Theater Review by Brian Scott Lipton . . . .
Just like many skeptics refused to believe that the enormous “ship of dreams” known as Titanic could ever actually be built, an eyebrow or two was raised when City Center Encores! announced it would mount Titanic, the large-cast 1995 Tony Award-winning musical about the doomed vessel’s maiden voyage.
But just as the naysayers were wrong in 1912, they prove to be mistaken in 2024. Simply put, the Encores! production of this magnificent musical turns out to be a monumental achievement—one of the best shows the series has ever produced. Unlike the ship, though, this “Titanic” never sinks. In fact, it metaphorically soars above the stage.
Giving much credit where it’s due, director Anne Kauffman and her creative team wisely make no effort to re-create Richard Jones’ lavish original staging. In a stroke of incredible creativity, set designer Paul Tate dePoo III (responsible this season for the incredibly beautiful The Cottage and The Great Gatsby) has opted for starkness and simplicity, with the show’s 30-piece orchestra, led by the great Rob Berman, hoisted high above the stage, where only a few set pieces pop up as necessary to depict the ship itself.
Marian Talan De La Rosa’s costumes are equally simple yet effective, with each character in an outfit (or two) befitting their social station, but not overly worried about being period-appropriate. Lighting designer David Weiner is perhaps the shining star of the creative trio, although I won’t reveal his greatest effect.
Still, the triumph of this production lies in Kauffman’s pitch-perfect casting, far from an easy feat when there can be 32 people on stage and more than a dozen playing principal roles. Collectively, they must—and do—sound majestic on Maura Yeston’s often operatic compositions, including the show’s opener “In Every Age,” “The Hymn,” and “Dressed in Your Pyjamas in the Grand Salon.” The cast’s harmonies are so exquisite and so precise, that it seems almost impossible to believe this show was put together in just 10 days.
Group numbers aside, “Titanic” rises and falls on the performers with larger roles. In creating a book that cleverly examines every aspect—and class struggle—within Titanic, book writer Peter Stone introduces us to passengers from every class, the ship’s aristocratic creators, and workers of every station—an effective strategy that nonetheless forces its cast to make three-dimensional portraits out of thumbnail sketches (often while singing a fantastic Yeston tune in the process).
Here, everyone succeeds in this supposed mission impossible, with the greatest standouts being the iron-lunged Ramin Karimloo as the hard-edged yet inwardly soft stoker Frederick Barrett; the almost-ethereal Alex Joseph Grayson as shy, dedicated telegraph worker McBride; a hilarious yet touching Bonnie Milligan as “second class” social climber Alice Beane; a stalwart Chuck Cooper as often-exasperated captain E. J. Smith; a feisty Samantha Williams as the forthright Irish immigrant Kate McGowan, and the always incredible Chip Zien and Judy Kuhn as the long-devoted couple Isidor and Ida Strauss. (They not only receive the loudest applause for their gorgeous duet “Still,” they also generously receive the final bow.)
Still, almost everyone onstage is equally fine, including Broadway veterans Andrew Durand, Drew Gehling, Emile Koutatchou, Jose Llana, Matthew Scott, A.J. Shively, and especially Brandon Uranowitz, convincingly bratty as the ship’s careless owner, Bruce J. Ismay. (One may also find a star in the cameo role of Frank Conway, depending on your performance; we were lucky enough to see Jesse Eisenberg in this humorous, brief part.)
Indeed, it’s fitting that a show that is, in its own way, about luxury can benefit from the “luxury” casting of this tremendous Titanic. All aboard!
Titanic. Through June 23 at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues). www.nycitycenter.org
Photos: Joan Marcus
