The Rubicon Theatre Company’s odd-sized small stage has proved to be challenges for many directors over the years, but especially with large-scaled productions. In 2018, Rubicon’s production of the sweeping World War II epic South Pacific used a modular set concept, pop-out set pieces, and Cinerama-styled projections to make the 185-seat theater seem larger than it really is.
On October 24, the Rubicon is staging a production of Ragtime, another sweeping musical that typically utilizes a large orchestra, cast of 40, and sumptuous costumes and set pieces, including a full-sized Model “T” Ford, a multi-level set, and even a frilly, vaudeville-style swing for the actress playing ditzy model Evelyn Nesbit to perch on. Director Jeremy Scott Lapp was entrusted with the task of bringing this monumental musical to the Rubicon’s compact, quirky stage and we discussed this with him.
VCOS: What were your immediate thoughts when you were asked to direct Ragtime at the Rubicon.
JEREMY: This is the first time I’ve ever directed it, but it’s a story that is vitally important, especially in 2026. There are musicals that sometimes we return to over and over again because they are beautiful or because they are well sung and then there are those that we return to because they are necessary, and I think for me, Ragtime is both of those. It’s set in the early 1900s and focuses on three different families, and what begins as three different stories gradually reveal themselves to be the story of America. And we’re living in a moment right now when questions of immigration, of race, of economic inequality, of identity, and the American dream, are kind of once again at the center of our national conversation. So even though it is a period piece, it felt remarkably important to tell this in 2026, because it is about connection and the possibility of change. And I think what Ragtime does so well is that it doesn’t offer easy answers but it shows us a country that is capable of generosity but also of cruelty. And it shows people who are reaching for a better life while carrying the weight of history behind them. Ragtime reminds us that progress is rarely simple and that the ideals we celebrate have not always been extended equally to everybody. So that’s what’s exciting to me about doing Ragtime at this time.
VCOS: The first time I saw the show was at the old Shubert Theatre in Century City in 1997 and I thought the very same thing about the timeliness of it. Then when I saw the revival in New York in 2009 and it was relevant then. It’s a show that is always relevant, no matter when or where it is staged.
JEREMY: Yeah. The questions that Ragtime asks us are what does it mean to be an American? What do we owe one another and what happens when the American dream belongs more to some than to others. And it offers us the question of can we choose a different future. That’s where the hope comes into the piece.
VCOS: Talk about the challenges of doing a big show on a small stage. What gets most easily lost?
JEREMY: Yeah, you’re right. You have to get very creative. In this version we have seventeen cast members and all seventeen, for the most part, double and triple up and play different parts. It’s great for audiences because they get to follow one actor through multiple parts, such as our Younger Brother, who also plays Houdini. Our Father plays multiple parts throughout the show, like Henry Ford. So our audiences will get to see a big scale musical in an intimate space, but it does provide some tricky opportunities in trying to figure out how to stage a show that’s typically done in 150 different locations across New York all in one space without the use of sets flying in, using trap doors, etc. So we’ve had to get very creative on how to tell this story in a way that is important and still give the audience the context that they need.
VCOS: I’m thinking especially about the opening number, which is the famous scene where the most people are on stage at one time. In fact all the cast members are on stage for that one. There have been turntables used and the colors of the three groups highlight the significant separation between their respective backgrounds and lifestyles. But one thing that is utilized in that opening number is space to accent that separation. How does that translate to a small stage and still point out the vast differences between the whites, the Blacks, and the immigrants?
JEREMY: It doesn’t, because we just don’t have the space, but it does feel like the three groups are bumping into each other or are on top of each other, which offers some theatricality because the truth is that these groups were often butting heads all over the place and I think that resonates in the way that we’re limited in the size of our stage and how to stage this. What’s great about it is that with these intersecting stories, because it’s so small, we really get this opportunity to move from very human, intimate moments between Mother and Father or Coalhouse and Sarah and then scale up to things that are happening to the nation. It’s been a tricky process to figure out, scaling this show down from what it normally is but I think we came up with something special.
VCOS: Not only does it require a large stage laterally but also vertically. How do you handle those elements?
JEREMY: We had enough room to build a second level so there is a landing on top and we also use two rolling staircases that we use at a number of times throughout the show, for the two ships passing each other, the scale of the New Rochelle home, a platform for Emma Goldman to speak to crowds from above, so Mike Billings, who did our scenic design, really did a great job of giving us some plane space to explore vertically what we could do with the story.
VCOS: What do you do with set pieces like Evelyn’s swing, the Model “T” Ford, the factory scene, and so forth, things that take up a lot of space, both horizontally and vertically?
JEREMY: This production is really stripped down. It’s almost a concert version, so it’s not fully staged. There are minimal sets and props because of the necessities of the space, so we’ve gotten creative with the piano, for example, that Coalhouse plays. It’s not a full-scale piano, it’s just the frame of one, because of how the sightlines are in the space. We couldn’t use a real piano because it would limit some people’s ability to see it so we use the “piano” frame to represent the car. You know he loves music just as much as he loves that car, so tying those two things together felt like a good way forward.
VCOS: What about the music? Ragtime usually employs a twenty-eight piece orchestra.
JEREMY: In this version we use a five-piece band. They’re downstairs in the basement in a totally separate room. It’s not Lincoln Center, it’s a scaled down, intimate version of the show but I think it matches the scope of what we are doing there. You still get all of the great music in the show, nothing has been cut. Ragtime has such a brilliant score that it commands a lot of attention and I think our musical director Abdul Hamid-Royal has put together a version that really works. The five-person band version has been done across the U.S. before so we weren’t totally reinventing the wheel, so it comes with its challenges, but also its opportunities.
VCOS: What do you bring with your experience that has helped you make the transitions necessary to bring Ragtime to this stage?
JEREMY: The pre-production work was massively important on this because of how little rehearsal time we had. We have only been rehearsing for two weeks, the first week of which was almost all dedicated to the music. As a result, we only had a week for staging the show so having collaborators that we know and trust and work in different rooms at the same time became vitally important. Our schedule was very meticulous. We’d only have this many minutes to work on this staging and then move on to something else.
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Ragtime runs at the Rubicon Theatre Company through November 15. For tickets, visit rubicontheatre.org
