Kent Overshown as Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Britney Coleman as Sarah in the U-M Department of Musical Theatre's production of the musical "Ragtime."

photo by Peter Smith Photography

They’ll be hard to come by, but if you can manage to somehow get tickets to U-M’s production of the musical “Ragtime” this weekend, by all means, snap them up.

For despite a few technical glitches on opening night, this engrossing, epic, three-hour production has already assured itself a place, without a doubt, as one of this year’s best local shows.

Based on E. L. Doctorow’s novel of the same name, “Ragtime” — with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens — is set in the 20th century’s earliest years, and focuses on the stories of three very different American families: poor Jewish immigrant Tateh (A. J. Holmes) and his young daughter (Hava Kaplan); Harlem-based piano player Coalhouse Walker (Kent Overshown), his lover, Sarah (Britney Coleman), and their infant son; and a well-to-do WASP family — consisting of Mother (Amanda Choate), Father (Tyler Brunsman), Younger Brother (Joe Carroll), and Little Boy (Milo Tucker-Meyer) — that ends up taking Sarah and her child into its home.

Astonishingly, “Ragtime” is one of those shows in which you see, quite transparently, how the scenes attempt to pull at your heartstrings; yet they somehow work all the same, and you end up profoundly moved.

Plus, after navigating some pretty dark racial and economic territory, the show reports one character’s rather too-convenient death in the show’s epilogue. Consequently, a neatly re-configured family connects characters from each narrative arc together — an appealing American-melting-pot ideal that, frozen in one happy moment, appears to be untouched by the bigotry they would each surely confront.

But even in the face of cruelty and injustice, “Ragtime”’s America is one of limitless possibility, and it is in this spirit that this eclectic, distinctly American family forms.

The show kicks off with a jaw-droppingly fabulous opening number that not only introduces the main characters (as well as the historical figures that play a role), but also — thanks to Lyndy Franklin Smith’s truly outstanding choreography — visually underscores the tensions between the different ethnic communities.

In ideal circumstances, when excellent choreography (like Smith's) is paired with spot-on execution, audience members should experience a vicarious sense of physical lightness, as if they themselves were dancing; this happened for me during numbers like “Gettin’ Ready Rag,” and the imaginative, large human assembly line featured in “Henry Ford.”

Ultimately, though, director Mark Madama gets the lion’s share of credit for the show’s gripping, emotional power. Stripped down to its barest essentials — with an on-stage orchestra that’s bisected and flanked by ramps, and a large screen backdrop that shows images that help to define each scene’s setting — Madama’s “Ragtime” is a thing of beauty, managing to strike the right balance between show’s light and dark elements; and serving up wholly satisfying, large ensemble scenes, as well as unhurried, simply staged solos that offer poignant windows into the souls of several characters.

Choate, for instance, had her defining moment on opening night while masterfully performing “Back to Before”; Holmes evoked the hardship and disillusionment of many immigrants during “A Stetl Iz Amereke,” and later shared a quietly touching moment with Choate in “Our Children”; Coleman delivered a heartrending take on “Your Daddy’s Son”; and Overshown, with his magnificently rich voice, sold me from the start, offering (with Coleman) a stirring rendition of “Wheels of a Dream.” (I was also quite impressed with the two main child actors, Kaplan and Tucker-Meyer.)

“Ragtime”’s enormous ensemble is pretty phenomenal, too — a few numbers are guaranteed to give you goose bumps. Backed by Cynthia Kortman Westphal’s solid orchestra, the scenes are thoughtfully, sensitively lit by David Neville, and Jessica Hahn deserves a standing ovation all her own for the scores of wonderful, era-appropriate costumes (some of which are on display in the Power Center’s lobby) that appear in the show.

Sadly, though, opening night was plagued with microphone problems; some crackled, some went dead; and unfortunately, just as the action was building to a dramatic climax near the end of the first act, the audience got a brief earful of behind-the-scenes communication. In addition, the second act was delayed for a few minutes while some glitches were worked out.

But from a sound standpoint, things went much more smoothly in the second act, so that nothing could detract from the amazing work happening on stage.

And there’s an awful lot of that to take in. So trust me on this one: if you can’t catch “Ragtime,” you should be singing the blues.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.