It Turns Out God Had A Hell of a Lot in Store

I am not going to insult Ragtime by trying to describe it to you here. All I know is that it was really goddamn good. Here's one thing I know for certain - I am the type of person who notices the nuances. So if nobody else noticed the desperate shrillness of Evelyn Nesbit's "Whee" during Atlantic City, or that Younger Brother was crying real tears during Make Them Hear You, that's a damn shame.

Christiane Noll is utter dynamite as Mother. This lovely lady certainly deserves the Tony, and ain't no Catherine Zeta Jones gon' take it from her. Quentin Earl Darrington's expert line delivery has made me decide to make "Listen to THAT Ragtime!" my new catch phrase. It means something alone the lines of "Smoke on your pipe and put that in." Savannah Wise is a very nice Evelyn Nesbit, but I really wanted to see Leigh Ann Larkin do it. Until I saw Ron Bohmer's interpretation, I never realized what a douchebag Father is. (And that is a major testament to Mr. Bohmer's acting.)

And then we come to Bobby Steggert as Younger Brother. Even though he basically took all of his second act lines and SCREAMED THEM, I thought he did a very good job. And he is cute. Adorable. Not in the way Aaron Tveit is "Oh Lord can a person really look like that" beautiful, mind you, but a kind of "Awww, he looks like a little boy" beautiful. You know. That kind of beautiful. See? I told you he was adorable. Possible Best Supporting Actor nom there.

I am well aware of how disjointed this post was. I'm still a bit frazzled from what I saw this afternoon. As Violet Weston, god rest her and her family, would say, "Just gimme a few days to get my feet under me."