Titanic (Film)
By: | Peter Stone |
Music and Lyrics: | Maury Yeston |
Director: | Richard Jones |
Choreography | Lynne Taylor-Corbett |
Sets and Costumes: | Stewart Laing |
Lighting: | Paul Gallo |
Sound: | Steve Canyon Kennedy |
Opened: | 4/97 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater |
Cast: | John Cunningham, Brian d'Arcy James, Martin Moran, Allan Corduner, David Garrison, Michael Cerveris, Larry Keith, Alma Cuervo, Becky Ann Baker, Don Stephenson, Judith Blazer, Bill Buell, Victoria Clark, Jennifer Piech and Clarke Thorell |
Joan Marcus
|
This Tony Award-winning staging of the legendary 1912 disaster surprisingly treads water; however, that's not to say it's a buoyant success. Neither imaginative nor insightful, the musical fills its decks with a large cast of competent but bland archetypes who fail to imbue the production with the drama and pathos it demands. Without a strong emotional anchor, Titanic's performances flail about, except for Andrews as the ship's designer and Baker as a wealthy feminist. Likewise, the musical numbers seem watered down, though radio operator Moran and stoker James effectively break through the humdrum songbook with a touching duet. Try as they might, the appropriately epic sets and gee-whiz special effects can't save this ship — the production irrevocably stalls, unable to fuel up on enough sympathy and suspense to keep it truly afloat.