Titanic Broadway Revival!!!

[brdwybound04]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 12:31am

Great news!!! I loved this show the first time around flaws and all, such a hauntingly gorgeous score! I only wish this could have opened last year and transferred last fall as a tribute to the 100th anniversary of the sinking! Still better late than never!!!

http://m.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/titanic_resurfaces_veYFW0DRyLSEch53j3gQzN

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 12:37am

Um this talks about a West End transfer... Broadway was not confirmed in this article

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 9:39am

I wouldn't get too excited just yet.
Some shows that work well in London don't transfer well.

Remember how excited we got about INTO THE WOODS?

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 9:46am

I'm lost. There is nothing about a Broadway production in that article, except for Riedel asking Yeston about it. That's it.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 9:51am

I wouldn't count on it, either. Don't jump to conclusions.


Remember though, there will be a concert version at the Lincoln Center in Feb. (I think that's what was announced.)

[Frank8]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 9:57am

It would be a great thing. One of the best openings of any Broadway musical.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 10:14am

^You know what's funny about that? I remember seeing it on the Tony Awards and thinking: oh, lord, how droll.

I ended up seeing it the following spring with a large group, and utterly fell in love.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 10:27am

I always get goosebumps when everyone starts "Farewell, farewell, Godspeed Titanic". It is one of my favorite choral portions of a musical.

Updated On: 8/14/13 at 10:27 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 10:28am

Is there a theater available? Sierra Boguss? Bebe Neuwirth for the iceberg?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 11:28am

Maybe this time they can get the ship to sink.

Posted: 8/13/13 at 12:54pm

Stone was a wonderful writer but he was merely quoting John Adams when he called 3 or more useless men a congress.

[Idiot]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 2:48pm

I wish that I liked 'chamber versions' of large scale shows. So far, I can't think of one that I enjoyed.

[ggersten]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 3:17pm

This is the concert version referenced by dramamama611
Lincoln Center February 17 2014

[musikman]

Posted: 8/13/13 at 11:54pm

"I always get goosebumps when everyone starts "Farewell, farewell, Godspeed Titanic". It is one of my favorite opening portions of a musical."

If the Ragtime concert back in February is any indication, that final chorus will be worth the price of admission alone. I can't wait to hear that with a 30 piece orchestra and 100+ person choir.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 8:00am

Titanic is the quintessential first act, brilliant, second act, weak show.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 8:08am

By far, the worst "Best Musical" I've ever seen.

The only thing I appreciated about it was the choral singing.

Everything else was mind-numbingly dull.

[Jon]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 8:49am

Brian D'Arcy James was brilliant. The rest was "meh".

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 9:11am

The NY Broadway production was just so below average, despite the talent involved.

The sets were minimalist and uninspired. They spent a bazillion dollars just to tilt the floor and pull a toy boat on a string in the background.

The costumes looked like a Bob Mackie skit on the Carol Burnet Show.

The musical staging came right from a grade school hoedown.

The dialogue was stoic and academic.

The melodies were lifeless except for the choral sections.

The lighting was too dark.

And the plot, despite its historical familiarity was muddled.

But other than that, I loved it.

EDIT: Maybe a new directorial vision could salvage it and make me rethink my feelings, but I don't know.

Updated On: 8/14/13 at 09:11 AM

[Wynbish]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 9:25am

The melodies were lifeless except for the choral sections.

Even The Proposal? I love its melody. Maybe because I've seen some wonderful Barretts, but it can soar. Granted, I wish they didn't have the "dit dit dah dit dah dit" song of Bride's bisecting it.

[ggersten]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 9:26am

best12bars: "Maybe a new directorial vision could salvage it and make me rethink my feelings, but I don't know."


Maybe they could set Titanic in a circus?

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 9:43am

NOW, you're talkin'!



I don't mean to poop in everyone's cheerios here, but I have rarely disliked a Broadway production as much as I did Titanic.

I seriously thought that bomb of a show "Into the Light" had more redeeming qualities.

And Wynbish, it's just possible that once I achieved full REM state during the performance (kidding, I stayed awake unfortunately), that I might have missed a pleasant melody or two.

The music felt like a pastiche of "pretty" without any real "hooks" other than the opening song, which was stirring, but endless, and hampered by the sophomoric staging of the full ensemble circling the stage and the gangplank like circus ponies (!) about 300 times.

Updated On: 8/14/13 at 09:43 AM

[D2]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 9:58am

I've always felt the material is far stronger than the production it received. It won Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score, as well as set (wtf?), and orchestrations (deserved) but it's telling that the director was not even nominated. Nor should he have been.

I was "meh" the first time I saw it too; it wasn't until after I heard the score on disc, and heard an audio bootleg of the entire show that I realized without the distractions of the lackluster production, the sum of its parts were greater than what was playing at the Lunt-Fontanne.

Posted: 8/14/13 at 11:54am

I think the problem was the production. And the problem there was that they couldn't decide to go big or go small- so much of the show was HUGE- the multiple decks, the tilting of the stage- that the small moments looked ridiculous- like they just couldn't afford the huge effect the scene needed.

This "chamber" production makes me hopeful. The most effective effect in the show was at the top of the second act where the first class passengers bitched about being roused of out of bed for nothing and then, slowly, the drink cart rolled across the stage and the passengers realized the ship was sinking. You stick with moments like that and you have something.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 12:32pm

I loved the original, despite it's many flaws, and adore the recording. The scale was a big problem as Joe states, making that ridiculous tiny boat draw laughter from us and many around us. But Vicky Clark deserved a Tony nomination and "Still" made me cry.

"The Life" is the show that year that had me in "wtf" giggles.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 8/14/13 at 2:21pm

Musically, I loved the show. The melodies are gorgeous. However, there was no central character I could relate to thus making the book unbearable. The "brilliance" of the James Cameron film is that we were given characters to care for.

The ability (or inability) to convincingly show the ship sinking on stage is another factor in this musical not working well.