The Tin Pan Alley Rag tells the story of an imagined meeting of two of America's greatest musicians, composer Scott Joplin and songwriter Irving Berlin. Joplin was a musical prodigy, born the son of a slave, who received a conservatory education and slowly rose to acclaim. Berlin was a Russian Jewish immigrant who couldn't read music, yet catapulted to stardom at the age of 23. Both men changed the landscape of music forever with their contributions to the first American musical genre, ragtime. Beneath Joplin and Berlin's toe-tapping, syncopated rhythms lay fascinating stories of fame, love and loss. In The Tin Pan Alley Rag, these tales come to vivid life and two great icons realize they have more in common than they ever suspected.
The score for The Tin Pan Alley Rag includes such classic songs as Irving Berlin's "I Love a Piano", "Play a Simple Melody", "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" & "The Entertainer", among others.