We know how this ends. Somewhere out there is an iceberg with Titanic’s name on it. But no matter how many times I reconnect with this historical event through movies, documentaries, exhibitions, articles–I remain compelled by this tragic tale. I had never seen the Tony Award-winning Best Musical (1997 ) TITANIC The Musical-– until now at NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATER and it’s a beauty! It’s also a Critics’ Pick, achingly moving, beautifully conceived, sung, acted, and mounted in the round, the score and book doing justice to the heart of the tragedy and its ripple effect through time. WATCH THE TRAILER HERE!
The cast of “Titanic The Musical” at North Shore Music Theatre thru November 10, 2024. Photo © David Costa Photography
This “ship of dreams” carries a dream of a cast, 29 in all, and you’ll recognize several veteran Boston musical stars among them including Jennifer Ellis as Caroline Neville and Mary Callanan as Ida Strauss who chose to remain with her husband onboard the ship as it sank. The book by Peter Stone knits together the stories of real people in a dramatic collage, from wealthy and famous passengers in the luxury of first class who were given first crack at too few lifeboats, to the immigrant third-class passengers who were trapped below and died aboard the most sophisticated ship ever engineered and thought to be unsinkable.
Leslie Jackson (Kate McGowen) and the cast of “Titanic The Musical” at North Shore Music Theatre thru November 10, 2024. Photo © David Costa Photography
The musical charts these stories over the ship’s entire journey, from the minute Titanic set out on her maiden voyage just after noon on April 10, 1912 headed for New York to the moment it sank, 5 days later in the early morning hours of April 15 2:20 a.m. after hitting an iceberg and taking over 1000 passengers down with her; the eventual death toll would reach over 1500.
The cast of “Titanic The Musical” at North Shore Music Theatre thru November 10, 2024. Photo © Paul Lyden
Each of these characters is vividly alive in the hands of this simply splendid cast, gorgeously costumed according to their social status. The score by Maury Yeston is moving and lyrical, with a bittersweet undercurrent echoing what we know awaits these very real people and their hopes and dreams. The musical also intones something deeper about the tragedy. That a ship representing the epitome of human engineering and craft at that time in history could sink on a calm night on its maiden voyage is indeed a soul-piercing reminder of our mortality in the pursuit of perfection.
The musical, this cast, and its masterful producing artistic director/choreographer Kevin P.Hill capture all of it– the sorrow and recrimination, the guilt and blame, the cowardice and heroism, the fear and desperation, the greed and bigotry, the human error, the randomness of fate, and the hope to keep dreaming– and leave it all on that stage at North Shore Music Theater. MUST SEE TITANIC BEFORE IT CLOSES NOVEMBER 10!
