In Rag Dolly, a little girl Marcella is dying of a mysterious illness. Her father makes her a rag doll to comfort her, and his stories of the doll come to life in her dreams to guide her through her grief and fear. Marcella and her new friends confront wolves, witches, and incompetent doctors on their way to outwit death and mend her broken heart.
"I am experiencing a wide variety of emotions… it was like cutting the champagne bottle cork."
- Audience Member
"I was whisked away by the music!"
- Audience Member
Rag Dolly: The Raggedy Ann Musical (book by William Gibson, music and lyrics by Joe Raposo), is a 1986 Broadway musical notorious for its run of only five shows— making it a certified “flop”. We refuse to let this be the end for this charming, surreal fantasy that speaks to the maturity in kids, and the kid inside all of us. After its closure on Broadway, Rag Dolly has never been performed with the music and script intact. This is because originally, there was no licensing available— no licensing, no perusal script, no public sheet music, and no official cast album. Until, hopefully, today. RARE Theatricals has spent the last four years hard at work, culminating in our successful direct contact of William Gibson and Joe Raposo’s estates to make our bid for the licensing of this show.
Who is RARE?
The Raggedy Ann Revival Effort (or R.A.R.E.) is an online volunteer effort dedicated to preserving, archiving, and eventually reviving the Broadway musical Raggedy Ann. The group started in February 2021, and has served as a place for fans to meet and discuss a possible revival. We are RARE Theatricals LLC, a company formed by members of this community in order to properly achieve the rights and perform for our revised production. What started off as a group of starry-eyed theater kids with big (maybe somewhat absurd) dreams has now grown into a proper theater company ready to take on the impossible.
Come explore our archives, learn a little about the show, and join us if you like!
- YouTube: Raggedy Ann Revival Effort
- Interviews, found footage, and clips from our performances.
- Instagram: @raggedyannrevivaleffort
- BlueSky: @raretheatricals.bsky.social
- TikTok: @raggedyannrevivaleffort
- Kofi: Raggedy Ann Revival Effort
- Check out our merch from the last workshop.
- Tumblr: raggedyannrevivaleffort
- Sign up for our newsletter
- Neocities page
What do we do?
Our goal is to restore and revise the book and lyrics of William Gibson and Joe Raposo's Raggedy Ann musical, to perform our own regional production and make the revised material avaliable for community, regional, and school theaters to produce long into the future! We also aim to archive as much of the original material as possible, and educate theater fans on the captivating backstory of this forgotten flop.
As of spring 2025, we have recovered a full archival recording of the first 1984 production, and produced a small concert and college staged reading, both authorized workshops of our revised book & music.
"It was so seamless that I didn’t even think about where there were changes."
- Audience Member
What's in a Name?
The Raggedy Ann musical went by many titles in its turbulent early production. Raggedy Ann and Andy, Raggedy Ann, Rag Dolly: The Raggedy Ann Musical, Raggedy Ann: A Musical Adventure, and Raggedy Ann: the Musical With a Heart were all on the program at one point or another. You will find almost all of these used interchangeably online, but any production credited to Gibson/Raposo is the same show. Our revival is titled Rag Dolly: The Raggedy Ann Musical. We chose this version after a lot of thought, but ultimately wanted it to stand out from other Raggedy Ann stage shows, and pay homage to the title song and the production's time in Moscow.
What's New?
April 19th, 2025: Workshop Proshot Premiering May 4th!
Earlier this year in February, RARE Theatricals produced a staged reading of our revised Rag Dolly script at Ohio University's Putnam Playspace. On May 4th, tune in to the Raggedy Ann Revival Effort YouTube channel at 10am EST to catch the live premiere of the full proshot! Join the cast and crew in chat for this exciting new step in our revival process, and if you miss the event, the footage will remain up and public for all to enjoy.
April 19th: Raggedy Ann Rally 2025
The Raggedy Ann Rally is just around the corner! This yearly celebration of all things Raggedy Ann will take place in Arcola, Illinois from June 6th - 7th, 2025. Learn about the rally on our event page, join the official Facebook group or unofficial Discord server to coordinate with other attendees.
Read less recent news posts, as well as our email newsletter, on the News page.