Rags
Music	Charles Strouse
Lyrics	Stephen Schwartz
Book	Joseph Stein David Thompson (revisions)
Productions	1986 Broadway 1999 New Jersey 2017 Connecticut 2019 Manchester 2020 London

Rags is a musical with a book by Joseph Stein (with revisions by David Thompson), lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and music by Charles Strouse.

Production history[edit]

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 as Rebecca Hershkowitz, Larry Kert as Nathan Hershkowitz, Lonny Price as Ben, Judy Kuhn as Bella Cohen, Dick Latessa as Avram Cohen, Marcia Lewis as Rachel Halpern, and Terrence Mann as Saul, a trade union organizer. Despite its failure, it garnered a good deal of attention during the awards season, receiving Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, among others.

I am Rags, an impressive shibe and handsome doggo. I make videos about video games, social issues, and industry related shenanigans. Thanks for stopping by and checking the page out. RAGS Suite is a pack with powerful tools for creating fun and exciting games. Poker Rags sells comfortable clothing and accessories that are smart, funny, cool, and good for the game. RAGS stands for Rapid Adventure Game Creation System and the suite is composed of both the player and the designer, the latter program being the software that adventure or RPG game creators can use to make their own (typically categorized as “indie” or “interactive fiction”) games.

In 1991, Sony released a studio recording of the score. It featured most of the original cast joined by Julia Migenes replacing Stratas.

Revised versions

The creators reunited to present a dramatically rewritten and severely streamlined production at The American Jewish Theatre, New York City, which opened on December 2, 1991, directed by Richard Sabellico. This version had 9 actors playing all of the roles, featuring Ann Crumb as Rebecca and Crista Moore as Bella, and a reduced set, with two pushcarts on stage and imaginary windows, with the actors describing the exterior activity. The young immigrant mother has a best friend of almost equal importance, and the story is now told by David, the heroine's young son.^[1]^[2]

The Colony Theatre Company, Los Angeles, California presented Rags in 1993.^[3]

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.^[4] The revised version cut the cast to 15, from the original Broadway cast of 30. According to Strouse, 'We tried to do too much. And now it's tightened, more focused. People got lost in it... The diffuse, scattered story now centers on Rebecca Hershkowitz, a young immigrant mother who escapes to the Lower East Side after a pogrom, and her love affair with Saul, an American labor organizer trying to unionize the sweatshop where she works... The [original] score was influenced by Middle Eastern, Irish, Scottish, English folk, American honky-tonk, obviously jazz and ragtime and klezmer -- even Greek music of that day, and Broadway, too... It is now 'more impressionistic'.'^[5]

In 2006, Schwartz, Stein and Strouse collaborated on the World AIDS Day Concert version of the musical, celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the show's Broadway opening. The concert was at Times Square's Nokia Theatre and featured Carolee Carmello, Gregg Edelman, Eden Espinosa, Lainie Kazan and Michael Rupert.

The Goodspeed Opera House presented an extensive revisal of the show in 2017, which started previews on October 6, opened on October 25, and closed on December 10. The musical has a new book by David Thompson, several new songs by Schwartz and Strouse, and starred Samantha Massell as Rebecca Hershkowitz. Entirely reimagined, this new Rags has a new plot and new characters and is directed by Rob Ruggiero.^[6] The broadwayworld.com reviewer wrote: 'They [Goodspeed] have taken a show that many had written off as, simply, one of those shows that just didn't work, and they pulled it apart and put it back together as a fresh, vibrant, timely and important story. I fully expect that this will become the definitive telling of thiest Ends story, and it should.'^[7]

Rags Game Player Mac

Hope Mill Theatre

The UK premiere of the revised version of Rags was produced at Manchester's Hope Mill Theatre, playing from 2 March to 6 April 2019.^[8] The production was directed by Bronagh Lagan and starred Rebecca Trehearn as Rebecca, Valda Aviks as Rachel, Gavin James as Bonfman, Sam Peggs as Ben, Jane Quinn as Anna, Michael S. Siegel as Avram, Robert Tripolino as Sal, Tim Walton as Jack, Lydia White as Bella. James Dangerfield, Emma Fraser, James Hastings and Hanna Khogali were members of the ensemble as well as being an on-stage band. The role of David was shared between George Varley and Lochlan White. This production at the Hope Mill Theatre was Co-produced by Hope Mill Theatre and Aria Entertainment with association of Knockhardy Productions. The London transfer of this production will open at the Park Theatre, London on 9 January 2020.

Film Adaptation

Working Title Films acquired the film rights for the musical in 1996, and the production was in 'development hell' ever since. Beanie Feldstein and Daniel Day-Lewis were in talks to play the parts of Bella and Saul respectively. No confirmations about the production as yet of September 2020.

Plot[edit]

The following synopsis applies to the rewritten production (not the most recent Goodspeed version) 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 has 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 for America years before and never wrote back to his family. Rebecca has made friends with Bella Cohen, a teenager emigrating to America with her father Avram ('If We Never Meet Again'); her brother Herschel remains behind in Russia. Bella has fallen in love with Ben, another passenger, but Avram does not approve.

On Ellis Island, the unfeeling immigration officials treat the immigrants like animals ('Greenhorns'). With no male relative to claim them, Rebecca and David are in danger of immediate deportation until Bella begs Avram to rescue her friend. Avram pretends that Rebecca is his niece, and persuades his brother, who lives in a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to let Rebecca and David stay for the night. Bella, Rebecca and David marvel at the strange new sights in the streets below ('Brand New World'). Rebecca still feels lonely, and wishes that she can give her son a real home ('Children of The Wind').

Rebecca searches for her husband and takes a job sewing in a sweatshop, while David helps Rachel, a widow, selling trinkets out of her market stall. Bella works at home as a seamstress; confined to the tenement, she pines for Ben. Ben pretended that he had a wealthy uncle who would provide for him, but in reality, he has no uncle and works in a cigar factory. Avram, though an educated man in 'the old country,' hawks goods as a street vendor. Even so, the new immigrants remain upbeat ('Penny A Tune'). However, the business owners in the neighborhood are preyed upon by Mr. Rosen, a greedy man who demands they pay him for protection from his thugs.

Saul, a union supporter, confronts Rebecca, urging her to open her eyes to her poor treatment and unfair wages; he suggests that she better herself through education. Saul teaches Rebecca and David how to speak English, and tries to instill American values in them ('Easy For You'). To broaden their