Burn the Floor Burns Out, Ragtime Stops Playing, and The 39 Steps Run Out

Broadway is bereft once again as the January closings continue today. Burn the Floor is all danced out and has finally ended its run at the Longacre Theatre following extensions due to popular ticket demand. Also closing today, the Hitchcock-inspired mystery/comedy The 39 Steps, which enjoyed an unusually long run for a play, lasting two years on Broadway. One of the most unfortunate Broadway closings so far this season is the excellent revival of the musical Ragtime, which only made it a few months at the Neil Simon Theatre. The audiences were enthusiastic, but the show just couldn't sell enough tickets to keep this production running. And then there is also a significant Off-Broadway closing today, the long-running production of the Christian boy band musical Altar Boyz, which shutters following over 2,000 performances at New World Stages.

Broadway's Ragtime To Begin Talkback Series on 12/15

The Broadway revival of Ragtime, now playing at the Neil Simon Theatre, is starting a new post-performance talkback series called "Ragtime Talk Time". The discussion series will kick off on December 15 with a post-show chat with Ragtime's composer/lyricist team, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. The duo will talk about the process of working on their Tony Award-winning score for Ragtime, as well as other aspects of their 25-year creative partnership. The post-show Tuesday talks will continue on a monthly basis and are free to anyone attending that night's performance.

Dreamgirls and Ragtime To Perform at Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals during its telecast on the CBS network on November 26. The musicals scheduled to perform at the Macy's Thanksgiving parade are the Broadway revivals of Ragtime and West Side Story, as well as the current production of Dreamgirls playing at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. The West Side Story cast will sing "America," and the Dreamgirls trio will perform the musical's title song on the show. The entire Ragtime cast will be gathering in Battery Park to sing the show's big anthem, "Wheels of a Dream," against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Ragtime Returns to Broadway This Year

The musical Ragtime, a favorite among many lovers of the modern musical, is coming back to Broadway in October, when it will arrive at the Neil Simon Theatre. The lavish show, based on the E.L. Doctorow novel of the same name, opened on Broadway in 1998 at the then brand new Ford Center for the Performing Arts (now called the Hilton Theatre), and ran for about three years before closing. To the consternation of its many fans, Ragtime sadly lost the Tony Award for Best Musical to The Lion King, despite the fact that it had won both Best Book (for Terrence McNally) and Best Score (for Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty). The Broadway revival production originated at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and is both directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. Ragtime follows three families as their lives become entwined during the tumultuous social change of the early 1900s. It includes a mix of fictional characters such as the ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Eastern European immigrant Tateh, and historical figures like Emma Goldman and Booker T. Washington.