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#26

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/23/05 at 12:55pm

I saw the National tour of it. I loved it my my friend Josh hated it.

"You know just because you put a smiley face after it doesn't change the fact that it was an a-hole comment." ~ Sumofallthings

#27

I saw a camp production of it. I thought it was silly.

Some of the music is really pretty, though. I'll give it that.

I think if I saw the Broadway (or touring) production, I'd feel different about it. But I don't know. Maybe it was the book, trying to condense so many people into these few characters. Eh, whatever, I sometimes listen to it on my iPod if it comes up.

~Steven

#28

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/23/05 at 1:11pm

Brian d'Arcy James YAAAAY!!!!!

I love on the OBCR when Clark Thorell sings: "Are ya cold then, Katie?"

This show is one of my favorites. I wanted to give a standing ovation after the opening sequence.

#29

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 1:31am

I saw the National tour in L.A. and was tremendously moved. The score is wonderful. I later saw a regional production in Redondo Beach, also good, but couldn't compare to the impact it had on me the first time.

#30

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 2:41pm

I saw it once on B'way and thought the score was just boring.
The sets were a bit of disappointment, but the scene where the ship sinks was cleverly pulled off.

#31

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 2:51pm

One of the best show openings ever. After that, I thought it fell flat.

"I'm so looking forward to a time when all the Reagan Democrats are dead."

#32

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 3:01pm

I saw the show on Broadway and then again on tour. I think the music is wonderful but found the production very uneven. The obsession with showing the ship "sinking" at the expense of decent, realistic sets throughout was a particularly poor choice I felt.

I think there were some lessons to be learned about theatre magic and stagecraft. Despite the millions spent on the mechanism to cause the slanting floor, I felt the most stunning moment was achieved for the cost of a roll of fish line: as the first class passengers bitch about being wakened and dragged out of their staterooms, suddenly, your attention falls on the wheeled bar cart, which, all by itself, slowly rolls across stage. One by one the passengers realize what this means: The ship is taking on water, and beginning to go under. This simple moment, recreatable by even the poorest junior high production, was to me the way to portray this disaster.

#33

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 3:03pm

I saw the show on Broadway after it won the Tony. First off, I was appalled at the condition of the theatre. It was run down and in desperate need of a paint job - and it wasn't that way for atmosphere as the Urinetown theatre.

I LOVED the music to this show before seeing it, but as I was watching the show, I found myself totally bored. The final straw was the end of Act 1 as the little toy boat moved from one side of the stage to the other on its way to hit the iceberg. It was totally laughable.

The truly beautiful should be lawfully restricted from wearing clothing; and the truly butt-ugly should be lawfully mandated from going naked.

#34

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 3:18pm

I was impressed. at least the one in the national tour. I didn't think it looked like a toy at all. and the water looked so real...

#35

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 3:40pm

I thought the miniature Titanic hitting the Iceberg was very effective. I love the cart moving across the stage by it's self in the beginning of act 2

"You know just because you put a smiley face after it doesn't change the fact that it was an a-hole comment." ~ Sumofallthings

#36

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 3:49pm

those are two fantastic moments. the ship at the end of act two, at least when I saw it, omitted a gasp of awe from the audience and then the cart was just dead silence. it was eerie...

the only thing I didn't like was that the second time I saw it there were a lot of kids in the audience and the guy playing Ismay got booed for his bow which was completely inexcusable because I thought he did a fantastic job with that part...

#37

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 5:53pm

Ugh, yeah, that happened the first time I saw Beauty and the Beast with my elementary school, many people booed Marc Kudisch, who played Gaston. Ugh, I thought he was a lovely Gaston. I was far more mature than my peers, haha.

I would have loved to see how they pulled it off on Broadway and the national tour. It seems really fascinating.

~Steven

#38

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/24/05 at 9:35pm

Ismay almost always got booed at his bow...David Garrison never seemed to mind. I think he took it as a tribute to his acting ...

Otherwise, loved the music, loved the show...

#39

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/25/05 at 3:50am

I first saw it the Monday night after it won the Tony award. A very pumped up audience at that one. The score is great and like other Maury Yeston scores (check out NINE and GRAND HOTEL which he wrote a few songs for re-wrote some of the others) it takes a few listens to get all the details.

What I DIDN'T like about the original production were many of the sets and scenic drops that looked cheap. The dining room scene for example cried out for a more oppulent set or, going in the direction of GRAND HOTEL a minimalist approach. I also had a sense that the director spent so much time staging the effects that the cast were left to fend for themselves.

I was back seeing the show again at the end of the run in March 1999 and was shocked at the sloppy singing/diction of some of the cast. (I was in the same seats too - one advantage of being a member of the Theatre Critics circle is getting free house seats!) The friend I took with kept complaining that he was missing a lot of lyrics. So was I (and by this time I knew the score via the OCR!)

