Written by Mark Saltzman
Directed by Stafford Arima
Synopsis: The Tin Pan Alley Rag tells the story of an imagined meeting of two of America's greatest musicians, composer Scott Joplin and songwriter Irving Berlin. Joplin was a musical prodigy, born the son of a slave, who received a conservatory education and slowly rose to acclaim. Berlin was a Russian Jewish immigrant who couldn't read music, yet catapulted to stardom at the age of 23. Both men changed the landscape of music forever with their contributions to the first American musical genre, ragtime. Beneath Joplin and Berlin's toe-tapping, syncopated rhythms lay fascinating stories of fame, love and loss. In The Tin Pan Alley Rag, these tales come to vivid life and two great icons realize they have more in common than they ever suspected.
NEW YORK TIMES:
"This stodgy and soporific show, which opened on Tuesday night at the Laura Pels Theater of the Roundabout, transforms the lives and careers of two of America’s great popular composers into two hours of theatrical elevator music."
Read the whole review HERE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:
"Mark Saltzman, a writer with stage and TV credits ranging from "A ... My Name Is Alice" to "Sesame Street," has packed his show with snippets of the composers' music (which is good), but too often what it delivers is a superficial history lesson and an earful of corn (not so good)"
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THEATERMANIA:
"What if the two so-called Kings of Ragtime, Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin, had actually met during their lifetime? Well, if such a tete-a-tete did occur, let's hope it was more compelling than the one Saltzman has imagined for this occasionally entertaining if dramatically unfulfilling play."
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VARIETY:
"Despite Stafford Arima's fluid direction, polished design contributions and an able cast, the material is ploddingly episodic and way too elementary in its presentation, never shaping the two composers into three-dimensional figures."
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NY1:
""The Tin Pan Alley Rag" scores on many fronts. It's tunefully original, centering on an imagined meeting between music greats Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin; we're treated to some wonderful selections from their songbooks; and the performances are uniformly strong. But while there are flashes of brilliance, this is not an altogether cohesive work. It hits enough high notes to captivate in moments, but there are also times when it feels as if it's running strictly by the numbers."
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BACKSTAGE:
" Unfortunately, the play Saltzman has fashioned, about a fictional encounter between the two musical titans, is a thin, unbelievable affair that ultimately plays like dueling episodes of Biography."
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TIME OUT NY:
"It should be a clash of the titans, but there’s no clash: It’s a mild, respectful trading of biographical information of the titans."
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AMNY:
"Something is wrong when an Off-Broadway play feels like little more than an elementary school history report. And that pretty much sums up “The Tin Pan Alley Rag,” Mark Saltzman’s unapologetically sentimental musical play that imagines a chance meeting between the American composers Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin."
Read the whole review HERE.
