REINVISIONED “RAGS” AT GOODSPEED

IMMIGRANTS ARRIVING AT ELLIS ISLAND

          PHOTO BY DIANE SOBOLEWSKI

Our country is an amalgam of immigrants, a veritable melting pot of cultures, of people who are fleeing poverty and persecution to seek a better life for themselves and future generations.  The Goodspeed  is focusing on one pair of newcomers to our shores, Rebecca Hershkowitz and her son David, in the refashioned production “Rags” that opened Friday, October 6 and will run until Sunday, December 10.

Rebecca has escaped from a pogrom in Russia and fled to find a better life with her child to America, in the crowded ghetto known as the Lower East Side.  She has a distinct advantage over many:  her skills as a seamstress and her dream of one day running her own dress shop. The original story of this mother and son had a brief stint, four performances, on Broadway in 1986 and has endured iterations over the years. Now The Goodspeed's   Executive  Director Michael Gennaro has assembled a finely tuned team to give it new life and a stronger heart.

Holding fast to its original vision as an immigrant experience at the turn of the twentieth century, with the original project makers, Stephen Schwartz for lyrics, Charles Strouse for music and Joe Stein  for story on board, now Rob Ruggiero is being welcomed as director and David Thompson as book writer, with David Loud as vocal arranger. “Rags” focuses on the time after Joe Stein’s “Fiddler on the Roof” and Anatevka and continues the story.

Once Ruggiero figured out what tale to tell and the best way to tell it, the team, including the original players, was off and running.  Joe Stein’s original spirit of the piece was preserved while David Thompson, writing the revised story, “jumped into this wonderful process with both feet” creating a new piece being redone from bottom to top. Thompson "credits the many departments at The Goodspeed with the great wisdom to steer this reinvisioned  musical to new heights.”

Thompson calls the musical “a huge tapestry that represents the immigrant spirit and determination, with the skills to capture a dream.  Here is young woman with a thimble who can design and think, with something to offer her new neighborhood and community.”  Rebecca (Samantha Massell) brings a great passion and idea and has the talents to develop it. In her work at one of the overcrowded shirt factories, she meets and falls in love with Sal, (Sean McLaughlin) an Italian union organizer.

Calling the show “newly minted,” with a blend of contemporary and traditional music, klezmer, jazz and ragtime, with reworked lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, Thompson confirms that at least a third of the show has been reexamined.  He feels it is especially relevant today as DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a million dreamers strong, is being debated.  Thompson calls “Rags” both “timely and timeless, it’s all of our stories and so much a part of our culture.”  For him, the title is evocative of the rag trade and needle trade, coming from nothing to something and ending up a driving economic force, as well as a reference to the predominant music of the day.

For tickets ($29 and up), call The Goodspeed , 6 Main Street, East Haddam on the Connecticut River at 860-873-8668 or online atwww.goodspeed.org.  Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. (on occasion) and 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (on occasion). Note the special dates during Thanksgiving Week. 

David Thompson says a musical is “never done until you run out of time”  The clock is clearly ticking. Don’t waste a moment to come discover for yourself if “Rags” is now Riches.