Here’s the deal: if Kat likes something then you know it has
something going for it.
Ever since I’ve known her, Kat has loved the musical
Titanic. So I knew when it came to
Toronto that a.) we had to go that b.) it would have something amazing going
for it.
Kat is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. So, she has no time for dumb stuff.
Before I go further, let us make a few things clear a.)
Titanic: the Musical is not as terrible as Titanic: the Musical sounds like it
could be b.) it is a predecessor of the crappy James Cameron film. It has
nothing to do with the film other than the fact that they are set on the same
boat.
So I went in with the expectation that Kat likes it so it
will have something going for it.
It had a ton going for it including one of the best Broadway
scores I have heard in my lifetime.
Maury Yeston (Nine, Grand Hotel ) doesn’t just jukebox the heck outta
some nonsense content. He goes deep, he goes big and there is not a note of
anachronism in his rendering of whatever musical period he is invested in.
For Titanic, a welcome marriage of Celtic influence,
Edwardian popular pomp (think Sousa) and mournful melody ( think Vaughan
Williams) as well as a reverent hymn and ragtime and
dance hall: music of the period is knit together in a smorgasbord of perfectly
suited style.
It's going to hades, Mr. Andrews, but you get a darned good song outta it |
The music is so clever (the lyrics, too, but more on
that in a moment ) that even its “happiest” melodies have a portentous
note. It is rapturous to listen to how
intelligent this all is. And when you
add the lyrics and the marvelous way he knits the quilt of the story (Stoker
and Telegraph operator have a duet, the
classes are distinguished with a triad of couples--a third class Irish lass and her
fellow, a social climbing American wannabe, Isador Strauss of Macy’s fame and
his wife), as well as the captain, the builder and the owner create a
sequence of musical vignettes. All, of
course, are tied together in the metaphor of a floating city or world. The metaphor of Titanic as a representation of civilization is a recurring motif and embroidered throughout with references not only to class structure but to men speeding ahead of its time. For one, it notes the pyramids( as an example of many).
To add, musical tropes made slightly minor recur. At one moment a theme promenades the grand and opulent launch of a great ship, when the theme is revisited it evokes the frantic and harried frenzy of passengers spilling into the lifeboats.
And it goes even deeper.
Every lyric preludes what will happen.
For me, the most surprising and interestingly innovative duet is between
Barrett, the Stoker, and Bride, the telegraph operator. While Bride plunks out a message to Barrett’s
love behind he sings of the loneliness made moot by Marconi’s world-bridging
apparatus. The self same apparatus that will at once isolate and colonize the
entire ship with hope and despair. A
lifeline when the Californian is near, a death-knell as it pats out the last
SOS signal. And yet this isolation
juxtaposed with Barrett’s singing the imagery of heaven’s blanket foreshadows a
starless, still night and the prayers of thousands facing the glass- shattered
pricks of their icy deaths.
Another astonishing musical decision of Yeston’s was to
forego the music history informs us was played on the voyage with his own
similar composition. The meters of his
own hymn certainly reflect the hymns that would have been sung aboard ship
while his version of the Autumn waltz( largely believed to be the last tune the
band played as the ship sank ) has the same interesting measure and sequence as
the original.
The musical is the best version of historical fiction: it
creates its own world, populates it with actual personages and makes them more
representation than individual character.
The characters here represent themes. Yeston doesn’t try to develop
them---nor should he. They are already set in stone. Moreover, he rotates the
carousel of the world so that stage and song-time is distributed in so many
directions, it would do a disservice to funnel on one “lead” character.
This is a chorus piece. This is an ensemble dream.
The musical certainly captures the essence of the period and
the event ( as mentioned, most pronouncedly in its musical setting) but from a
deftly altered way.
The staging of the tour (late of Britain and now over in North
America to make its rounds) is sparse.
You will use your imagination but the story, song sequences and sound
make you feel as if your modern era has been peeled away.
There is a cacophony of eerie sounds and joyful robust
resolutions. There is a layer of hope and dismal despair at once. The score,
here, is a veritable feast. I cannot remember the last time I was this
impressed by a Broadway score and surprised it took near 20 years from its
debut for me to get my teeth into it.
It’s clever storytelling surrounded by majestic and
magnificent music and, as it has nothing to do with effing James Cameron’s
stupid film, you can go in satisfied and leave, as I did, with expectations
exceeded.
1 comment:
Wow - this sounds awesome!!! I will have to see it. Thanks. Especially like how beautiful the lyrics are and intelligent (ie. the pyramids) Thanks for an awesome review. How long is it playing?
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