New Orleans Times Interview with Lynn Ahrens

FOR LYRICIST, EMOTIONS OF 'RAGTIME' RESONATE AT TURN OF THIS CENTURY

[ORLEANS Edition] Times - Picayune New Orleans, La. May 7, 2000

by Theodore P. Mahne

The lyrics describe America at the dawn of a new era: "It was the music of something beginning, an era exploding, a century spinning in riches and rags, and in rhythm and rhyme."

The time was the beginning of the 20th century. They called it the era of ragtime.

As "Ragtime," the Tony Award-winning musical, opens this week at the Saenger Theatre, lyricist Lynn Ahrens reflected on that time and its similarities to America now on the brink of another era, the beginning of the 21st century.

Although set at the turn of the last century, these characters are so real to us today, Ahrens said, because they face the same loves, fears, challenges and hopes that all people of any time and place face.

Based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, "Ragtime" features a Tony Award- winning score by lyricist Ahrens and her writing partner, composer Stephen Flaherty. It follows the lives of three very different American families just after the turn of the century when that "new syncopation sweeping the nation" mirrored the vast social and economic changes also occurring at the time.

Amid a cavalcade of historic events, including appearances by such real figures as Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan, the lives of the three families -- an upper middle class white family, an immigrant Jew and his daughter, and a young black couple and their child -- come together in pain and promise.

For Ahrens, one of the chief challenges of "Ragtime" was telling so much of that story through her lyrics. Because the show is mostly sung- through, rather than performed as scenes with songs sprinkled in here and there, the lyricist bears a heavy burden on her shoulders to carry much of the exposition

. "I used to be about 4 inches taller before we started 'Ragtime,'" Ahrens said laughing.

"Over the years musicals have changed a little bit. Nowadays, when it is a scene, then a song, you get a feeling of deja vu," she said. "Most lyricists today try and wend the narrative and a lot of the dialogue into their songs, the goal being to push the action forward with their songs."

Such fuller, more complete integration of the music within the context of a play's plot not only keeps the story moving but makes it a more natural setting for the characters, Ahrens said. If they're always singing, there's not that abrupt break as an character steps forward to sell his "big number" before returning to the action of scene.

Because of its nature, Ahrens said she wouldn't be too surprised if, in future incarnations, "Ragtime" follows such shows as Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" and Frank Loesser's "The Most Happy Fella" from the theater stage into the opera house.

"It does have that epic quality that opera does," she said.

"This has been a form that has been evolving in recent years," she said. "But I think 'Ragtime' goes a little further in certain ways, because there's so much exposition in the show itself -- it's a complex story with three main plots. A lot of the exposition had to be incorporated into the lyrics.

"To do that rather gracefully and not be too obvious about it was a big challenge."

Ahrens said to attain that goal, she hopes her work largely won't be noticed by the audience. In that regard, while there are many clever rhymes and elegant, poetic lyrics throughout the score, they only enhance, and never distract from the emotion of the moment itself.

"I'm a tremendous admirer of Stephen Sondheim, for example, but there's nobody like him. And because there's nobody like him, it can be very dangerous for a writer to try to be like him," Ahrens said. "I can do fancy, complicated rhymes, but he's got that market cornered.

"In that regard, my goal is to be invisible. I don't want someone to think during a show, 'Oh, listen to that Lynn Ahrens lyric.' I want them to hear the characters speaking, not me."

In creating what is on one level a period piece, another challenge was to make sure that the characters spoke neither in anachronisms or cliches. Instead, the speeches fit each character's time, as well as such things as education and life experience."

"You really start channeling these characters and write what's in their heads. I try to put my own 20th century, or now 21st century, sensibility aside, and live in their heads."

Having such rich source material as Doctorow's novel, and working with acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally, who wrote the musical's book, also made the growth of "Ragtime" a richly rewarding experience, Ahrens said. The panoply of historic and fictional characters also gave the creative team a broad canvas on which to work

. Among the subplots of the musical are the scandalous murder case involving "the girl in the red velvet swing," Evelyn Nesbit, and her husband Harry Thaw, who killed her lover, architect Stanford White; the rise of the labor movement; the burgeoning motion picture industry; and a national mania for the magic of Harry Houdini.

"We tried very hard to create the kaleidoscopic tapestry that Doctorow's book wove. They're all connected," Ahrens said. Despite that assortment, they maintained the focus on the three main plots. "It's essentially three American stories, that through three different tones and experiences and language combine to create a portrait of America."

Now heading into their 17th year as writing partners, Ahrens said she and Flaherty have developed a comfortable form of improvisation in their creative style. Among the multiple Tony Award-winning pair's other works include the scores to the musicals "Once on This Island" and the cult favorite, "Lucky Stiff," and such animated films as "Anastasia."

The age-old question of what comes first, words or music, doesn't really apply to them, she said.

"It's a little of both. We've been working together since 1983 and over the years we've gotten very comfortable with one another," she said. "It's a very improvisational way of working together. There's a lot of a back- and-forth process."

"We'll look at the particular scene we want to work on, and figure out what the characters are feeling, what the action is at that particular moment. Then, little by little, something generally starts to bubble up, whether its a sentence or a bar of music or a song title or a little dance. Sometimes the gods just sit on Stephen's shoulder and he'll come up with a charming little melody."

Charms of a different sort are on tap for their next Broadway project: "Seussical," based on the magical, fantastical world of Dr. Seuss.

"'Ragtime' weaves together three stories. 'Seussical' does the same with 17 stories," she said laughing. "So it's a similar sort of challenge."