As to why it shuttered after only 2 years..running costs were high and though the show got a big boost from the movie TITANIC whch came out in December 1997, it ended up hurting the show after a while when everyone had been TITANIC'd out!

Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!

I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com

#40

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/25/05 at 12:26pm

Interesting observation there Frontrow. I loved the show and saw it early in the run and recommended it to friends and family. Near the run's end my sister attended and hated it. Granted her seats were in the rear mezzanine but she complained her husband and she couldn't understand a damn word which perplexed me. I always figured since my seats were what we'd now refer to as "premium seats", that sitting closer to the stage was the reason but now I know better. I truly enjoyed the score but what impressed me the most was the fact that it was so factual as compared to the movie. The fact that the film felt it necessary to conjure up a fictional love story and omit mostly all the actual passengers aboard (except Molly Brown) seemed such an utter waste. I especially liked the way all the names of those who survived as well as those who perished covered the walls of the lobby. It was a very chilling addition to a wonderful show.

#41

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/25/05 at 12:36pm

i love this show so much! i didn't get to see it on broadway but was in a production of it..the music is beautiful..it's a very touching show.

#42

re: Titanic

Posted: 3/25/05 at 1:32pm

badadnpa, the Henry Miller (your "urinetown theater") didn't look the way it did for Urinetown's "atmosphere", it looked like that because it had not been taken care of for decades. In fact, part of the ceiling fell on the audience during a performance & the show had to be shut down for 2 days while emergency repairs were effected. I was sorry to see the theatre go, but it was a wreck.

The Lunt-Fontaine underwent a tremendous restoration after Titanic, & is now quite beautiful.

Dmitri, loved and completely agree with your post as regards to the fictionalisation of the movie. Here you have this incredible true story & you use it for a backdrop for a totally lame love story? I never could understand that.

#43

re: Titanic

Posted: 4/6/05 at 5:10am

I have a question about the staging of this musical. I was once told that during "Mr. Andrew's Vision" the boat is starting to sink and the desk rises up somehow. Basically, I'm really confused here. Can anyone who saw the show a ton of times try to explain how this was done?

"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL

#44

re: Titanic

Posted: 4/6/05 at 9:45am

I loved the Broadway production. The sets didn't bother me at all. I much preferred it to the national tour, which looked much cheaper. I loved how they could stage different decks at once and frame the action of the different classes. The score is one of Broadway's best in the last 20 years. When the small boat appeared at the end of the first act, there was a huge audible gasp from the audience and much applause. I was amazed by the entire show and it remains one of my favorite dramatic theatrical experiences.

I am surprised by the comments of the sloppy diction. One thing I particularly noticed when I saw the show was the incredible chorus. Their diction and choral singing was the tightest I had ever witnessed. I could understand each and every syllable. The performanced was more dynamically nuanced than what appears on the cast recording (closer to the German recording). It was the finest singing I'd heard in any musical I'd seen. That was in the summer of 1998.

I don't remember a desk rising up during Mr. Andrew's Vision at all. Just the piano rolling across the stage.

I remember reading that there was a new song written for the German production and was released on a limited edition CD. Does anyone have this?

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

Updated On: 4/6/05 at 09:45 AM

#45

re: Titanic

Posted: 4/6/05 at 10:15am

Mister Matt,

I have one of the foreign recordings of this show (which is excellent, by the way). Off hand I can't remember if it's the Dutch or German cast. I'll take a look when I got home from work today.

C.

Hey Dottie! Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany

Updated On: 4/6/05 at 10:15 AM

#46

re: Titanic

Posted: 4/6/05 at 10:25am

I saw the show in Germany and i really liked it. It was a much bigger production than on Broadway and the sets were really great. Unfortunately it wasn't successful in Hamburg.

#47

re: Titanic

Posted: 4/6/05 at 10:30am

I saw it in NYC, and just received the Hamburg cast recording, and love it.

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story... AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956

#48

re: Titanic

Posted: 4/6/05 at 11:04am

I saw the OBC and later the touring cast, also have the OCR; love the music and fell in love with Brian D'Arcy James and I can't remember his name, but the man that played the captain is a good friend of my grandmothers and he got my playbill signed by the cast!

"Commit a little mortal sin, its good for the soul"

#49

re: Titanic

Posted: 4/6/05 at 12:33pm

Anyone else notice on the OBC during "We'll Meet Tomorrow" that there is an audible change in volume right in the middle of the song? It's not a vocal decrescendo, because it's supposed to be a climactic part of the song. Maybe it's just my CD or my CD player, but it occurs at home and in the car.

Oh, and one thing that did bother me or, rather, confused me, was when the staff and passengers were singing down the stairwell. It took a second viewing before I understood the effect.

#50

re: Titanic

Posted: 4/6/05 at 1:15pm

I adore the show, with it's flaws. My high school was the first US high school to get the rights when they were released. If anyone's interested, here are a few pictures from our production.

- Charlie
magicpiane@kc.rr.com

Updated On: 4/6/05 at 01:15 PM

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