance and beauty of Lindsay Crouse. As for the film “Ragtime”, Coalhouse Walker, Jr was played by Howard E. Rollins Jr. Another Good actor except that he fell in love with “powders” until he died.
It seems Mr Doctorow has no concept of the county he lives in.
[...] remember the motion picture, and if the musical is anything like it I’ll take a pass, thanks. For those not familiar with Ragtime, Stage [...]
I saw the movie a loooong time ago and either I was too young to pick out the leftist stuff or it was toned done in the movie. Maybe both. *Shrug.*
But I do know that Doctorow is a big supporter of Mumia Abu Jamal. His modern-day Coalhouse, I suppose.
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