Rags the Musical
Park Theatre, London

The word “ecumenical” is unusual in a theatre review, but there seems no other description for a scene in which Jewish immigrants in New York sing the Sabbath prayer in counterpoint with Italian Catholics attending a Latin Mass.
This vivid illustration of two communities united by desire for the divine, but divided by the specifics of ritual, occurs in Rags, a 1986 Broadway musical that received its UK première last year in a production at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre, now deservedly transferred to London.

Most musicals are written by three people, respectively contributing music, lyrics, and spoken dialogue. The trio behind Rags, though, boasts striking individual pedigrees.