Ragtime Finally Reaches London in March???

Ragtime may at last be coming to London. The Broadway musical belatedly received its European premiere in October 2002, playing for one night only at Cardiff's St David's Hall as part of the inaugural International Festival of Musical Theatre. So enthusiastic was the reception that producers - both ClearChannel and ATG's Sonia Friedman have been linked with the project - are now hoping to bring it into town as early as March. EL Doctorow's epic 1975 novel traces the cultural and political sea-changes in America between the turn of the 20th century and the start of the First World War. In 1981, Milos Forman brought the story to the big screen, with a cast that included James Cagney, Norman Mailer and Elizabeth McGovern. The musical stage adaptation - with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens - premiered in January 1998 on Broadway where it ran for two years. According to the Daily Mail, Maria Friedman, Dave Willetts and Graham Bickley are being tipped for the cast of the scaled-down West End production.

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