Titanic the Musical

Did anyone see this? Can you tell me how the y did the sinking on stage?

o0o are there any legal clips out there that I could see of it?

It was a ridiculously expensive undertaking for them to rip up the stage and install hydraulics, which failed often enough to cause a lot of headaches for the crew and producers. It was interesting, but I didn't find it to be a tremendously amazing effect.

I've seen smaller productions that used much lower-tech methods (such as extended ramps) to suggest the sinking nearly as effectively, and for $3 million less.

They should have ripped up the floor, put in some enormous sub-woofers like some movie houses have, and then shaken the crap out of the audience for the collision. That would have been fun.

There was a production of this show in California that had an impressive set.

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I have to agree with those who say it looked silly.

All those millions of dollars, and the effects were either blah or laughable.

And boring.

What they really should have done was rip up the floor... and put in a better musical.

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I disagree. You can do all kinds of things with lighting, sound effects and imagination.

Instead we got a toy boat pulled on a string, and and tilting stage... for a gazillion dollars, apparently.

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I have to disagree with you BSoBW2. I think the score is one of the most beautiful of today's musicals, next to "The Light in the Piazza." I simply adore "Titanic" and treasure the musical. The staging may have had its technical difficulties, but it was nonetheless a beautiful show with some great talent, interesting set and costume design, and such gorgeous songs and storytelling. It's not so much what *didn't work* but what it was presenting. How epic a tale.

Unrelated but still related:

The Queen Mary 2 entered the San Francisco Bay Sunday afternoon to dock at Pier 27. It's the largest passenger ship to ever pass under the Golden Gate Bridge. It departed last night, February 5, and I was there to watch it off (with a big crowd). I filmed it and then edited in the overture of "Titanic" as supplementary music. You can watch it here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kKrnP4t8qKk

Me too. The physical production, despite costing millions, was not pretty, and while any view of a ship all lit up and sailing across a smooth sea is a thrilling visual, whatever they used to simulate the ocean looked like a quilt made up of hefty bags taped together.

But the show itself is excellent, much better than the production it got.

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I know! What on earth are those bars on the blue backdrop? A metaphorical path to death?:

I must say though, I thought it had a sweeping score (although I think it dragged much in many places). I saw the US Tour, and thought the set was impressive, but not lush. The ugly backdrops somewhat ruined it for me.

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Updated On: 2/6/07 at 05:54 PM