Titanic the Musical Review

Mayflower Theatre, Southampton – until 21 April 18

Reviewed by Jo Gordon

5*****

Clearly living under a rock, Titanic the Musical has never been on my radar. With this in mind I had no idea how such a dark subject matter could be conveyed on stage through the medium of show tunes and had slight concerns that I would be humming for eternity that famous song from the 1997 film, that has been screeched on pub karaoke by many a gaggle of squiffy women for the past 21 years! I take it all back, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Maury Yeston’s musical score and Peter Stones book are combined beautifully to give us the musical that is Titanic, with a cast of only 25 portraying the personal stories of a handful of the 2227 people aboard the ship. “In every age, mankind attempts to fabricate great works at once magnificent and impossible’ boasts the ships architect Thomas Andrews (Greg Castiglioni) as we settle into the show. With Captain Edward Smith (Philip Rahm) and his staff ready to receive the passengers we begin to meet the key players. Split into first, second and third class accommodation there is an eclectic mix of people ranging from the millionaires on board just to say they had been, the well to do heading to America to become the millionaires and the every day man and woman hoping for a new life and employment. Top deck is first class moving down into the belly of the ship where the third class passengers are shoulder to shoulder in a seen and not heard manner. Fun, romance and much frolicking are being had by all whilst behind the scenes the coal men shovel the fires harder and harder as they increase the speeds at the request of J.Bruce Ismay (Simon Green), chairman of the White Star Line company who owned the boat. Despite many warnings of ice sighted coming in, the speeds are kept high and at 11:40pm on 14 April the iceberg is struck to devastating affect. We are all aware of the facts, not enough life boats and the women and children from first class having first chance on the boats with third class still stuck down below. Boats leaving at half capacity did not help the death count either.

The pure heartbreaking scenes of women and men saying their goodbyes were extremely well played and the scene where Ida (Judith Street) and Isidor (Dudley Rogers) sing “Still” had the house in tears. The last few moments of those who perished as the ship went down are poignantly acted out and left the theatre in silence as we learn over 1500 passengers perished that night.

A beautifully, well written musical score made even more so by the wonderful singing voices of the cast. The set is very simple yet imaginative and achieves what it’s meant to do in transporting us onto the decks of one of the most infamous ships in history. Highly recommend you book a ticket and go see it however take a tissue, take a whole box as I defy you not to shed a tear!