“Titanic The Musical”
**** I guess the biggest question in a theater-goers mind is ” Why a musical about the Titanic?”. Let’s face it, the sinking of the ship was a dark tragedy and a story that has remained alive for many years. With a book by Peter Stone and music & lyrics by Maury Yeston, this musical is designed more for story . I doubt that anyone will walk out of the theater humming a tune they just heard. Of greater importance is that they will walk out with more story than they expected.
This production, directed and choreographed by Conner Gallagher on the in-the-round stage at Marriott Lincolnshire is a triumph in bringing story to stage. Not just for Gallagher, but for the ensemble that brings all of the characters to life. Remember, these are for the most part real people. Historical figures that have been represented in books and of course in the film. While we do not hear the line ” I am king of the world) we do have the railing and in fact, the stage at Marriott has been rebuilt to appear to be the upper deck of a ship circa 1912. Collette Pollard has truly created a masterpiece. The play has been done on a proscenium stage, but never had the impact that this production has.
The cast for this production is about as A-One as one can get. It seems that the 21 actors become all of the crew and passengers on the fated voyage of April 1912. Interestingly, the dates that we see on the projections are last week-end, so I must applaud the producers for selecting this particular time to put the show on their stage. It is also ironic that another look at the Titanic is in Chicago as “Titanique” is playing at The Broadway Playhouse”. This one is a parody that has very little to do with the actual story and is designed to make us laugh.
Marriott’s production is designed to convey the story and allow us to feel what these people lived through. Of course, a great many perished, but the story also contains some aspects that will stick in your mind ( far after the play is over), such as the desire to be the best of the best ( the builder), the dreams of the passengers ( going to America to reboot their lives) and for those in the First Class section, an opportunity to remain on top but in a new country. While the original Broadway production played over 800 performances, it was not one to do a tour as the set was so mind-boggling. Marriott has resolved that situation and shows the world that creativity can overshadow problems, and they did it with style and grace.
There are many costumes (Sally Ratke is amazing) and the number of changes are unbelievable ( I am unsure as to how many dressers aided the ensemble, but they should be congratulated- no one ever missed a cue). The lighting (Jesse Klug) and sound (Michael Daly) are perfect and Sally Zak’s props are as always perfect. The orchestra is conducted by Brad Haak and the music coordinator is Trevor Jones.
The cast is amazing! Lillian Castillo , as always, is a sheer delight to watch as Alice Beane and others. Her husband Edgar is deftly handled by James Earl Jones II ( welcome back to Lincolnshire). Just as most of the ensemble play many roles, he does three or four. The ship’s Captain is played to perfection by David Girolmo and the other staff members are brought to life by George Keating and Joel Gelman. Isador Strauss ( and others) are done by Chicago favorite Mark David Kaplan and his wife ( and others),Ida is played by Heidi Kettenring.
As I said, this is a huge cast of players and each one and their roles is somewhat reliant on the others to bring all the parts of the puzzle together: Adam Pelty returns to Marriott as J. Bruce Ismay, the owner/builder of the Titanic that feels the need to beat all previous records in order to prove to the world that he is the greatest! This is the villainy role if you examine the story, and he does it with the perfect touch. Eric Amundson, Darian Goulding, Laura Guley, Kelli Harrington, Matthew Hommel (he does several roles and his voice truly has a great range), Christopher Kale Jones, Will Lidke, Garrett Lutz, Francesca Mehrota, Victoria Okafor, Erica Stephen, Lucas Thompson and the hysterical Kevin Webb round out the players who truly worked the score and script to make this a touching, warm and loveable story. In the final scenes, you might need a tissue or two.
