Shaina Taub to Take Leave of Absence From Ragtime on Broadway
The actor-writer has experienced three pregnancy losses, and is now raising funds for women in need of reproductive healthcare.
Shaina Taub
Heather Gershonowitz
Two-time Tony Award winner Shaina Taub, currently playing anarchist Emma Goldman in Ragtime on Broadway, is taking a leave of absence from the production. Taub will be out January 6–March 29, 2026.
Taub is also the creator of Suffs, which is currently on a national tour. In a moving post on Instagram, the actor-writer revealed that she recently experienced a miscarriage, writing: “This is a vulnerable topic often kept in the shadows, but I’m posting in the hopes that someone reading feels less alone. My husband Matt and I have been trying for a baby. In the past year, I’ve been pregnant three times. But each time ended in loss. A first trimester miscarriage during Suffs last December. A second trimester TFMR, which stands for termination for medical reasons (please look it up) in May. And another miscarriage the week Ragtime opened. Honestly, it’s been hell. After multiple hospitalizations, my body badly needs a break. And my mind could use it too.”
She then detailed that during her most recent miscarriage, she hemorrhaged so much blood that she passed out and had to be hospitalized. To save her life, doctors performed a D&C, a surgical procedure to remove tissue from the uterus. Wrote Taub, with emphasis: “A D&C for miscarriage management is the exact same procedure used for abortions—and it’s illegal in over 20 states. If this had happened elsewhere, I might not have made it. Thousands of American women face this crisis daily. How many of them are bleeding out before they can travel across state lines? As we sing in Ragtime—what is wrong with this country?”
To raise awareness about the current lack of healthcare access for women in states where abortion is illegal, Taub and her husband Matt Gehring have launched a fundraiser with the Mount Sinai Division of Complex Family Planning. The organization provides reproductive healthcare at no cost for women from states that restrict or ban abortion. Wrote Taub: “This continues to be a messy, complicated experience, one we don’t really have language or ritual for. I will try to find more words another time. For now, thank you for reading, and for considering a donation. To those suffering in any degree of silence—I hear you.”
Ragtime was recently extended to June 14, 2026 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. The show stars Joshua Henry as Coalhouse Walker, Jr., Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh, Caissie Levy as Mother, Colin Donnell as Father, Nichelle Lewis as Sarah, Ben Levi Ross as Mother’s Younger Brother, Taub as Emma Goldman, Anna Grace Barlow as Evelyn Nesbit, John Clay III as Booker T. Washington, Rodd Cyrus as Harry Houdini, and Nick Barrington as The Little Boy, along with Ellie May Sennett.
Ragtime opened October 16 after beginning previews September 26—read what critics had to say here. Newly appointed LCT Artistic Director Lear deBessonet is at the helm after creating the production last year for a short gala run at New York City Center. A cast album will also be released, though a date has not been announced.
READ: Is Ragtime Even More Timely Now Than It Was During the 2024 Presidential Election?
The current cast also features Tabitha Lawing as The Little Girl, along with Nicholas Barrón, Lauren Blackman, Allison Blackwell, Briana Carlson-Goodman, Jordan Chin, Billy Cohen, Rheaume Crenshaw, Charity Angél Dawson, Ellie Fishman, Jason Forbach, Ta’Nika Gibson, David Jennings, Kaleb Johnson, Marina Kondo, Morgan Marcell, Kane Emmanuel Miller, Tom Nelis, Kent Overshown, Kayla Pecchioni, John Rapson, Deandre Sevon, Jacob Keith Watson, and Alan Wiggins. Swings and understudies Eean Sherrod Cochran, Kerry Conte, Nick Gaswirth, Jackson Parker Gill, Jenny Mollet, Matthew Scott, and Ellie May Sennett round out the company. Casting is by The Telsey Office‘s Craig Burns.
The production features choreography by Ellenore Scott, set design by David Korins, costume design by Linda Cho, lighting design by Adam Honoré, sound design by Kai Harada, projection design by 59 Studio, and hair and wig design by Tom Watson. Music director James Moore is conducting a 28-piece orchestra playing the original orchestrations by William David Brohn, and vocal arrangements by Flaherty. Ann James is sensitivity specialist, and Cody Renard Richard serves as production stage manager.
Based on a novel by E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime blends fact and fiction telling the story of New York City at the dawn of the 20th century, with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Flaherty, and lyrics by Ahrens. The story focuses on Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a Black man who buys a Model T Ford and sets off a chain of events that encompass all levels of New York City society, along with magician Harry Houdini, industrialist Henry Ford, celebrity party girl Evelyn Nesbit, civil rights leader Booker T. Washington, architect Stanford White, anarchist Emma Goldman, a Jewish Latvian immigrant who becomes a movie director, and an upper class white family living in suburban New Rochelle.
READ: The Making of Broadway’s Ragtime, an Oral History
The LCT staging is being produced in association with Tom Kirdahy, Kevin Ryan, Robert Greenblatt, and Lamar Richardson.
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