Information about Titanic the musical — Page 3

Hah! I'm just like you in that respect, best12. I recently saw a performance I'd been invited to, and I spent the first half wondering just what the hell I was going to say to these people after. Fortunately, the second half got much better, so I was able to cull a positive sound byte out of that. I totally agree that all the set money went to the hydraulics when they might of been better spent elsewhere. This clip of Ladies Maid is a good example of the sets looking cheap.

Interesting that you noticed the lack of backstory on the Strausses, bbb, Obi and adamgreer. They origionally did have more scenes, but they were cut due to length.

I never had any use for the movie, other than a handful of scenes. I thought it was a tremendous waste of an excellent true story rich with characters and drama, to be used merely as a backdrop to a subpar love story.

Ladies Maid

Updated On: 7/23/10 at 02:58 PM

newintown---did you take lessons to be a jerk or did it just come naturally?

"When they sang together in unison" ... Forgive my hasty thoughts on this thread. I should have said "homophonic" singing, which is the same rhythm but different pitches simultaneously. Did you really need a flowchart to figure that out from what I said? Or do you just like to "correct" people to make your point seem more valid?

I'm sorry to hear you were a music teacher. And I'm glad I didn't have you guiding a class when I was on a double music scholarship. I'm also glad you weren't around when I was writing jingles for TV or joining ASCAP.

Yes, I said "unison" singing when I pooped all over a show you happen to adore. So sorry.

I'm glad you liked Titanic. I truly thought it sucked (yes, that bad). The performers did the best they could with it. But it remains IMO the WORST winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical in history. And that includes the recent years.

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I think it comes naturally; I don't recall lessons.

But you're right - my hackles rise when I hear what sound like dilettante-ish comments about good music. I mind far less when someone says "I didn't care for it," making it their opinion, rather than saying what is clearly well-crafted music (by a teacher of music at Yale, and a director of the BMI program) is bad.

It doesn't ring true as something a good musician says. Perhaps you write a great jingle, but to dismiss a work of quality like Titanic is akin to saying the Kunst der Fuge is hackwork.

That ladies maid clip spotlights my problems with the set too- and for those who didn't see it- that is the Steering dining room. Late the EXACT SAME SET is used as the FIRST CLASS dining room.

And why build a full stage set that is so empty and pointless- roll on a platform with a table and do it "in one."

Well, best12, we'll just need to leave it at you finding me obnoxious and perhaps pretentious, and me finding your comments somewhat lowbrow and uninformed. I find it to be a great score.

I think it's a great score too, but I can't imagine referring to Best12 as "lowbrow" or "uninformed".

And absolutely Marty needs to be back on Broadway. Henry, too.

Having recognized what worked and what did not work with the Broadway production, the producers for the 2 major European productions (who were essentially the same as the Broadway production, Stage Holding renamed Stage Entertainment) made efforts to improve the show when it went to Holland and then Germany. Among other things, all agreed that the Broadway director and set designer had not brought to the stage what the producers had envisioned. When the show was mounted in Holland (and then Germany with the Holland set), a new set was created that looked more...."real", for lack of a better word. Gone was the red digital alarm clocks that were on either side of the Broadway stage, gone was the Toys are Us looking boat model at the end of the first act, the bellboy was no longer played by an actress with her boobs taped down, scenes were completely re-staged, new costumes were designed and the sinking was made more dramatic.

For the German production a new song, 3 days, was added which was sung as a power ballad love duet between Jim and Kate as they try to escape the doomed ship.

The little boy, Jack Thayer, did not run around with a sailboat but stayed with his parents during the opening and was incorporated a bit more into the staging throughout the show.

Also in the German production rather than Isidor Strauss breaking a glass (as in a Jewish wedding) at the end of Still, the Strausses hugged instead.

I was always confused as to why they chose to cast a little boy as Jack Thayer, when in reality he was seventeen years old when the Titanic sank.

I also can't help but feel that the power ballad love duet Tsao5 mentioned was added as a response to the movie. Was there a German cast recording? I would be interested in tracking it down and giving it a listen if it exists.

I have both the German and Dutch cast recordings and the song list is identical to the Original Broadway cast recording.

Tsao5, I thought you said the costume designs were different. The picture shown of the Dutch/German design features costumes that look virtually identical to the original Broadway production.

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3 Days, the duet in Act 2 was added after the show opened. I believe it was added about a month after the show opened. There was never an official recording of it, though there was some talk of Gloria Estavon recording it for German radio (in English). It was intended to create a marketable......and hummable....."love song from the musical Titanic". This plan never materialized. I believe somewhere on Youtube Donna Vivino (who did the studio recording of the song) can be heard singing a single version of it.

As Titanic was housed in one of the larger German theater's in Hamburg it had trouble filling the seats for its intended 1 year run. It also could not compete against the other two musicals running at the time there, Mamma Mia and Lion King.

The German production did not use the projection of the ship, it was still the blue background for the opening.

I believe the costumes were quite similar but not totally the same especially for the first class passengers. They needed to be historically correct, so they might have looked very close to the B'way production. Tuxedo's for the men, Proper crew uniforms, rags type clothes for the 3rd class would all look the same.

bwayphreak, I'm wondering if the set you refer to is from the Long Beach production. I saw pictures of their set and it was absolutely stunning.

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DottieD'Luscia - I am not sure where the sets were from. Here is a picture though.

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^ Yes, I saw it at Valley Youth Theatre. It was an amazing set. The set was going to be destroyed after being in storage for so long when Valley Youth Theatre purchased the set for $1. I remember reading about it in the paper. I do not know what has happened to the set since then.

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Updated On: 8/3/10 at 06:27 PM