A few hours after “Ragtime” claimed five Drama League awards last Friday, Ben Levi Ross was back in his dressing room at the Lincoln Center Theater, and getting ready to continue doing the work that has established the musical as an awards season frontrunner.
“I just keep saying to myself, ‘Even though you’re tired, take everything in, take every second in, keep your eyes open, look around,’” says Ross. “Because this is rare, and this does not happen all the time.’”
In fact, it’s the 28-year-old actor’s being nominated (and eligible) for a Tony award. In recent weeks, he won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his featured performance in the musical.
May has proven to be particularly busy for the “Ragtime” cast, who continue to take the stage for eight performances each week. The afternoon before the Drama League Awards, which jointly honors the Broadway and off-Broadway communities in New York, Ross attended a Tonys “meet the nominees” luncheon alongside several of his costars, including show leads Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy and Brandon Uranowitz. The production received 11 Tony nominations overall.
Ben Levi Ross
Lexie Moreland/WWD
Long after the rave critical reviews and celebratory nature of opening night last fall, “Ragtime” is continuing to draw enthusiastic sold-out audiences eight times a week. Months of performances later, the Tony nominations arrived as a reminder of the production’s earliest days.
“It gives you a moment to remember what it was like when we were first starting out — the magic that I felt in the rehearsal room,” says Ross, who also starred in the off-Broadway production of “Ragtime” at New York City Center in late 2024. “It’s really rare that you get to be in a show with this many performances that are being recognized — not only by their fellow actors, but recognized by the community at large in this way.”
Ben Levi Ross in “Ragtime.”
Courtesy of Matthew Murphy
Ross stars in the musical as Mother’s Younger Brother, a wealthy young man who becomes radicalized over the course of the show, and finds new direction for his life through political activism. The musical, set in the early 1900s, originally debuted on Broadway in 1998. Just shy of 30 years later, the musical feels more timely than ever for its depiction of racism, classism, politics and the immigrant experience in America.
“The success of this revival of ‘Ragtime’ should tell producers that you can have a successful show that is nuanced, that is deep, complex, that faces the ugly truths in our society — and that when all of those things come together correctly, it can be a commercial hit,” says Ross. “Those things don’t have to live on the fringes of the theater.”
Ben Levi Ross
Lexie Moreland/WWD
The cast is ramping up rehearsals for their performance at this year’s Tonys ceremony, which features live excerpts from the best musical nominees. As a teenager, Ross was “obsessed” with the original Broadway company’s Tonys performance of the show’s prologue — which he describes as “musical theater at its highest form” — but is tight-lipped about whether they’ll offer up their own rendition this year.
“Because we’ve had five performance nominations, you can be pretty certain that all five of us will be highlighted in some way with our performance,” he adds.
Technically, this isn’t his first production of “Ragtime.” While he was a freshman in the drama program at Carnegie Mellon, he was cast in a quick cameo role for the school’s mainstage production. “But I was doing schoolwork backstage the entire time. I wasn’t really aware of the bulk of the show,” he says. “So when I went into City Center, it was pretty fresh.”
He left school before graduation and made his Broadway debut as a company understudy for “Dear Evan Hansen,” before starring in the titular role for the show’s national tour, and later the Broadway production. In 2024, Ross originated one of the lead roles in off-Broadway musical “The Connector,” which earned him his first Drama Desk nomination.
Heading into the remainder of his scheduled run with “Ragtime,” Ross is committed to finding new ways to keep his performance feeling truthful and fresh, while maintaining the emotional depth that the show requires from each actor onstage. And to stay present and take in the moment.
“ Sometimes, you just have to put your head down and do the work just to get through the week, and other times you can feel it a little bit more deeply,” he says. “Sometimes you get a reminder that this is not gonna last forever, so you better open your frigging eyes.”
Ben Levi Ross
Lexie Moreland for WWD
