Ragtime... the Novel!!!

Ok, I really have to stop with these Ragtime related posts, but I just can't resist.  So I bought the book that the musical is based on, and the book is every bit as good as the show! With movies that are based on books, its almost guaranteed that Hollywood will bastardize the plot so much to a point that people will be forced to say "Well, the book is much better than the movie". But with live theater, I hold it true that the theatrical version of a book is always as good, if not better than the original.

Ragtime, for example, is EXCELLENT. Wicked by Gregory Maguire is an absolutely abhorrent novel, but the musical version is absolutely stellar (no matter how much of a sell-out it is).  Cabaret the Musical is based off of a play called I Am a Camera which in turn is based on a novel called The Berlin Stories.  The only exception I can find to this golden rule of theater was Lestat by Anne Rice, but the reason for that is that Elton John is the one who got ahold of the musical, so that's why it was such a red-hot tranny mess.

But back to the point, Ragtime the novel is excellent and the musical really worked to keep the original plot without missing very much at all.  The novel is so good because it really goes in-depth to show exactly how terrifying, yet exhilarating , a changing country can be.  I feel like it very much reflects the kinds of things that are happening in the US some hundred years later.