Titanic is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone. It is based on the story of the RMS Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912.
The musical opened on Broadway on April 23, 1997, in a production directed by Richard Jones; it won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and ran for 804 performances. It is not related to the 1997 film of the same name.
Background In 1985, the wreck of the RMS Titanic was found about 370 miles (600 km) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland, at a depth of about 12,500 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. This attracted the interest of Maury Yeston, a musical theater composer and lyricist best known for the 1982 Broadway musical Nine. Said Yeston:"What drew me to [a musical about the story of the Titanic] was the positive aspects of what the ship represented – 1) humankind's striving after great artistic works and similar technological feats, despite the possibility of tragic failure, and 2) the dreams of the passengers on board: 3rd Class, to immigrate to America for a better life; 2nd Class, to live a leisured lifestyle in imitation of the upper classes; 1st Class, to maintain their privileged positions forever. The collision with the iceberg dashed all of these dreams simultaneously, and the subsequent transformation of character of the passengers and crew had, it seemed to me, the potential for great emotional and musical expression onstage."Kalfatovic, Mary. "Maury Yeston", Contemporary Musicians (ed. Luann Brennan). Vol. 22, Gale Group, Inc., 1998Both Yeston and Peter Stone, the show's librettist, knew the idea was an unusual one for a musical: as Yeston explained, "I think if you don't have that kind of daring damn-the-torpedoes, you shouldn't be in this business. It's the safe sounding shows that often don't do well. You have to dare greatly, and I really want to stretch the bounds of the kind of expression in musical theater."BMI Music World, Fall 1997, pp. 24–29
Yeston saw the story as unique to turn-of-the-century British culture, with its rigid social class system and romanticizing of progress through technology. "In order to depict that on the stage, because this is really a very English show," said Yeston, "I knew I would have to have a color similar to the one found in the music of the great composers at that time, like Elgar or Vaughan Williams; this was for me an opportunity to bring in the musical theater an element of the symphonic tradition that I think we really haven't had before. That was very exciting." The producers consulted the archives of the Titanic International Society for accurate portrayal of the play's characters.
The high cost of Titanic′s set made it impossible for the show to have traditional out-of-town tryouts. Titanic′s previews began at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1997 with various technical troubles which were overcome by opening night, initially receiving mixed to positive reviews. The New Yorker′s was the first of numerous later unqualified raves: "It seemed a foregone conclusion that the show would be a failure; a musical about history's most tragic maiden voyage, in which fifteen hundred people lost their lives, was obviously preposterous.... Astonishingly, Titanic manages to be grave and entertaining, somber and joyful; little by little you realize that you are in the presence of a genuine addition to American musical theatre."
It ran 804 performances winning five Tony Awards (including Best Musical), and the advocacy of Rosie O'Donnell.Stein, Tobie S. and Bathurst, Jessica. "Arranging Interviews" Performing Arts Management, Allworth Communications, Inc., 2008, , p. 320 With a Grammy Award nominated cast album, over the next twenty years the show received hundreds of professional and amateur productions worldwide and has become a national and international staple of musical theater.
Although it premiered in the same year as the film Titanic, also about the doomed ship, the musical and film have no connection.
Productions
1997 original Broadway production Titanic opened on April 23, 1997, at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and ran for 804 performances and 27 previews, closing on March 21, 1999. Directed by Richard Jones with choreography by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, the cast included John Cunningham, David Garrison, Larry Keith, Alma Cuervo, Michael Cerveris, Victoria Clark, Don Stephenson, Judy Blazer, and Brian d'Arcy James. Danny Burstein was a cast replacement. The set encompassed three levels to help form the impression of the size of the ship. The lobby of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre was redecorated for the production: the complete passenger list of the Titanic was painted on the walls, noting those who ultimately survived the disaster.
Orchestrator Jonathan Tunick won the first Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for his work on the score. The show received four other Tony nominations, winning in all five categories in which it was nominated, including the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Stewart Laing was responsible for both the costume design and the scenic design, for which he won a Tony Award for Best Scenic Design. The wardrobe is on display at the Costume World Broadway Collection in Pompano Beach, Florida. Paul Gallo was responsible for the lighting design. Steve Canyon Kennedy was responsible for the sound design.
First US National tour The production toured the United States after closing on Broadway, beginning in January 1999 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, with a cast that featured Brian d'Arcy James (Los Angeles only), Marcus Chait, William Parry, Adam Heller, David Pittu, and Matthew Yang King. There were also several subsequent tours with non-Equity performers.
Ensemble version In 2012 original Broadway cast member Don Stephenson, who created the part of Charles Clarke, developed a new chamber version of Titanic in collaboration with choreographer Liza Gennaro. This scaled down production used 20 actors playing all of the roles, an abstract set design, projections of the actual ship and passengers, and new orchestrations designed to make the score sound as if it was being played by the ship's band. Material that had been previously cut from the original Broadway production was put back into the show, and existing material was reordered and reassigned. This new intimate version of Titanic opened in July 2012 at The Hangar Theatre. The production was nominated for 11 BroadwayWorld Awards which included Best Musical, Best Director, Best Choreographer, and Best Ensemble Performance. Stephenson subsequently remounted this production in hopes of an eventual Broadway revival at Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford, New York in January 2014.
