When Lear deBessonet, the incoming artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, was thinking about what should be her first show as its new leader, she landed on something sweeping, very American — and some unfinished business.
She had just directed an off-Broadway concert version of “Ragtime” — a big, soaring musical celebrating early 20th-century America — that had wowed critics despite being a bare-boned production with some actors reading from their scripts. Might it fit the bill if she filled it out?
