Auditions are now open for the Young Australian Broadway Chorus’ production of RAGTIME

The Young Australian Broadway Chorus is proud to announce that auditions are now open for their upcoming production of the acclaimed musical Ragtime.

Winner of the 1998 Tony Awards for Best Score, Book and Orchestrations, and both the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and Best Score, Ragtime, will return to Melbourne this January for a limited season. Set in the volatile melting pot of turn-of-the-century New York, Ragtime depicts three distinctly American tales– that of a stifled upper-class wife, a determined Jewish immigrant and a daring young Harlem musician that are woven together in their pursuit of the American Dream.

Ragtime is the renowned musical adaptation by award-winning composer/lyricist team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and noted playwright Terrence McNally of E.L. Doctorow’s distinguished novel of the same name. Credited by TIME Magazine as being “a triumph for the stage” and by the International Herald Tribune as “the best musical in twenty years” Ragtime is a story courage, compassion, and belief in the promise of the future and presents an opportunity for views to confront history’s timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair, and what it means to live in America.

Auditions for the Young Australian Broadway Chorus’ production of Ragtime are now open. The Young Australian Broadway Chorus are actively seeking an ethnically and culturally diverse cast of young performers aged 15+ for this production. The production will depict the broad range of cultures present in New York in the early 20th Century, including characters from the Black community, and European immigrants. This production of Ragtime will be contingent upon the production team being able to cast the show appropriately.

Auditions are open via self-tape submissions online at ragtimethemusical.com.au until Friday September 8th. Selected performers will be invited to attend in-person auditions on Tuesday the 12th or Sunday 17th September, with call back auditions to follow.

The Young Australian Broadway Chorus, a division of Stage School Australia, has notably presented sell-out seasons of Broadway hits CATS(2020), Les Misérables (2019) and Wicked (2018) at the National Theatre, as well as many previous productions including The Secret Garden (Southbank Theatre), Seussical (Malthouse Theatre), The Wizard of Oz (Union Theatre) and most recently Spring Awakening (2023) at Meat Market.

Stage School Australia is one of Australia’s leading performing arts schools for young people with 28 training locations across Melbourne and Brisbane and a student population of over 5,800. Established in 1984 as the Victorian Children’s Theatre, it is made up of the Young Australian Broadway Chorus, the Australian Youth Theatre, Beginners OnStage, the Australian Boys Dance Academy, the Talent Company of Australia and the Costume and Staging Department. Over its 40-year history, Stage School Australia had gained a reputation as a launching pad for the performing arts industry, with alumni gracing stage and screen both in Australia and internationally.

For more information visit ragtimethemusical.com.au.