I've never played Ragtime, and I hope to someday. I often hear others list it as their favorite musical. But I have played A Man of No Importance, so I know what kind of quality to expect from Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.
Add to that the near-universal appeal of Dr. Seuss, and sprinkle in a collaboration with Eric Idle, and it's a promising prospect.
The Signal Mountain Playhouse kicked-off its second half-century with this audience pleaser at its outdoor amphitheater venue. So far, only one show has been canceled due to weather.
Performance notes
Other than some really quick effects changes, there is nothing too challenging about this orchestration by Doug Besterman. It's a "modern" (if over twenty years ago still counts) guitar book, with plenty of opportunities to rock out; but has, in accordance with the whimsical subject and circus scenes, some traditional banjo and "Broadway jazz" guitar parts as well.
I'm using a combined Guitar 1 and Guitar 2 book, since there aren't 2 guitarists in this orchestra (and there wouldn't be room for anyone else). This also makes for some really quick instrument changes, but I have a trick up my sleeve.
A good number of reprises means that there aren't too many total songs to learn. There are a few exposed solos, but nothing to be worried about. It's just fun parts. There's one section of the "Chasing the Whos" sequence that reminds me so much of Phish that I wonder if it was intentional. So of course I "Trey it up," just in case.
The song "Alone in the Universe" is gorgeous, and I combined the two guitar parts into a fingerpicked style so I could cover the Guitar 2 countermelody and the Guitar 1 arpeggiated stuff. The other really, really pretty song is "Solla Sollew." Per some suggestions from others who've played this show, at times I'm using clean electric, with chorus or chorus+delay, instead of acoustic.
Gear
Instruments: I'm again using my Godin xtSA for both electric and acoustic parts. This is what enables me to switch so quickly. I have cables plugged into each of the jacks on the guitar, and they go to different inputs on the Quad Cortex. When I change a preset on the QC (via a button in forScore on the iPad), I'm instantly playing acoustic (or back to electric).
And then the only other instrument I have to haul/switch to is my Deering Goodtime tenor banjo. I got brave and went back to standard CGDA tuning for this show. One thing that really helps me is limiting to 3-note chord voicings instead of trying to play all 4 strings on every chop.
Effects and amplification:
The main amp models I'm using for the electric are, strangely, not really amps at all. Someone made a preset for the Quad Cortex using "neural captures" of a plugin (software virtual amp) based on a John Petrucci signature Mesa Boogie amplifier. They then uploaded that preset to the Cortex Cloud, and I downloaded it into my QC. I added whatever effects I needed, and it sounds great! It's really responsive.
For a couple of numbers, I'm using a modeled Princeton Reverb amp with tremolo and spring reverb. Some things just needed a bit more mellow of a tone.
There's a lot more detail about the gear I'm using in the Pit Notes for Tuck Everlasting.
Roundup
Since there is limited straight dialogue, this show seems to go by at a comfortable pace. It is witty and sweetly sentimental, just like its namesake. The tunes are extremely prone to becoming earworms, which is a testament to Flaherty's skill.
Chances are, you'll come across a performance of this musical at some point. Its popularity with young audiences (and older ones too) makes it a perennial favorite in community theatre. But there's nothing wrong with that. It's a great show, well-written, with a good orchestration.
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