Watch: Ben Levi Ross and Shaina Taub Bring Ragtime to Union Square Subway Station

The Broadway revival staged a meta performance of "The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square" as part of MTA Sessions.

April 13, 2026 By Logan Culwell-Block

The Broadway revival of Ragtime offered a meta performance in the Union Square subway station April 10, and the cameras were rolling. See and hear Ben Levi Ross and Shaina Taub sing "The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square" mere feet from where the song's events take place in the video below. The event also featured a performance of Joshua Henry's "Make Them Hear You."

The production's multi-extended run continues at the Vivian Beaumont Theater via Lincoln Center Theater through August 2. The revival opened October 16, 2025. See what critics had to say about the Broadway bow here.

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Based on a novel by E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime blends fact and fiction telling the story of New York City at the dawn of the 20th century, with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. The story focuses on Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a Black man who buys a Model T Ford and sets off a chain of events that encompass all levels of New York City society, along with magician Harry Houdini, industrialist Henry Ford, celebrity party girl Evelyn Nesbit, civil rights leader Booker T. Washington, architect Stanford White, anarchist Emma Goldman, a Jewish Latvian immigrant who becomes a movie director, and an upper class white family living in suburban New Rochelle.

Henry, Caissie Levy, and Brandon Uranowitz lead the cast as Coalhouse Walker, Jr., Mother, and Tateh, respectively, with Colin Donnell (Anything Goes) as Father, Nichelle Lewis (The Wiz) as Sarah, Ross (Dear Evan Hansen) as Mother's Younger Brother, Taub as Emma Goldman, John Clay III (New York, New York) as Booker T. Washington, and Rodd Cyrus (The Light in the Piazza) as Harry Houdini. All are reprising their performances from the production's New York City Center run.

The Broadway cast also features Anna Grace Barlow as Evelyn Nesbit, Nick Barrington as The Little Boy, and Ellie May Sennett as The Little Girl. They are currently joined by Nicholas Barrón, Lauren Blackman, Allison Blackwell, Briana Carlson-Goodman, Jordan Chin, Eean Sherrod Cochran, Billy Cohen, Kerry Conte, Rheaume Crenshaw, Ellie Fishman, Jason Forbach, Nick Gaswirth, Ta’Nika Gibson, Jackson Parker Gill, David Jennings, Marina Kondo, Morgan Marcell, Kane Emmanuel Miller, Jenny Mollet, Tom Nelis, Kent Overshown, Kayla Pecchioni, Jake Pedersen, John Rapson, Matthew Scott, Deandre Sevon, Keenan D. Washington, Jacob Keith Watson, Alan Wiggins, and Keenan Williams. Casting is by The Telsey Office's Craig Burns.

The production also features choreography by Ellenore Scott, set design by David Korins, costume design by Linda Cho, lighting design by Adam Honoré and Donald Holder, sound design by Kai Harada, projection design by 59 Studio, and hair and wig design by Tom Watson. Music director James Moore is conducting a 28-piece orchestra playing the original orchestrations by William David Brohn, and vocal arrangements by Flaherty. Ann James is sensitivity specialist, and Tim Semon serves as production stage manager.

READ: The Making of Broadway’s Ragtime, an Oral History

The musical premiered on Broadway in 1998 following a pre-Broadway bow in Toronto, with an original cast that boasted Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, and Marin Mazzie. McDonald won the second of her six career Tony Awards for her featured performance as Sarah. Even in a year otherwise dominated by juggernaut The Lion King, Ragtime managed to also win Tonys for McNally's book and Flaherty and Ahrens' score, along with Brohn's orchestrations.

The LCT staging is produced in association with Tom Kirdahy, Kevin Ryan, Robert Greenblatt, and Lamar Richardson.