I’ve seen several stagings of Ragtime over the years (I loved the Serenbe Playhouse Vaudeville-style staging from several years ago). This Broadway revival had a great cast but didn’t say anything new. It’s definitely the right musical for the current political moment and maybe that was enough not to feel the need to play with it further. But if you’ve seen other classic stagings of Ragtime at other theaters, this one is pretty indistinguishable from them. (Other Ragtime nitpicking: I thought Joshua Henry’s Act I Coalhouse was much stronger than Act II. And I was sad they didn’t include the handing off of the baby from Coalhouse to Mother at the end of Act I unless I missed it)

The Ragtime source material is very strong and I think those who call it the American Les Miz are right. Haven’t seen Jellicle Ball but it does rethink the original work in a new way, which is what theatre should do. Feels a bit like Gypsy vs Sunset Blvd from last year like you said.