The US regional theater premiere of the ensemble version of the show was on October 26, 2014, at The Griffin Theatre Company in Chicago, directed by Scott Weinstein with music direction by Elizabeth Doran and choreography by Sawyer Smith. It had its amateur premier at Avon Players in Rochester Hills, Michigan on September 8, 2017.
Signature Theatre production Arlington, Virginia's Signature Theatre presented Titanic from December 13, 2016, to January 29, 2017. "I've always loved the musical Titanic and I have felt that Signature should reinvent this musical for our audiences in an exciting new way," said the company's artistic director Eric Schaeffer in an article about the production.
Concert productions In February 2014 most of the original Broadway cast reunited, including Michael Cerveris, Brian d'Arcy James, Martin Moran, David Garrison, David Costabile, and Becky Ann Baker for a staged concert of the musical at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. This concert was produced by Manhattan Concert Productions and featured a chorus of 200 singers from across the country. It was conducted by original musical director, music supervisor, and conductor Kevin Stites, choreographed by Liza Gennaro, and directed by Don Stephenson.
In June 2024, there was an Off-Broadway concert at New York City Center as a part of the Encores! series. Anne Kauffman directed the production with choreography by Danny Mefford. The cast included Bonnie Milligan as Alice Beane, Chuck Cooper as Captain Edward Smith, Eddie Cooper as Henry Etches, Drew Gehling as Edgar Beane, Ramin Karimloo as Frederick Barrett, Emilie Kouatchou as Caroline Neville, Judy Kuhn as Ida Straus, Brandon Uranowitz as Bruce Ismay, Chip Zien as Isidor Straus, Lilli Cooper as Kate Murphey and Samantha Williams as Kate McGowan.Ramin Karimloo, Bonnie Milligan, Chuck Cooper, Judy Kuhn, More Will Star in Encores! Titanic The role of Frank Carlson, the passenger who misses the ship as it departs, was played by Jesse Eisenberg, Victoria Clark (who originated Alice Beane on Broadway), and David Hyde Pierce at select performances during the run.
International productions A Dutch touring production (European premiere) opened on September 23, 2001, in Royal Theatre Carre, Amsterdam. It was also highly successful, and produced an original cast recording (sung in Dutch) as a companion to the original Broadway cast recording on RCA Records. On December 7, 2002, a German production opened in Hamburg, a copy of the Dutch production. A cast recording was made in German. A new song was written for the German production, "Drei Tage" (Three Days), but the song was not included on cast album. It was recorded and released on a German karaoke CD called Professional Playbacks: Showtunes Vol. 1.
On May 17, 2005, the Belfast Operatic Company premiered the show in Ireland in the Grand Opera House, Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Belfast Operatic Company performed the show again, in the Grand Opera House, Belfast, on the week the ship sailed, from April 10 to 14, 2012, with a special performance beginning at 11:40 pm on the Saturday night, the time which the ship hit the iceberg. Composer Maury Yeston attended two performances of the show, having flown in from New York.
The show's Canadian professional premiere was presented in Toronto, by the Toronto Civic Light Opera in February 2006, directed by Joe Cascone, in a newly imagined staging which dispensed with the "slanted set" concept of the original production. This production featured Bob Deutsch as Captain Smith, David Haines as J. Bruce Ismay, and Cory Doran as Barrett. Staged with full orchestra and 40-member cast, the run was extended twice due to popular demand.
The Australian production starring Nick Tate as Captain Smith debuted in October 2006. The same production made its UK premiere at York Theatre Royal, and its London premiere at the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage.
A Japanese engagement played from January to February 2007.
The premiere in Wales was performed November 15–20, 2004, at the Gwyn Hall by Neath Amateur Operatic Society. The musical returned to Wales from April 11–14, 2012 by Spotlight Theatre Company in the Parc and Dare Hall. Directed by Pat Evans, musical direction by Geraint Bessant, the performance included a special gala event on April 14 to mark 100 years to the day the tragedy struck. The London premiere was presented by West Wickham Operatic Society between November 21–26, 2006, at The Churchill Theatre Bromley, conducted by Paul Showell.
On February 9, 2008, Ballinrobe Musical Society, under the direction of Peter Kennedy, performed the first ever production to take place in the Republic of Ireland. The show ran from February 9 to 16. Michael Coen played Captain Edward Smith.
There were French productions in Belgium in the cities of Liège and Charleroi by Stéphane Laporte and Jean-Louis Grinda from 2000 to 2006. The show premiered in Finland on March 29, 2008, in Seinäjoki City Theatre.
On April 26, 2010, the musical company Scenario premiered the show in Kolbotn, Norway. The show ran from April 26 to May 12.