"Tunefully original...there are flashes of brilliance!"

NULL NY 1 Radio

This watershed work holds the key to Saltzman's imaginative hypothesis, THE TIN PAN ALLEY RAG parses the intersecting biographies, eerie parallels and ironic contrasts with beautifully rendered musical selections that eschew a revue style greatest hits program.

Los Angeles Times

Moments of pleasure are provided by its musical interludes. It's hard not to be uplifted by Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag or Berlin's Play A Simple Melody.

Associated Press

"Glorious music, vibrant and lively."

Los Angeles Times

"That rare commodity, a highly entertaining evening with plenty to say. How exhilarating to leave a theatre with a few songs on your lips and a few thoughts on your brain"

Palm Beach Post

"In THE TIN PAN ALLEY RAG Mark Saltzman has devised a highly entertaining and original show about two of America's most celebrated composers, one an immigrant Jew with a passion for writing hits and the other a black man with a passion for writing art."

Hollywood Reporter

"The profound emotional exchanges between the two musicians are juxtaposed against the happy sounds of ragtime. Aside from being a profound history lesson THE TIN PAN ALLEY RAG is a singing, stomping, good time."

Philadelphia Tribune

Stirring musical excerpts the episodes are entertaining and there are charming moments particularly in Joplin's recollections. There is a delicate touch to Irving Berlin's transition from youth to old age as later period Berlin evergreens such as Blue Skies, Cheek to Cheek, and What'll I Do are hatched in his mind.

Variety

"Filled with great fun and great music."

KNX Radio

"The likable Tin Pan Alley Rag slightly bigger than a vest-pocket musical has the unassuming charm of a winsome pet that gently nuzzles you…Some of it is factual, much of it invented in a partly humorous, partly sentimental way. It is, to quote a formulation by Anatole France, 'A story truer than the truth,' as if to say: This is how we wish it, how it ought to have happened. "

John Simon Bloomberg.com

"It's another musical. So who cares? You should. In the vein of Death of a Salesman, Angels in America and Ragtime, The Tin Pan Alley Rag examines art, death, racism and the pursuit of the American Dream."

NULL Philadelphia Weekly

"THE TIN PAN ALLEY RAG has it: that magical force of theatre that seemingly blankets an entire show in a winning, can't-go-wrong sheen, and infuses it with a near-exhaustible level of energy and entertainment . . . marvelous and engaging, the stuff of theatrical miracles!"

Pasadena Weekly Magazine