Titanic Off-Broadway Reviews

That tension between adventure and safety is what makes “Titanic” more than just a collection of tragic sketches. Perhaps a little baldly — Yeston’s lyrics are not as sophisticated as his music — he has Andrews (Jose Llana) say, in the show’s first words, that the liner he designed is part of mankind’s eternal attempt to “fabricate great works at once magnificent and impossible.” It’s a statement of hubris, of course: The show, after all, is about the human urge to dominate nature — and other humans — by whatever means necessary. Yet in art we can’t help relishing that hubris, if works like “Titanic” are the result.

At first blush, Titanic might seem less ripe for either homage or re-exploration. Neither a cherished classic like Woods nor a spunky cult favorite like Mattress, this musical account of the great disaster of 1912—with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone—enjoyed a respectable run on Broadway back in the late 1990s, when the kind of pseudo-operatic pomp that had made The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables hits in the previous decade was still being mistaken for depth by many theatergoers. Titanic is certainly not unmarked by the self-seriousness and bombast its subject matter would seem to invite. But for those who missed its stint in Times Square, and haven’t spent much time with its score since (I’m guilty on both counts, I’ll admit), this new staging—which teams a sprawling, starry cast with a 30-piece orchestra—will prove nothing short of a revelation.

“In ev’ry age mankind attempts to fabricate great works at once magnificent, and impossible,” goes the opening lyric of the prologue. Which, in itself, serves as something of an epitaph for not only the RMS Titanic, but for the Yeston-Stone musical extravaganza. The opportunity to hear this score in full throttle is not to be overlooked.

I wish I could say that Titanic, shorn of all its special effects, is a musical with great bones just waiting to be rediscovered, but that turns out not to be the case. The result is more of a pageant — occasionally stirring, but more often than not idling in stasis. The lack of propulsion may begin with Stone’s book, which takes a dutifully thorough, emotionally uncompelling approach to the tragedy.

By all means, get those tickets. Here’s hoping you’re not the guy rushing on stage, bags in hand, as the Titanic has left Southampton, railing that he will be “the laughingstock of Poughkeepsie. If that isn’t the story of my entire goddamn life!”

And now for the elephant — or, well, the ship — in the room: Should this “Titanic” have a future life like Encores’ “Into the Woods” and “Parade” did? Seemingly every production in this series creates Broadway buzz now, whether it’s deserved or not. But “Titanic,” directed by Anne Kauffman, is not the sort of staging that would make sense in a sit-down a few blocks away. This concert is constructed, as it should be, to grandly showcase the blissful score. I’d love to see “Titanic” back on Broadway. But this one should live out the rest of its days on 55th Street.