After watching ArtPrize explode as an international art competition, West Michigan native Tyler Loftis wanted to find a way to connect the art world in New York City, where he now lives and works as a painter, with his Midwestern roots.

E.L. Doctorow's 1975 best-seller, “Ragtime,” probably would not rank high on anyone’s list of books that cry out to be turned into musicals. A portrait of America in the early 20th century, it follows an anonymous, well-to-do family from New Rochelle, N.Y., as they make “Forrest Gump”-ian connections with some of the major figures of the day, brushing up against a few controversies along the way.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” is so stacked with classic songs that even seeing them all listed together dizzies the head — “My Favorite Things,” “Maria,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going On Seventeen,” “So Long, Farewell,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” the title piece about the hills being alive with … well, you know.