A Buoyant Titanic

“Hubris is one of the great renewable resources.” PJ O’Roarke

This is not the tragic, fictional love story of society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater and poor artist Jack Dawson from the film. Instead, the Tony Award winning musical offers a fisheye view of men responsible for the avoidable disaster, those who valiantly did their jobs, and a wide swath of the ship’s unwitting victims.

Jose Llana, Adam Chanler-Berat, Chuck Cooper, Michael Maliakel, and Brandon Uranowitz

Three pivotal depicted men include: ship owner Bruce Ismay (Brandon Uranowitz, credibly arrogant and oblivious), who pushed for increasing speed to cinch personal glory despite being cautioned. Captain Edward J. Smith, accommodating-against-better-judgment, who took a northern route, ignoring iceberg warnings in order to maintain schedule. (Chuck Cooper portraying fatigue and discomfort, though oddly not distress.) And remorseful designer, Thomas Andrews who, here, figures out how to fix things too late. (Jose Llana with realistic gravitas.) The three men level blame on one another in a deft scene of understandable panic. Only Ismay made it off.

Nicknamed “The Millionaire’s Special,” the RMS Titanic boasted an enormous first-class dining saloon, four elevators, and a swimming pool.  April 10, 1912, to immense fanfare, she set sail from Southhampton, England to New York City. On board were 2,200 people, approximately 1,300 of whom were passengers.

Chip Zien and Judy Kuhn

Among prominent travelers: Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus and his wife who famously chose to die together (Chip Zien & Judy Kuhn garnering special applause for jewel-like performance as well as bodies of work); John Jacob Astor IV (Evan Harrington) with 19 year-old second wife Madeline (Leslie Donna Flesner); industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim (Timothy McDevitt); and, president of Pennsylvania Railroad, John B. Thayer (Kent Overshown).

Wealthy widow Charlotte Cardoza (Ashley Blanchet, the only weak link in the cast – also the least well written) is presented as voyaging incognito for a reason never explained. Cardoza booked the most expensive suite arriving, according to The New York Times, with fourteen trunks, four suitcases, three crates of baggage and an entourage. Madeline, Charlotte, and the Thayers got home.

Bonnie Milligan and Drew Gehling

In Second Class, we observe Alice Beane (Bonnie Milligan having an infectiously good time in a role that might’ve been written for her), who so aspires to experience the pleasures of First, she keeps slipping through to enjoy their pleasures in droll segments, an enchanting conceit replete with a deck dance. Husband Edgar (Drew Gehling) is affectionately tolerant. And Lady Caroline Neville (Emilie Kouatchou) who looks forward to marrying Charles Clarke (A.J. Shively), a man society says is beneath her, when they reach a less judgmental country.

In Third Class, we meet three Irish Kates with respective plans to be a ladies’ maid (spirited Samantha Williams), a seamstress (Lilli Cooper), and a governess (Lindsay Roberts). The young women sing of a rose-colored America. One boards with Jim (Andrew Durand) the father of her as yet secret baby.

Lilli Cooper, Samantha Williams, and Ashley Blanchet

Below, there’s stoker Frederick Barrett (the always compelling Ramin Karimloo) whose integrity is distinctive. A warm parenthesis finds him sending wireless marriage proposal to his girl in England; at a hard moment, he willingly gives up an offered lifeboat seat to a more deserving,  “paying” passenger.

Ramin Karimloo

Frustrated wireless radio operator Jack Phillips (excellent Alex Joseph Grayson) gets his moment in the spotlight as do First Class Steward Henry Etches, professional to the end (Eddie Cooper – fine characterization) and First Officer William Murdoch who blames himself.  When Murdoch freezes, we get a real sense of the situation penetrating. (Solid acting by Adam Chanler-Berat.)

Brandon Uranowitz, Jose Llana, Chuck Cooper, and Alex Joseph Grayson

In the musical, Phillips can’t reach the closest ship, the SS California by wireless. In fact, the latter received and returned the message, saying they were temporarily stopped by ice. The Californian shut down its wireless at 23:30; Titanic struck the iceberg ten minutes later. Officers of the second ship saw distress rockets and called their captain who had gone to bed. He dismissed these as “company signals,” doing nothing. By the time he rose from sleep, the ship got there to find only wreckage. A story we never hear.

Attitudes, hope, stations in life, and relationships above and below deck are dramatized. Wives and children were wrenched from husbands and fathers. There was predictable violence and one upmanship, but being a self-avowed optimist, Maury Yeston chose not to depict the ugly side of surviving. He shows those who remained facing their fate like gentlemen. Champagne pops and the band plays on as men sit on the floor of the deck thinking who knows what, ostensibly climbing as the ship tips heavenward, then jumping. Of 2,240 passengers and crew, only 706 people survived.

The Company

This is not an entirely dark piece. Considerable hope and humor is deftly interwoven. Titanic does, however, moralize with a perhaps unnecessary coda. You’d have to be as thick as Ismay not to see the lesson here. Yeston, whose father was born in England, has said his show is “about aspiration in the very best sense; a great dream… How is it any different than the dream of Jonas Salk?.. It’s a praise/prose poem for our striving.”

Singing is gorgeous, vocal arrangements thrilling, casting – The Telsey Office/Craig Burns CSA/Rachel Hoffman CSA – simply marvelous. It’s clear this production is meant to spotlight the grandeur of the score. Thirty musicians conducted by Rob Berman are visible on a platform over the stage. You won’t leave the theater humming, but immersed, sound washes over as evocatively as do so many sketched lives. A single caveat is what appear to be multiple endings, any one or even two of which would’ve served.

The Company

Director Ann Kaufmann not only moves her very large cast with flow, logic, and aesthetics, she also offers small moments that personalize. At one point insisting on speed, Ismay petulantly stamps; serving tea to first class passengers as they wait for lifeboat instructions is ignominious formality, the tea cart suddenly rolls across the deck. After their love song, Mr.Straus wraps his wine glass in a napkin and stomps on it- as in a traditional Jewish wedding.

Scenic Designer Paul Tate DePoo III in tandem with Lighting Designer David Weiner creates a minimalist approach with ombre backgrounds, strips of neon, and multipurpose wooden boxes.
Costumes by Aarion Talan De La Rosa are sufficiently evocative.

Photos by Joan Marcus
Opening: Jose Llana, Adam Chanler-Berat, Chuck Cooper, Michael Maliakel, and Brandon Uranowitz

New York City Center Encores presents
Titanic
Story/Book by Peter Stone
Music/Lyrics by Maury Yeston
Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick
Guest Music Director- Rob Berman
Directed by Anne Kauffman

Through June 23,2024
New York City Center Encores!