Ragtime

America was a different place 100 years ago. Immigrants were streaming into the country to make better lives for themselves and their families, a sizable gap separated the haves and have-nots and black Americans were held back by systemic racism. So, maybe not that different after all. Ragtime, the musical based on E.L. Doctorow's novel of the same name, follows the lives of three families in the early 1900s. An upper-class white family in the suburbs of New York, a young black musician in Harlem and an Eastern-European Jewish immigrant and his daughter all find their lives intersecting thanks to radical politics, social injustice and a growing sense of empathy. The touring production of Ragtime is performed at 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday (April 18 and 19) at the Peabody Opera House (1400 Market Street; 314-499-7600 or www.peabodyoperahouse.org). Tickets are $30 to $82.