Titanic, the Musical

A few nights ago we went to the Arizona Broadway Theatre to see Titanic, the Musical. The set design was interesting, as usual, the cast was huge, all with very good voices, and the number of costumes they had to create for this show was mind-boggling. I’d guess they needed at least fifty, most of which would have been from scratch. Or maybe that should be “from stitch.” Was all that enough for me to think it was a great show? Not even close. Of all the musicals we’ve seen at ABT over their fourteen seasons, this one ranks a bit below deck. The music and voices were impressive, especially when all twenty-five were on stage together belting out one of the big numbers, but what they were singing was not. Talk about a forgettable score. It makes me wonder why this show won a Tony for best new musical in 1997.

The set: a semi-circular back wall that looked like the inner hull of a cruise liner with three sets of metal stairs leading up to a railed corridor to suites on the upper decks, the stage floor representing the below decks with circular windows right and left representing portholes when blue lighted and open furnace doors for coal when red lighted. About halfway through the show, when the Titanic struck the iceberg, a zigzag crack in the back wall appeared and grew wider as the show went on.

The costumes: 1912 apparel, gowns for the upper-deckers, common wear for the below-deckers, blue uniforms for three of the ship’s officers, uniforms for the busboy and maid, and all recreated also in white to represent those who died, all together, it would be at least fifty costumes.

The pit band, always very good with their usual eight, expanded to ten (two extra strings) for this show, and they sounded as good as any pit band here or on Broadway could sound.

The whole thing was sort of a downer simply because there were no spoiler alerts needed since everyone knows how this turned out. The show sort of sank just like the ship itself. About the only thing that might have spiced it up a bit would be seeing the young Leo and Kate embracing at the bow. But no Leo, no Kate. And not a very good review. About two stars out of five for me.