Rags (musical) Totally Explained

Everything about Rags Musical totally explained

Rags is a musical with a book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and music by Charles Strouse.

Production history

The Broadway production opened on August 21, 1986 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre with little advance sale and to mostly indifferent reviews, and it closed after only four performances (and 18 previews). Directed by Gene Saks and choreographed by Ron Field, the cast included Teresa Stratas, Larry Kert, Lonny Price, Judy Kuhn, Dick Latessa, Marcia Lewis, and Terrence Mann. Despite its failure, it garnered a good deal of attention during the awards season.
In 1991, Sony released a studio recording of the score. It featured most of the original cast joined by Julia Migenes replacing Stratas.
A few years after the Broadway closing, in 1991, the creators reunited to present a dramatically rewritten and severely streamlined production at Manhattan's Jewish Repertory Theatre. Later yet, they reworked the show again, staging it first at Florida's Coconut Grove Playhouse (February 1999) and then the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey in November 1999.

Plot

This synopsis applies to the rewritten production and not the show that originally appeared on Broadway. As such, some musical numbers and subplots are not accounted for. Act One As a ship bearing hopeful immigrants steams toward Ellis Island, a lone passenger reflects on the life he's left behind ("I Remember"). Rebecca Hershkowitz, a Jewish woman, has fled Russia with her young son David, hoping to find her husband, Nathan, who left years before with the promise that he'd send for them when the time was right but who has since disappeared. On the long voyage, Rebecca has made friends with Bella Cohen, a teenaged girl who is unenthusiastic about her father's choice to leave their homeland and her brother, Herschel, behind, but excited about the possibilities that lie ahead ("If We Never Meet Again"). Bella has also found love on the crossing, but her father doesn't approve of Ben, the young man who claims to be heir to his uncle's fortune.
   The immigrants find a less than warm welcome in America, where they're treated like animals by unfeeling and opportunistic immigration officials ("Greenhorns"). With no male relative to claim them, Rebecca and David are in danger of immediate deportation until Bella begs her father, Avram, to rescue her friend. Claiming that Rebecca is his sister, Avram reluctantly totes the mother and child to his brother's home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Not surprisingly, the extra bodies are not appreciated, but Avram persuades his brother to let Rebecca and her son stay for the night. Unable to sleep, Bella, Rebecca and David watch and wonder at the strange new sights in the streets below ("Brand New World"). Though Rebecca is first excited by her new circumstances, she expected to find her husband waiting for her and feels more lonely and vulnerable than she did in her home country and longs for the time that she'll finally have a real home for her son ("Children of The Wind").
   Rebecca continues to search for her husband and takes a job sewing in a sweatshop, while David helps Rachel, a widowed woman, sell trinkets out of her market stall. Bella works for her aunt, Anna, sewing for pennies a day. Though she's mostly confined to their tenement dwelling by her over protective father, she continues to pine for Ben, who she still believes is working for his wealthy uncle. Ben, however, has no uncle and slaves away at a cigar factory. Avram, meanwhile, finds that though he was considered an educated man in his old village, he's now the small fish in a big pond and must hawk goods as a street vendor. Even so, through the trials of everyday life the community remains hopeful and upbeat ("Penny A Tune"). However, the business owners in the neighborhood are preyed upon by Mr. Rosen, a greedy and opportunistic man who demands they pay him for protection from his thugs.
   Outside of the sweatshop, Rebecca is confronted by Saul, a union supporter who urges her to open her eyes to the poor treatment and unfair wages she's receiving at her job. Not wanting to become involved with someone who causes trouble, she brushes off his suggestion that she better herself through education until she thinks of how it could benefit her son. Saul agrees to teach Rebecca and David how to speak and read English, and tries to instill new world values in both of them ("Easy For You"). To broaden their horizons, he takes them to see Hamlet as performed by a Jewish theatre troupe who change the "depressing" end of the play to make it more palatable to their audience ("Hard To Be A Prince"). After the fun of the evening, Rebecca is left to her thoughts and realizes that she's falling in love with Saul ("Blame It On The Summer Night").
   Bella and Ben are reunited briefly when he comes to visit her. She is overcome by the horrible stench of tobacco on his clothes from working in the factory, and he's forced to admit his lie. He has a new plan, to sell gramophones, and he's brought one to demonstrate for her ("For My Mary"). As they dance, Avram returns and throws Ben out, forbidding Bella from ever seeing the boy again. Bella, embittered by her father's strict control over his life, flies into a rage and accuses her father of bringing her to America for selfish reasons. Realizing she'll never fit into the American dream her father promised her, Bella despairs ("Rags").
