Titanic the Musical-Question

[Over the Moon]

Posted: 6/24/07 at 10:17pm

i never saw it
but how did they stage the sinking?

just curious

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/24/07 at 10:18pm

The whole show sank.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 6/24/07 at 10:19pm

The Broadway stage was pratically rebuilt upon a new foundation, allowing the entire platform to tip as the boat slowly sank. It was pretty awesome.

[Mr. Tuttle]

Posted: 6/24/07 at 10:20pm

This was an excellent show. Beautiful music. Wonderful and intelligent script. The sinking was done by a hydrolic platform that made a very steep tilt.

[Over the Moon]

Posted: 6/24/07 at 10:21pm

aw

i wish i could of seen it >_<

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 6/24/07 at 10:23pm

I saw it on tour, where they did not have three decks on stage at once. However, they did the same thing with the tipping. The whole stage would slant (going upwards on stage right). When it SANK SANK, they had a black scrim come up from the stage floor as if it was being engulfed by the water.

Updated On: 6/24/07 at 10:23 PM

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 1:14am

They just tilted the stage (along with three-leveled big huge ship) and actors on top were sliding off, etc.

Then, this wall would lower and hid everything and people sang the last song.

[Jon]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:19am

I remember the scene where Andrews (Michael Cerveris) was in the lounge looking at the blueprints, trying to figure out what he did wrong, as the ship tilts more and more. Meanwhile, theres a grand piano at the high end of the stage, and you just know that at the end of the scene, the piano is going to roll down and crush Andrews.

[Wicked63]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:24am

A gentle tilt! Maybe that stagehand should have tilted a bit more. Great to listen to an a brilliantly produced CD but not good to look at on a Broadway stage.
Updated On: 6/25/07 at 10:24 AM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:24am

We had tickets for one of the earlier previews. It was cancelled as they could not get the ship to sink.

They never did as all you see is the tilting & not the actual ship sinking

[vfd88]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:25am

That's pretty awesome. Wish I could have seen it.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:36am

[vfd88]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:39am

Ooo, pretty...

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:40am

Great pics

I have this show on a format we cant talk about and the sinking does look good

[Wicked63]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:41am

Thanks Fosse! Great to see again what a stunning looking mess it was. I mean it looks good but wasnt good- you know what i mean. I love that comment from Mr Roxy about them not getting the ship to sink! I'd have loved to see your face and i bet the box office had a ball telling people that.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:47am

There was a great article about the show when it was closing in the NY Times.

[D2]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 10:50am

Those photos ARE great, but they are not of the Broadway production. The designs for the interiors of the ship were far more abstract than that. It was not a pretty show to look at.

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 2:09pm

On, I believe Broadway.com, they had a great interview with Michael Cerveris, and there was a question about Titanic and he made a quote to the effect of, " we went through three different endings, i mean if it's Titanic, you would think you would know how its going to end." He also commented on the fact that the set was run on a very sensitive control system and would completely shut down on occasion.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 2:22pm

IMHO, it was an overly streamlined, overly simplified set in desperate need of a sense of period style. It was trying for a Euro approach, and it wound up looking like a bad geometry lesson.

Arguably the worst scene (and I saw this in previews, so perhaps it was cut before opening?) was the last scene of the first act, when a model ship sailed across the stage to collide OFFSTAGE with the iceberg, suggested by sound effects only. That was a huge misstep, sorry.

[raphael06]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 2:29pm

The broadway set was not as good as the touring set. In the touring set during thes inking scene, it was three stories tall and tilted as people were falling off and flying down the ship onto a pad.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 2:30pm

There was a production of this musical in California, and their set was absolutely amazing. I was really expecting a more opulent set for the Broadway production considering the subject. Still, I really liked this show and saw it 9x including the final.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 2:36pm

The Broadway set wasn't as good as the touring set?? Huh??

I saw the tour, and it was one of the flattest, ugliest shows I've ever seen in my life. Everything was staged on the floor, and there were no multi-level sets at all. The scene in the crow's nest was simply the two actors stepping out from behind the proscenium, standing there. The final set did indeed tilt to show people sliding, but that was it. Nothing was more than one story high.

And don't get me started on the neon, day-glow pajamas.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 2:48pm

SeanMartin - nope, the model ship was a firm part of the show.

I thought it was a great touch.

And I still stand by the fact that Titanic is one of the few Broadway shows to make me cry.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 4:47pm

raphael06 had it backwards, MYB. The touring set was scaled down. The Broadway set was three stories like in the pictures Fosse posted though as someone said those last two pictures are not actually of the Broadway production.

I liked the model ship. Maybe it looked silly close up, but to me from a few rows back it looked great. I couldn't figure out how they made the water look so real and then disappear so quickly in the few second blackout between the scene and the lights coming up for intermission. It was a neat effect.

There's a great picture of the German production that put a projection of the ship on the drop for the opening scene. I think it looks really neat. The Broadway production was just in need of little touches like that and probably a set decorator.

Updated On: 6/25/07 at 04:47 PM

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 6/25/07 at 5:00pm

I wonder if the pictures that BrodyFosse posted are from the production I was referring to.

CatsNY, great picture, thanks for posting it.

In addition to the Broadway recording, I have the Dutch cast recording from this show.