General Consensus of the Titanic Musical?- Page 2

[Mattbrain]

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

I adore it!

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 11:39am

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

Oh, I know, best12. That's what makes your opinion so interesting to me, was how thoroughly you loathed it. I don't think I've ever seen you express an opinion so emphatically negative. It's so unusual to see.

...and I was joking about the buzzkill part ...

Updated On: 7/11/11 at 11:39 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 11:47am

Oh, I didn't take the "buzzkill" comment personally, I promise!

And actually, I don't know that I've felt that adamantly in a negative way about a show before. So you're right pointing it out. Maybe my expectations were too high. I remember going in knowing I wasn't going to see a "film on stage." I can't even remember if I'd seen the Cameron movie yet or not, but I'd seen other films about Titanic. And I was a bit obsessed with the subject for a while, watching many historical documentaries about it, and reading a lot of books on the subject. I was well-informed going into the theatre. Maybe that had something to do with it. I'm not sure.

I do remember that I didn't question their research. They did seem to get everything right (for the most part). No issues there. I was seriously let down with the play from a dramatic and musical POV, though. I would have rather sat through a (very badly done) lecture on the subject. It felt that dull.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 12:23pm

I was a Titanic-obsessive when I was a kid, too. I think the musical's adherence to the truth (for the most part) was one of the things I liked about it. I loathed the film as much as you did the musical. You have this rich, detailed true story and you use it as a backdrop for a tawdry love story - and still play fast and loose with the facts? Ick. Plus the cgi killed me.

I thought "Andrew's Lament" and "The Blame" from the musical were touching and dramatic (though I wanted to slit my wrists towards the end of "Still").

[Sauja]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 12:47pm

To me, it was a deeply flawed musical with some astonishingly beautiful moments. I preferred the first act to the second, and parts of the book felt clunky to me, but there's some stunning music, and the cast of the Broadway production was perfection. Brian D'Arcy James and Victoria Clark in particular. I'd LOVE to see it done again. Ditto The Life and Steel Pier from that year. It was quite a year for deeply flawed shows with incredibly wonderful aspects.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 12:54pm

I saw the show twice. I was happily surprised my first time that it wasn't the mess I expected it to be. I love the score. The tableau at the end was striking and chilling for me.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 3:03pm

I saw it once on Broadway and remember really disliking it, I don't know why. I just thought it was really boring, though I was a lot younger at the time. I have listened to the score since then and now I think it's great! I saw the concert version that was staged last year and I really loved it. I wish I could see a full production of it now, as I would appreciate it so much more than I did in 1998.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 3:04pm

Damn, Sam! You must have a great voice. Enjoy singing that beautiful score.

[JRybka]

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

I find the Maury Yesten to have some of the best opening of shows.... His Grand Hotel was hot and Titanics opening was brilliant.. the choral "god speed titanic" kills me everytime I hear it.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 3:50pm

Can I just say that the model boat from Toys R Us at the end of the first act looked great from where I was sitting! The light up backdrop, and whatever they used to make the stage look like water and reflect the lights from the ship was really effective for me, but I'm convinced that the effect definitely depended on where you were sitting. Some people who sat close will say it looked terrible and others who sat further away usually tell me that it looked great.

[beagle]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:05pm

I didn't see it on Broadway, but I saw it last year at the Muny here in St. Louis and I loved it. I bought the cast album, and I love the score. I did think there were perhaps one too many subplots. There are some characters who are not given very much to do, but the music is beautiful and I thought it was a much better treatment of the story than the James Cameron film.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:20pm

I'm one of the many that found this musical one huge borefest. If anything, Victoria Clark was the only thing I enjoyed (having seen her in the 1995 revival of HOW TO SUCCEED, I liked her). I also share the same assessment of the vast vacant stage and the weak set design.

The musical was critically trashed but managed to have a nice run thanks to 2 things: Rosie O'Donnell and the 1997 James Cameron film which many thought the musical was based on until they actually saw the musical. Boy were they bummed.

Rosie plugged TITANIC any moment she could having the cast perform on her then-hot talk show numerous times. TITANIC and Disney't THE LION KING were the 2 shows she would NOT stop plugging endlessly, which helped the masses become aware of them AND helped sell tickets to these 2 new Broadway musicals.

[theatreguy]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:52pm

The Tonys helped too. Going in it was not considered the frontrunner.

The Life had 12 Tony nominations, and how won the Outer Critics and Drama Desk awards for Best Musical.

Steel Pier had 11 nominations.

Titanic had only 5 nominations (Musical, Book, Score, Scenic Design and Orchestrations).

And then it won all 5.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 5:56pm

Throughly enjoyed it but two little matters nag at me

The sets looked on the cheap side . In addition, they never could get the ship to sink. The first act closer of the ship going from stahe right to left on a calm seat & than hearing the crash was awesome.