Lincoln Center Theater’s Broadway revival of “Ragtime” has extended its run a second time, now playing through August 2, 2026, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, after overwhelming demand pushed the production well past its original January closing date. The show, directed by Lear deBessonet in her first season as Lincoln Center Theater’s new artistic director, has become one of the season’s breakout hits, drawing sold-out houses and some of the strongest reviews on Broadway.

The second extension is a significant moment for deBessonet, who took over one of the country’s most storied theater institutions this year and chose “Ragtime” as her flagship production. What debuted for two weeks at New York City Center in October 2024, straddling the presidential election, has grown into something larger than anyone quite anticipated.

Why ‘Ragtime’ Is Suddenly Broadway’s Hottest Ticket

But the more interesting question is why. The musical is based on E.L. Doctorow’s acclaimed novel published in 1975. That was adapted for the big screen by Milos Forman in 1981, and for the stage in 1998. The scenes are set in the early 1900s. By all logic it should feel like a period piece. It does not.

Speaking to me by phone from New York last week, deBessonet said the show continues to evoke the story of America, and of American dreams achieved and deferred. The sweeping drama set amid last century’s early waves of immigration weaves together the stories of three distinct groups: an upper-class white family in New Rochelle, a Black musician (Coalhouse Walker Jr.) in Harlem, and a Latvian Jewish immigrant (Tateh) in New York. It explores wealth and poverty, racial injustice and social upheaval, all while intertwining fictional characters with historical figures like Emma Goldman, Harry Houdini, and Booker T. Washington.

“I think about the promise and the wound of America being right next to each other is what makes the story of ‘Ragtime’ endlessly relevant,” deBessonet says. “I can think of other shows that do one of those things. But not both.”

The cast, anchored by Joshua Henry as Walker, Caissie Levy as Mother, and Tony winner Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh, has been called one of the strongest ensembles on Broadway in years. Henry earns mid-show standing ovations. Levy turns a proto-feminist ballad into something almost unbearable in its clarity. “I love roles that require a lot,” Henry has said of playing Coalhouse. “It’s a big plate to eat every night. And I’m hungry.”

A Broadway Hit With Something To Say

The questions the characters are asking in 1900 are the same ones many are asking now: Who gets to belong here? What does progress cost? Whose dream actually gets funded? For deBessonet, the show holds those inquiries without flinching from them.

“There are so many questions about this country’s history right now,” she says, “but there are also just a lot of really human personal moments in this show that people will resonate with in different ways. It just feels like the perfect way to fulfill what theater is here to do.”

Stephen Flaherty’s score is part of the answer to the show’s durability. With a 28-piece orchestra behind the cast, the music does something a smaller production could not: it opens a door into feeling. Grief arrives before the mind can defend against it. “Flaherty’s soaring music allows you into the hope,” deBessonet says. “What did that dream feel like? You can access it in a visceral way across the range of character perspectives.”

The music is certainly a melting pot. “The score has ragtime, it has the broad theatrical sound, the klezmer influences, the music of the Jewish immigrant experience,” deBessonet says. “And it was also the birth of American musical theater itself, which is a uniquely American art form. You can feel Flaherty and Ahrens building upon and extending that canon.”

Although the production is grand in scale, it is spare in ornament. Thirty-three performers fill the Beaumont’s vast stage, but there is almost no heavy scenery. That choice was intentional. “The heart of the event is a human one,” deBessonet says. “It’s about being in a space with some of the most glorious voices on Broadway, telling this story with intimacy.”

Lear deBessonet’s Big Bet

The New York Times review ends with an intriguing question: “What is the status of our American dream? This Ragtime wants to know.” I asked deBessonet the same thing.

“Anxieties are high,” deBessonet says. “It’s easy to focus on what is negative right now.” But the show has been something else for her. It’s a corrective. A reminder. “What has been emotional and healing about doing this show is remembering the incredible uniqueness at the core of this country. The vision. Tateh carries it at the end. It’s a vision of all different kinds of people, together in a commonwealth.”

She gets specific about what moves her most. “The moments that make me cry are not the painful ones. They are the moments that remind us how beautiful, how wondrous it is to have all these different people making their lives together. I think that’s why ‘Ragtime’ is an American masterpiece.”

As for what comes next at Lincoln Center, deBessonet thinks about the job in sweeping terms rather than one specific project. As artistic director, she considers all of the company’s spaces, the experience of crossing the plaza on a winter night, even the lobbies. She recently chose a new red carpet for the Beaumont entrance. “One might think the choice of carpet could be less than thrilling,” she says. “For me it was very exciting to make. We are rolling out the red carpet for the audience, which reminds me that every decision is an artistic one.”

And, yes, deBessonet does hint at a dream project: a classic musical she has loved since childhood, set to be announced for next year. She is not ready to say more than that.

For now, there is August. More sold-out houses. More strangers sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the dark, crying at things they cannot quite name.

“You can watch a film at home that rattles you to your core,” deBessonet says. “But you are by yourself. That is different than feeling those things while being with over a thousand other people who are also having feelings. There is something deeply restorative about it.”

‘Ragtime’ runs through August 2 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, New York City. lct.org.

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