The original cast featured many of the actors from the original Toronto production, including Brian Stokes Mitchell as Coal House Walker, Marin Mazzie as Mother, Peter Friedman as Tateh and Audra McDonald as Sarah, all of whom were nominated for Tony Awards, as well as Steven Sutcliffe as Mother's Younger Brother, Judy Kaye as Emma Goldman, Mark Jacoby as Father and Lea Michele as Tateh's Daughter.

"[7] The New York Times also noted that "The season was an artistic success as well, creating one of the most competitive Tony contests in years, with a battle in almost every category capped by the titanic struggle for the best musical award between Ragtime with 13 nominations and The Lion King with 11.

Composers Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty were joined by original cast members Brian Stokes Mitchell (Coalhouse), Audra McDonald (Sarah), Peter Friedman (Tateh), Mark Jacoby (Father), Judy Kaye (Emma Goldman) and Steven Sutcliffe (Mother's Younger Brother).

This production was directed by Stafford Arima, and starred Maria Friedman in the role of Mother, for which she won the 2004 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

[13] A new production opened at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, on April 18, 2009, and ran through May 17, 2009, with direction and choreography by Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

The cast featured Stephanie Umoh (Sarah), Quentin Earl Darrington (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Christiane Noll (Mother), Robert Petkoff (Tateh), Bobby Steggert (Younger Brother), Donna Migliaccio (Emma Goldman) and Ron Bohmer (Father).

This production had a large cast and orchestra, resulting in a significant weekly running cost that demanded the show be a popular success in order to prove financially worthwhile.

The cast featured Claudia Kariuki (Sarah), Rolan Bell (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Rosalie Craig (Mother), John Marquez (Tateh), Harry Hepple (Younger Brother), Tamsin Carroll (Emma Goldman) and David Birrell (Father).

[20][21] The actor-musician production featured Earl Carpenter (Father), Anita Louise Combe (Mother), Jonathan Stewart (Younger Brother), Ako Mitchell (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Jennifer Saayeng (Sarah) and Gary Tushaw (Tateh).

[22][23] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ragtime was at one point the only show in the UK to be playing to live audiences in a production presented by The Arts Educational Schools, London.

It was directed by Stephen Whitson and the cast featured Akmed Junior Khemalai (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Beatrice Penny-Toure (Sarah), Lauren Jones (Mother), Jamie Chatterton (Father) and Benjamin Durham (Tateh).

The cast featured Lea Salonga (Mother), Patina Miller (Sarah), Norm Lewis (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Tyne Daly (Emma Goldman), Kerry Butler (Evelyn Nesbitt), Howard McGillin (Father), Michael Arden (Younger Brother), Manoel Felciano (Tateh), Lilla Crawford (Little Girl) and Phillip Boykin (Booker T.

[28] It was directed by Stafford Arima and featured many of the original Broadway cast, including Brian Stokes Mitchell as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Audra McDonald as Sarah, Mark Jacoby as Father, and Peter Friedman as Tateh.

The concert was directed by Sammi Cannold, and featured Brian Stokes Mitchell as the narrator, Laura Michelle Kelly as Mother, Andy Mientus as Younger Brother, Brandon Victor Dixon as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Michael Park as Father, Shaina Taub as Emma Goldman, Aisha Jackson as Sarah, Robert Petkoff reprising his 2009 Broadway revival role of Tateh and Joe Harkins as Grandfather.

The cast included Joshua Henry as Coalhouse Walker Jr, Caissie Levy as Mother, Brandon Uranowitz (who originated the role Little Boy in its world premiere in Toronto) as Tateh, Colin Donnell as Father, Ben Levi Ross as Younger Brother, Shaina Taub as Emma Goldman, and Nichelle Lewis[37] (replacing Joaquina Kalukango, who, in turn, replaced Joy Woods) as Sarah.

The role of Coalhouse Walker was played by Thom Allison, with Alana Hibbert as Sarah, Jay Turvey as Tateh, and Patty Jamieson as Mother.

[42] Providence's Trinity Repertory Company presented Ragtime in May 2018, directed by Curt Columbus, with Wilkie Ferguson III as Coalhouse Walker Jr. Mia Ellis as Sarah, Charlie Thurston as Tateh, Rachael Warren as Mother, and Rebecca Gibel as Evelyn Nesbitt.

The production was directed by Terrence J. Nolen, with Nkrumah Gatling as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Terran Scott as Sarah, Cooper Grodin as Tateh, and Kim Carson as Mother.

https://ardentheatre.org/event/ragtime/2019-09-19/ National Youth Music Theatre presented Ragtime as part of its 2022 season in August 2022 at The MCT at Alleyn's in Dulwich, London.

Three social castes in turn-of-the-century New York introduce themselves to the audience: the first is an upper-class white family from New Rochelle— the Little Boy (Edgar), his Father (who runs a fireworks factory), Mother, Mother's Younger Brother, and Grandfather—who live a genteel life and enjoy a lack of racial and ethnic diversity; the second is the Black residents of Harlem, including a beautiful young woman named Sarah, who adores the pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr.; the third are immigrants from Europe in the Lower East Side, among them "Tateh", a Jewish artist from Latvia, and his young daughter.

These three worlds are connected by narration from the luminaries J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Booker T. Washington, Emma Goldman, Harry Houdini, and Evelyn Nesbit (“Prologue—Ragtime”).

Also en route to New Rochelle, Coalhouse is harassed by a racist fire squad led by chief Will Conklin, who taunt him for driving his own car.

Father returns home while Coalhouse is playing, and is stunned by the changes to his family's life, while Mother and her Younger Brother are proud of her choices.

There, Emma Goldman speaks passionately about a textile mills strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where Tateh and his daughter are among those targeted by federal troops and strikebreakers.

A lecture by Booker T. Washington on patience and dignity ironically underscores the white firemen's destruction of Coalhouse's new Model T (“The Trashing of the Car”).

Mother, Father, Younger Brother, Tateh and Emma Goldman look on as Coalhouse weeps at Sarah's grave (“Till We Reach That Day”).

Mother encounters Tateh again, not recognizing him from their brief meeting months ago; now a wealthy filmmaker, he has re-invented himself as "the Baron Ashkenazy" and is directing a silent movie in Atlantic City (“Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc.”).

Younger Brother meets with him but is inarticulate and nervous: his profound thoughts, narrated to the audience by Emma Goldman, stand in contrast to the only phrase he can muster: "I know how to blow things up."

Father dies aboard the RMS Lusitania; after a year of mourning, Mother marries Tateh, adopts Coalhouse and Sarah's son, and moves to California.

Notes: *The original cast recording features a bonus track titled "The Ragtime Symphonic Suite" rather than the exit music composition.