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ACT ONE
(Prelude) It’s
an early spring morning on Wall Street. Several
businessmen are complaining about the sad state of
their fair city (Good Old Days).
Simultaneously, Richard Hunter – “Ragged Dick” – a
bootblack, is asleep in a wooden crate. A
policeman wakes him. It's a friendly
routine.
As Dick dons his
unusual wardrobe (“This coat was once worn by
Napoleon!”), Mickey Maguire, a shiftless kid from
the neighborhood, comes asking for a loan.
Together they meet an awkward first-time
bootblack, Henry Foswell, to whom they each give
some pointers. As Dick sets off to get customers
for all three, he presents his sales pitch (Shine).
The number makes it clear he is no ordinary
street kid; along with an odd nickname, he has
charisma, a unique shoeshine box, and a gift for
getting business. Above all, unlike Mickey, he
doesn’t lie and he doesn’t steal.
After being insulted
by a potential customer, Dick encounters Allen
Carlisle, a well dressed gent who has witnessed
the insult. He lets Dick know he was himself once
a bootblack and he offers Dick a few pointers of
his own. As he gives Carlisle a shine, Dick is
lost in admiration for this interesting fellow,
and vows that he too will one day climb higher (Respectable).
Carlisle pays him a dime, twice his usual fee.
Noticing an expensive
suit in the window of Silas Snobden, Inc. – a
haberdashery – Dick asks about buying it one piece
at a time, starting with the colorful pocket
handkerchief. Snobden happens to be in desperate
need of an office boy, and he’s so impressed by
Dick’s honesty, attitude and intimate knowledge of
the streets that he persuades him to retire from
the shoe business to work in his shop. Snobden’s
chief clerk Gideon Chapin is enraged because he’d
wanted that job for his lazy nephew, Benson.
Snobden, Chapin and his assistant Higgins,
instruct Dick in his new duties (Silas Snobden,
Inc.) Dick is awarded the Silas Snobden
jacket.
Later that day,
delivering on his new job, he runs into Luke
Gerrish, newly released from prison. Gerrish had
been married to Dick’s now-deceased mother.
Prison has not changed him, and he mocks Dick for
believing that hard work will give him a future (Cock
and Bull) but Dick isn’t buying and he leaves
to continue his deliveries. But Gerrish sees an
opportunity in his chance meeting with his
stepson.
On a nearby street
where she shares a shabby room with Gerrish,
Stacia Jane Hauser, a young seamstress, buys a
cheap Chinese lantern from a street stall. As she
carefully carries her prize home, she wonders when
she will finally hear Gerrish declare his love for
her (Maybe Today).
Meanwhile Henry
Foswell has been failing as a bootblack and Dick,
to celebrate his new job, treats him to a meal in
a saloon. It’s filled with Wall Street bucks and
despite Dick’s youth and appearance he convinces
them he and Foswell are a couple of active
investors. The young business men shower them with
a fistful of prospectuses (Put Your Money In).
Leaving the saloon,
the bookish Foswell agrees to tutor Dick in
English and grammar while Dick offers to improve
Foswell’s street smarts and marketability (Partners).
After they part, Dick
notices a ‘Room For Rent’ sign outside Mrs.
Mooney’s boarding house and is entertained by her
sales pitch so he takes it (The Room). A
deal is struck, and now Dick has a job, a room of
his own, a bath that “best of all is down the
hall, not down the street,” a start toward being
respectable (reprise of Respectable).
Several weeks later
Dick is on his way to open his first bank account.
Foswell is with him, improvising an English lesson
as they walk. Foswell insists that a proper
education is the only way to be part of an ‘up to
date and modern’ America. They stop to join
Snobden and passersby who are gazing up at the
large red and gold sign that proclaims
“F.W.Woolworth’s Emporium” (Keeping Up With The
Times). Although it might be major competition
for his shop, Snobden reminds Dick that “it’s
sometimes an advantage to be small.” As the number
moves to the bank entrance, Allen Carlisle, the
President of the bank, joins to affirm one of
Alger’s theories, that “saving each little sum is
the way to go from rags to riches, young man.”
Dick leaves the bank with his new bank book.
In her room, Stacia
and Gerrish argue about their future. He reminds
her of their romantic past and assures her that
their future will be bright. He has plans. As he
weaves his spell, once again she is hopeful for
she wants to believe it might all be true; maybe
tomorrow. She moves into his arms.
Back at Snobden’s
store, Chapin and Higgins watch Dick joyfully go
about his menial duties. They hate that this new
office boy has become Snobden’s pet, and he must
be gotten rid of (A Hardworking Boy). But
they need a ‘wicked little plot.’ Just then, to
Dick’s unhappy surprise, Gerrish enters the store,
and they argue. Allen Carlisle has also arrived
with his small son, Rob. Carlisle remembers Dick
and is introduced to Gerrish. Clearly opposites,
Carlisle nonetheless offers Gerrish work at his
home. Gerrish leaves, saying he will come, but we
know he won’t.
During the scene,
Dick and little Rob have become friends, with Dick
showing Rob some technique in polishing, not shoes
but brass and glass. We learn that Carlisle is a
widower and he soon offers Dick a second job as
Rob’s companion in the evenings. Dick gladly
accepts, but later on Foswell feels shunned by
Dick’s new friendship with “the rich kid.”
It is now July 4th, America’s centennial
celebration at Union Square. Joining Carlisle,
Dick is chaperoning Rob at the festivities.
Foswell, Mickey Maguire, Snobden, Chapin, Higgins,
Mrs. Mooney and the entire company are there as
well
(Look How Far We’ve Come). In the crowd and
confusion of the celebration, Dick does not spot
the lurking Gerrish who
has used the naďve Stacia to distract Carlisle and
pays Mickey Maguire to distract Dick by
pick-pocketing his bank book. With Rob suddenly
alone,
Gerrish snatches the frightened little boy as the
sky lights up with fireworks, the music soars and
the crowd continues to celebrate. A horrified Dick
finds Rob’s cap on the ground as the curtain
falls. |
