Show: Titanic: The Musical
Format: Musical
Genre: Drama
Date: July 30 2018
Location: Empire Theatre, Liverpool
The story of the Titanic has always fascinated me since I was a young girl, and when the wreck of the Titanic was discovered in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1985, the images reawakened my imagination. So, I was looking forward to Titanic: The Musical at Liverpool‘s Empire Theatre.
Titanic: The Musical
Description Of Titanic: The Musical
Titanic: The Musical began with rousing opening numbers telling us about what a fantastic engineering achievement the Titanic was, and how the dream of crossing the Atlantic for a better life in America was becoming an actual reality for members of all social classes. The music was uplifting, and the enthusiasm of the singers and musicians was contagious, capturing the excitement of the travellers and crew embarking on this beautiful ship’s maiden voyage.
The musical’s characters are all based upon true passengers on the Titanic, and we find out about their personalities and background stories. There were some powerful vocal performances, consistent across the whole company. The show runs for two hours and forty minutes, the exact length of time after the collision, when the ship broke in two and sank to the bottom of the ocean.
Analysis Of Titanic: The Musical
The scenes switch between the different classes and groups of passengers throughout, telling the story from the character’s personal viewpoints. It all flows seamlessly, but I just didn’t find enough light and shade; it was pretty full-on all the way through, and although there were crystal-clear vocals and we experienced the effortless achievements of the higher and lower registers, I felt it lacked some emotion and sensitivity, and so I was surprisingly unmoved.
A possible exception to that was when Ida and Isidor Strauss, played by Judith Street and Dudley Rogers, pledged to stay on the ship together rather than comply with the evacuation of woman passengers into the lifeboats. Their song Still was very tender.
Scenery
Although pretty static, the scenery was atmospheric and the cast also moved about through the audience at times, which helped greatly with the atmosphere. Jacinta White was outstanding as social climber Alice Beane, and Greg Castiglioni as Thomas Andrews has a gentle presence until the final number Vision as the boat succumbs to the frozen waters, and he shines in the powerful song The Blame alongside Philip Rham and Simon Green as Captain Smith and the ship’s owner Bruce Ismay respectively. The closing scene paid tribute to the 1,517 people who lost their lives on that tragic night in April 1912.
Summary Of Titanic: The Musical
Overall, it was a very solid production. But did Maury Yeston listen to Les Miserables the day before he wrote some of the numbers?
Finally, my family and many others across the North West have a great history of seafaring relatives. And their safety on the cruel sea has always been close to our hearts. I have great sympathy and respect for Captain Edward Smith who went down with his ship. He travelled to Liverpool to find a career at sea and lived here for 40 years. So, so I found the proportion of blame attributed to the Captain in the production rather galling. Especially as he was cleared of any negligence in the British Wreck Commissioners Inquiry Report. But hey ho.
