Operatic in its style, historical inspiration, and ambition, Titanic may have seemed unlikely material for musical drama when Maury Yeston (Grand Hotel) and Peter Stone (1776) began work. But by the time the show premiered on Broadway in October of 1997, cultural fascination with the “ship of dreams” had reached a fever pitch, and Titanic received critical and audience acclaim, as well as five Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Pared down to its essence by director Anne Kauffman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window) and highlighting the majestic sweep of Yeston’s nearly sung-through score, Titanic remains a symphonic musical theater revelation. Our Encores production meditates on the nature of ambition and the human scale of this epic tragedy, focusing on the class divides both illuminated and transcended by the ship’s inexorable sinking, and painting a heartrending portrait of the individuals whose dreams of America were dashed in the Atlantic.
At first blush, Titanic might seem less ripe for either homage or re-exploration. Neither a cherished classic like Woods nor a spunky cult favorite like Mattress, this musical account of the great disaster of 1912—with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone—enjoyed a respectable run on Broadway back in the late 1990s, when the kind of pseudo-operatic pomp that had made The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables hits in the previous decade was still being mistaken for depth by many theatergoers. Titanic is certainly not unmarked by the self-seriousness and bombast its subject matter would seem to invite. But for those who missed its stint in Times Square, and haven’t spent much time with its score since (I’m guilty on both counts, I’ll admit), this new staging—which teams a sprawling, starry cast with a 30-piece orchestra—will prove nothing short of a revelation.
I wish I could say that Titanic, shorn of all its special effects, is a musical with great bones just waiting to be rediscovered, but that turns out not to be the case. The result is more of a pageant — occasionally stirring, but more often than not idling in stasis. The lack of propulsion may begin with Stone’s book, which takes a dutifully thorough, emotionally uncompelling approach to the tragedy.
1997 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2006 |
Australian Revival |
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2024 | Off-Broadway |
Encores! Concert Revival Production Off-Broadway |
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