It’s a story many of us know. In the final hours of 14th April 1912, the RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, collided with an iceberg and ‘the unsinkable ship’ slowly sank. It was one of the most tragic disasters of the 20th Century. 1517 men, women and children lost their lives.
Based on real people aboard the most legendary ship in the world, TITANIC THE MUSICAL is a stunning and stirring production focusing on the hopes, dreams and aspirations of her passengers who each boarded with stories and personal ambitions of their own. All innocently unaware of the fate awaiting them, the Third Class immigrants’ dream of a better life in America, the Second Class imagine they too can join the lifestyles of the rich and famous, whilst the millionaire Barons of the First Class anticipate legacies lasting forever.
Early in 2005, the director THOM SOUTHERLAND was making a first visit to Manhattan, and as he was leaving the show 42nd Street at a theatre on 42nd Street, he noticed a shop selling old theatre merchandise.
Rummaging through, he came upon a programme for the musical Titanic, which had completed an 804-performance Broadway run in March, 1999, having won Tony Awards in every category for which it was nominated two years earlier – Best Musical included.
Thom told us……
“I remember picking it up and looking at it and thinking, ‘This is unreal.”
Flash forward 8-1/2 years, and Thom had teamed up with his frequent producer DANIELLE TARENTO to bring that very musical to London’s Southwark Playhouse in an entirely fresh production that became a major success and has been in performance somewhere or other in the world in their iteration of it for much of the intervening decade.
Danielle told us…..
“We are so excited to have our brilliant new cast together to begin rehearsals for this 10th anniversary production. After the couple of years that we’ve all lived through, to be able to mark this anniversary by revisiting some favourite venues from the last tour and also bringing the show to some wonderful new ones feels especially joyful.”
Its tenth anniversary this year is being marked with a UK and Ireland tour, which weighs anchor at the New Theatre in Cardiff this week. and recent conversations with its creators – the show’s Tony-winning composer-lyricist MAURY YESTON included – show an undimmed appetite for this audacious work about a grievous event: the sinking on its maiden voyage in 1912 of the RMS Titanic, en route from Southampton to New York. More than 1500 people died.
Thom said……
“We tried to get across the notion that people would have a wonderful time, if they could get over the idea that they were seeing a musical about a sinking ship; audiences who went to see it really took it to their heart.”
“There are photos on my desk from the technical rehearsals and, my God, we look like children. But every year since we first did it, except when we were locked down in COVID, Titanic The Musical has been part of my life; this show just keeps giving.”
This is the production’s sixth separate iteration, following various UK tours and engagements in Canada, Germany, and China; a hoped-for Broadway revival has yet to happen.
Wasn’t there concern that playgoers might expect a version of the James Cameron film, which, interestingly, opened in cinemas the same year the musical premiered on Broadway and, following on from the show’s Tony, won the Best Picture Oscar? (Celine Dion is in no way connected to this musical.)
Thom recognises that a certain percentage of the audience for Titanic may arrive wanting the film……
“After the first 20 minutes or so, they’re embarrassed; they’re won round by the quality of the material.”
Danielle added…..
“Truth is a better story than fiction. This is the true story of the people on the Titanic.”
A 25-strong ensemble double up, or more, as required, and one asset is the recognition attached to the event itself:
The ship Titanic is the star; we don’t need names. And for what it’s worth, the musical takes the same time – 2 hours 40 minutes – to tell its story that it took the Titanic to sink: an extraordinary synergy.”
Maury Yeston speaks of being ready for reinvention with a show conceived on a large scale that could be reconfigured, given the right talents at the helm.
“I knew Thom and Danielle would come up with something utterly brilliant and allow the score to do the work – to help place the people in their midst and to allow the imagination of the audience to be part of the collaborative process: to create the fantasy onstage.”
“The art of writing is rewriting, and if you’re not open to that, you can’t fine tune.”
That original economy of scale at Southwark, itself tweaked and enlarged as needed over time, has sustained a shared and unbridled excitement in the show to this day.
“I find myself very fortunate that the show I love is the show people still want to see, a sentiment succinctly echoed by its originator: “Titanic was magic then, and it still is.”
The cast includes……
Martin Allanson (J. Bruce Ismay), Valda Akiks (Ida Straus), Graham Bickley (Captain Edward Smith), Sam Brown (Frederick Fleet), James Darch (Edgar Beane), David Delve (Isidor Straus), Catherine Digges (Head Maid), Adam Filipe (Frederick Barrett), Emily George (Kate Murphy), Luke Harley (Andrew Latimer), Emma Harrold (Lady Caroline Neville), Alastair Hill (Harold Bride), Abi Hudson (Maid), Barnaby Hughes (Herbert Pitman/Henry Etches), Paul Kemble (Joseph Boxhall), Niamh Long (Kate Mullins), Matthew McDonald (Charles Clarke), Ian McLarnon (Thomas Andrews), Danny Michaels (Joseph Bell), Chris Nevin (Jim Farrell), Jack North (Charles Lightoller), Joseph Peacock (Bellboy/Wallace Hartley), Billy Roberts (William McMaster Murdoch), Bree Smith (Alice Beane) and Lucie-Mae Summer (Kate McGowan).
TITANIC THE MUSICAL opens tonight at the New Theatre in Cardiff. Performances are at 7:30pm with a 2:30pm matinee on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets start at £18 and to get yours go HERE.