   Meanwhile, Nathan, Rebecca's husband, is contemplating his position in the ranks of Tammany Hall, where he's promised great things if he manages to secure the Jewish vote for a union busting Democratic candidate ("What's Wrong With That?"). He plans to contact Rebecca and bring her to America when he finds an announcement she placed in the newspaper trying to contact him.
   At the street market, Mr. Rosen comes to collect his bribes from the shopkeepers. Emboldened by the Socialist doctrine Saul has taught him, David stands up for Rachel and is beaten by Rosen's thugs. Rebecca blames Saul for corrupting her son and vows that she won't be fooled by any more idealistic notions of America. As she cradles her son, Nathan arrives to collect his family ("Nothing Will Hurt Us Again"). Act Two Nathan explains to Rebecca and David how he's managed to climb up from the ghetto of the lower East side to a better life ("Yankee Boy"). Rebecca is unsettled at the change in her husband, who now calls himself Nat Harris and loathes the Jewish people he now sees himself apart from. Still, she's dazzled by the idea of belonging to society and having a better life for her son and weighs security with her husband against abandoning her cultural and ethnic heritage ("Uptown"). She also longs for Saul, though they both realize how pointless their infatuation with each other is ("Wanting").
   As Avram continues to struggle with his relationship with his daughter, Rachel offers him unsolicited advice in an attempt to begin a romance, an idea that becomes more palatable when he realizes he could get out of his brother's house and into a more stable family life for Bella ("Three Sunny Rooms"). With Bella and David helping, Ben sells his "Magic Music Machine" to excited customers ("The Sound Of Love"). The three are natural salesmen, and Bella is delighted to think that soon that'll have enough money to marry. She tells Ben she's doing her part to earn money as well. She has gone against her father's wishes and gotten a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory ("Rags" reprise).
   Rebecca accompanies Nathan to a fancy dress party and feels increasingly out of place and unhappy with her husband, who acts ashamed of her. When David interrupts the party to tell Rebecca of a fire at Bella's shop, Nathan forbids her to leave. Knowing Bella is in danger, she goes anyway, but it's too late. Bella jumps to her death from the burning building. Avram is destroyed by the death of his daughter, and Rebecca is confused and guilty ("Kaddish").
   At the sweatshop, the women, led by Rebecca, refuse to work in the unsafe conditions that lead to the deaths of the girls at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory ("Bread and Freedom"). As the demonstration reaches near-riot levels, Nathan shows up to try and persuade his wife to come home with him. Rebecca sees Saul in the crowd and knows she must follow her heart and stand up for what is morally right ("Dancing With The Fools"). She refuses him and remains at the demonstration and at Saul's side.
   Avram is still grieving heavily for Bella and is planning to return to Russia and the son he left behind when Ben comes to pay his respects. He tells Avram that leaving America would mean Bella died for nothing and gives him the grammaphone, which plays a recording of Bella's voice. Avram goes to Ellis Island with Rachel. While Rebecca sings of her new life with Saul and David, Avram welcomes his son Herschel off the boat as a new wave of immigrants arrive ("Children of The Wind reprise/Finale").

Song list

Act I

Overture/I Remember
If We Never Meet Again*
Greenhorns
Brand New World
Children of the Wind
Penny a Tune
Easy for You
Hard To Be a Prince
Blame It on the Summer Night
For My Mary
Rags
What's Wrong with That?
On the Fourth Day of July*^
In America*^
Nothing Will Hurt Us Again
Act II
Entr'acte
Cherry Street Cafe^
Yankee Boy**
Uptown
Wanting
Three Sunny Rooms
The Sound of Love
For My Mary (Reprise)
Democratic Club Dance*
Kaddish
Bread and Freedom
Dancing With the Fools
Finale

Songs marked with an (*) are not included on the Cast Recording. Songs marked with a (^) are not consistently included in later versions of the musical. **This song was originally scripted to be sung by Ben almost immediately after "If We Never Meet Again", however it was changed for the original Broadway production.

Awards and nominations

Tony Award for Best Musical (nominee)

Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (nominee)

Tony Award for Best Original Score (nominee)

Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (Stratas, nominee)

Tony Award for Best Choreography (nominee)

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Stratas, winner)

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Kuhn and Lewis, nominees)

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestration (nominee)

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music (nominee)Further Information

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