For an evening, the Titanic sailed once again on its maiden voyage and took audience members on the ride of a lifetime.
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, the LSU Union Theater presented “Titanic, the Musical” on Wednesday evening.
According to a news release, “Titanic, the Musical” is the winner of five Tony Awards, including best musical, best score and best book.
Contrary to what some may have thought, the musical differed from the popular movie. The musical focused on different main characters who were passengers in the third, second and first classes, along with the captain.
The show opened with shipbuilder Thomas Andrews singing about the wonders of the world, and then turned to the docks of Southampton, England, as passengers sang about their anticipation in boarding the monumental ship.
For the first act, the musical was relatively uneventful. Scenes jumped from following the officers to the different classes of passengers. It wasn’t until the end of the first act that the show gained momentum when crew members were performing “No Moon,” and a lookout spied the looming iceberg.
The intensity grew as the crew and passengers joined in the song and stared out past the bow at the nearing iceberg. The curtain fell at the end of the first act, and at the opening of the second, crew members ordered passengers to wake up from their slumber.
A sense of urgency arose when the officers begin to realize the fate of their legendary ship. As the officers found out more about the damage received from impact with the block of ice and the lack of lifeboats, they began to grow edgy.
One of the strongest songs of the performance was “The Blame” as Captain Smith, Titanic’s owner Ismay, and shipbuilder Andrews argued about who is to blame for the accident. The men raised their voices and screamed over one another while the radioman attempted to reach nearby ships with an SOS.
The most powerful scene occurred on the boat deck as passengers boarded the lifeboats to safety. Only the first and second class passengers were present when they were told life boats were reserved for women and children. The anguish of the couples separating was apparent when they said their tearful goodbyes.
The performance was good, but it was not as powerful as expected for an award-winner. For most of the performance, the plot was dull and uneventful. The acting was a bit lacking and it was often hard to hear the actors speaking their lines.
Several times while the actors delivered their lines, the microphones cut out, creating a disruption in the magic and reality of the performance.
Although the musical was not a comedy, the roles of second-class passenger Alice Beane and her husband Edgar provided many laughs for the audience. Alice desperately wanted to meet the first-class passengers, but her husband constantly reminded her that was not their place.
The role of Ismay, the owner of the Titanic, also drew laughs because Ismay’s job was to constantly annoy the captain about increasing speed so as to make the voyage to America in less than a week. Ismay called the Captain by “E.J.” as a sign of disrespect and jumps aboard a lifeboat to save his skin.
Overall, the “Titanic” was an evening full of light laughs and good music. The audience was able to enjoy its trip back in time when the Titanic was the world’s “largest moving object.”
Grade: B-
