Ragtime is a Broadway musical with book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty, based on the 1975 novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow.

The musical tried out in Toronto and Los Angeles, and opened on Broadway on January 18, 1998.

It tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker, a Harlem musician; Mother, the matriarch of a WASP family in New Rochelle, NY; and Tateh, a Latvian Jewish immigrant. Historical figures such as Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Stanford White, Harry K. Thaw, Admiral Peary, Matthew Henson, and Emma Goldman also appear. The music includes marches, cakewalks, gospel and ragtime.

The show was nominated for 12 Tony Awards in 1998, and won for Best Actress, Original Score, Book, and Orchestration.

Songs

ACT 1

• "Prologue: Ragtime"
• "Goodbye, My Love"
• "Journey On"
• "The Crime of the Century"
• "What Kind of Woman"
• "A Shtetl Iz Amereke"
• "Success"
• "His Name Is Coalhouse Walker"
• "Gettin' Ready Rag"
• "Henry Ford"
• "Nothing Like the City"
• "Your Daddy's Son"
• "The Courtship"
• "New Music"
• "Wheels of a Dream"
• "The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square"
• "Gliding"
• "The Trashing of the Car"
• "Justice"
• "President"
• "Till We Reach That Day"

ACT 2

• "Entr'acte"
• "Harry Houdini, Master Escapist"
• "Coalhouse's Soliloquy"
• "Coalhouse Demands"
• "What a Game"
• "Fire in the City"
• "Atlantic City"
• "Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc."
• "Our Children"
• "Harlem Nightclub"
• "Sarah Brown Eyes"
• "He Wanted to Say"
• "Back to Before"
• "Look What You've Done"
• "Make Them Hear You"
• "Epilogue: Ragtime/Wheels of a Dream"