General Consensus of the Titanic Musical?

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 1:57pm

I just got an invitation to portray Barrett in a community production of Titanic (I'm eighteen), and I've never had any exposure to the show. Is it a good show?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 2:03pm

It's a fantastic show with a gorgeous score. I'd kill for a revival!

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 2:22pm

What Jordan said. Barrett's a great role. Here's Brian D'Arcy James & Marty Moran as Barrett and Bride.


The Proposal/The Night Was Alive

[Mark_E]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 2:26pm

The score is beatiful!

[ABB2357]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 2:52pm

Didn't someone comment recently about a disastrous preview performance where just about everything that could have gone wrong did? I never saw the show, but it seems like people's opinions of it have gotten more positive over time.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 3:10pm

I love the score-- love it a little bit more than I loved the actual show onstage when we saw it in '97. The show itself has a static concert-performance quality that is really hard to avoid because there's no real way to stage the catastrophe in the flesh without the mega-million sets and effects the movie had at its disposal.

But the score is probably Maury Yeston's best as far as we're concerned. The music is propulsive, the lyrics almost always land (putting aside a couple of upper crust numbers that strain for rhymes), and it's a really great score to jog to when you're trying to keep fit on an ocean cruise!

[FabalaYero85]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 3:11pm

The 100th Anniversary of the Sinking is next year. would it be distasteful to wish for a revival around that time? I mean the movie is coming back, why not the musical.

Updated On: 7/10/11 at 03:11 PM

[CONAries]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 3:13pm

The script is breath-taking and so much more respectful to the actual passengers than any film has ever been, the music is gorgeous, and the whole show is stunning... it is also one of the dullest most boring shows I have EVER come across!

I had no idea a show could move me from tears to sleep in such a way!

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 3:28pm

I just downloaded the cast recording - I love it. The music is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks everyone for the input :) I'm surprised I've never heard of the show, but I'll be taking the role.

[rahack]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 3:34pm

this show was a complete surprise to me, i expected to hate it but was utterly take by the entire production. everything from top to bottom was first rate, the sets were ingenious. the cast superb, and the music very effecting. i very rarely well up, but by the end was heart broken. i agree with a previous post, the production was very respectful to the passengers and treated them with great sensitivity unlike the film which turned the event into an action packed wallow. i dont know if id welcome a revival as my memories of that night would be hard to overcome.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 3:52pm

The full libretto was published at the time in a book and a lengthy introduction explains the problems encountered in previews. The book is still available from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Titanic-Complete-Musical-Peter-Stone/dp/1557833559/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1310327386&sr=8-4


The usual gossip columnists tried to make it sound like a disaster, but according to the book it was mostly just tech problems brought on by changes in the script and the time needed to change the elaborate script.

I saw the show twice during the Broadway run...one the night after it won the Tony Awards and again a few weeks before it closed. NO major tech problems either time, but the sound mix was off at the second performance causing my friend to complain that he was missing many of the lyrics.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 4:39pm

I went in expecting to hate it, as I was NOT impressed with what I saw on the Tony Awards. I fell in love from the moment I stepped into the lobby.

I'll second the comment about the respect paid to the actual passengers as well...a real testament to humans.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 4:39pm

I went in expecting to hate it, as I was NOT impressed with what I saw on the Tony Awards. I fell in love from the moment I stepped into the lobby.

I'll second the comment about the respect paid to the actual passengers as well...a real testament to humans.

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 4:54pm

I liked the show. I saw the first preview which was stopped several times, then saw the show several times subsequently. I loved the score, and thought the book was moving, if slightly ponderous.

With the passage of time, I think I like the show somewhat less, with the score itself now seeming also a bit ponderous.

In any case, I prefer Yeston's score to Nine.

Posted: 7/10/11 at 8:50pm

Wow Barrett is a tough part to play, especially for someone so young- how are they handling the nude scene? Many actors are uncomfortable with the explicitness of that vitally important scene.

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 9:20pm

I actually wasn't aware that there was a nude scene, but it doesn't bother me :) The show goes into rehearsal in about a month. Thanks everyone for the opinions!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 10:56pm

^ There's no nude scene. Sometimes directors will have Barrett shirtless for his first boiler room scene, but there's no nude scene.

[peerrjb]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:09am

Barrett IS a killer role.
And I believe I was the post regarding the everything-could-go-wrong preview. (There may've been others, but I remember posting the long-story-long commentary.)
But I love the show. (I've seen more than one production since that Preview Night.) Tough music to sing, but when realized appropriately, it's magic-making.
Hope that if you get the role, you have a swimmingly good time.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 9:51am

Saw it three times on Broadway; thought it was one of the best shows in years. Elegant, moving, grand, masterful.

[rentfan2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 10:14am

I actually just finished a production of Titanic last night(I played Hartley/Bell) and I have to say the score is AMAZING!!!!!!!

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 10:34am

Titanic was plagued by technical issues in previews. There were times they had to stop the show to reset automation, and once even had to send the audience home, but this was frontrowcentre says, exaggerated in the press. Won every Tony it was up for, I believe, and went on to a decent run.
Barrett's Song (well, half of it, anyway). No D'Arcy nudity ;)

Posted: 7/11/11 at 11:00am

Oh you all are no fun. Maybe in some future, avant garde production....

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 11:06am

In all seriousness, one of the worst musicals I've ever seen on Broadway. The sets were laughably cheap and minimal (I'll never forget that little model boat going by in the background that looked like they bought it at Toys R Us). The floor tilted, so that's where the money went. The costumes looked like Bob Mackie's from a Carol Burnett Show parody.

I was so bored, I wanted to gouge my eye out. The only thing I liked, and I mean the ONLY thing was the choral singing. They sounded great. The book was laborious and convoluted, the songs were forgettable, with one or two pleasant melodies, quickly forgotten. The cast, which was stellar, was also forgettable. They did their best. The staging was a joke, especially the big "boarding" number which they did on the Tonys. All of them marching around in circles, over and over again, and staring out into the audience. Nothing was happening. And it went on forever. The lighting was dingy and most of the time you couldn't see the actors' faces. And I was sitting close. Yes, I know much of the story takes place at night, but that's NOT how you light an outdoor scene at night for the theatre.

We wanted to leave at intermission and would have, except I had a friend in the cast and we were meeting him afterwards and going out for drinks. I spent all of Act II wondering exactly what I would say to him. All I could manage was "the choral singing was wonderful and you all sounded great!" I left it at that. But BOY, did I need that drink after the show.

I stil can't believe it won Best Musical. It's at the very top of my list as "worst Best Musicals ever."

Oh, and we had comp tickets, too, and I seriously wanted my money back. That's how bad it was.

Updated On: 7/11/11 at 11:06 AM

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 11:25am

You're such a buzzkill, best 12! :)

I remember from this old thread how much you hated this show. So not like you to dislike something so much that you express it so vehemently, but chacon a son gout and all that...

I'm linking that thread because it does have some info Reggie might find useful.
Previous Titanic thread

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 11:28am

Sorry about being a buzzkill. It's my honest opinion, though. I'm not overstating my loathing for it, either.

But I know others feel differently.