Ragtime is a musical with good bones. After making its Broadway debut in 1998, the play about turn-of-the-century America (as told through the eyes of three different groups) won four Tony Awards: best performance by a featured actress in a musical for then-budding legend Audra McDonald; best book of a musical for Terrence McNally; best orchestrations for William David Brohn; and best original score for Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens.
Flaherty’s music and Ahrens’ words are finding new life on Broadway these days thanks to the Lincoln Center Theater’s current revival of Ragtime, directed by Lear deBessonet. The revival is earning rave notices and big sales, even setting a new record for highest weekly grosses in Lincoln Center Theater history. Billboard has an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the cast recording of one of the musical’s most powerful songs, “Wheels of a Dream.”
In the below clip, you can watch three-time Tony nominee Joshua Henry in the vocal booth as he works himself up to a soaring, sonorous duet with Nichelle Lewis, the Broadway newcomer who turned heads with her starring role in The Wiz in 2023. (McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell sang “Wheels of a Dream” on the original ’98 Broadway cast recording.) The video also offers a peek at the 28-piece orchestra, deftly conducted by James Moore, that plays on the new Ragtime cast album.
The 2025 Broadway cast recording of Ragtime comes out digitally on Friday (Jan. 9) with physical releases dropping Feb. 6 (on CD) and April 3 (on vinyl). Pre-orders for the physical releases are available here.
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