“Ragtime,” the award-winning musical reflecting the soaring sound and spirit of America at the turn of the century, will be given its East Bay premiere March 21-April 19 by the Diablo Light Opera Company in Walnut Creek as the most ambitious production in the organization’s 43-year history.

Performances are scheduled on Thursdays through Saturday evenings, with a few exceptions, and matinees on Sundays and on several Saturdays, at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. The complete schedule and tickets ($32-$23) are available at the center, (925) 943-7469 and www.dlrca.org as well as www.dloc.org

“We’ve had shows with more people, but in terms of overall logistics and scale, this is the biggest show we’ve done,” said Grete Egan, veteran member of the company and a longtime producer.

The Diablo Light Opera production involves a cast of 40, an 18-piece orchestra , hundreds of props that fill a 24-foot-long truck and hundreds of costumes that require 50 pages just to list. One of the prominent props is a black and gold Model T Ford that was built from scratch for the production.

It all comes together with the dazzling music of Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics). The production is produced by Grete Egan and Alice Gracer and is directed by Sue Ellen Nelson. Cheryl Yee Glass will conduct the orchestra.

As one writer put it, the show is “a brilliant, breathtaking musical triumph, set to the syncopated rhythms of an astonishing new age” and “weaving the delights of vaudeville, baseball, and nickelodeon with the disturbances of labor rallies and racial revolt.”

When it opened on Broadway, critics hailed it as “a mesmerizing and enthralling musical, with a brilliant book, big stirring numbers and gorgeous melodies.” The show won Tony Awards for best book and score.

The musical is a tapestry of New York life in the first decades of the twentieth century. People from radically different walks of life -- an African-American family, a Jewish immigrant family and a wealthy suburban WASP family -- see their lives intersect in the aftermath of a crime, with unexpectedly emotional results.

“Ragtime” was adapted by Terrence McNally from E.L. Doctorow's novel, focusing on the first two decades of the 20th century and featuring such historical figures as Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford.

The musical tells the story of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a fiery black piano man who demands retribution when his Model T is destroyed by a mob of white troublemakers. Portraying Coalhouse in the Diablo Light Opera production is James Monroe Iglehart, who starred in The Willows Theatre production of “Big River” last year. He joins Diablo Light Opera as its first actor represented by Actors’ Equity Association, the union for actors in professional theater.

Walker's love interest is a young girl named Sarah, who has been taken in by a WASP family ruled by "Father," a patriarchal figure who dominates his household (and his submissive wife) with his overbearing presence. The role will be played by Andrea Daniel, who has performed in such Bay Area shows as “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “The Wiz,” and “Showboat.”

Tateh, a Jewish immigrant who unwittingly finds himself involved in the birth of the motion picture industry after inventing a flip book for his daughter, will be played by Mike Dederian, who last appeared with DLOC in a starring role in the company’s production of “High Society.”

Other cast members include Ty Blair as Booker T. Washington; Michael McCarty, father; Sophia Newton, Evelyn Nesbit; Charlie Levy, younger brother; Joni DeGabriele, mother; Michele Krapp, Emma Goldman; Michael Manley, grandfather; and Brett Cashen and Darren Barrere, who will alternate in the role of the little boy.