Peter Stone and Maury Yeston's musical version of the Titanic story is the perfect antidote for those who hated the movie. In many ways, it's the antithesis of James Cameron's film: nuanced, restrained, concerned with the thousand small human dramas on board rather than the watery catastrophe that ends them all.
Fortunately, this ship travels well. The new touring version of "Titanic," which began its life Sunday at the Ahmanson Theatre, is the equal of its Broadway parent in every respect. Filled with terrific voices and sincere performances and mercifully untroubled by the daunting, Lloyd Webberesque technical demands that can undermine a road show, this production efficiently demonstrates how a brilliant, experienced creative team can enthrall us the old-fashioned way: with character, story and music.
Most writers and composers would have succumbed to maudlin excess with a subject this big and inherently melodramatic. Stone ("1776," "Woman of the Year") and Yeston ("Nine," "Grand Hotel") always know where to hold back and let events unfold without fanfare.
Every character we meet is based on a person aboard the Titanic for her fateful 1912 voyage. There are 43 speaking roles, and to Stone andYeston's credit, we manage to learn a little about everybody and keep them straight in our minds — not an easy feat.
Stone's book reveals the hubris and error that combined to cause the disaster. White Star Lines owner J. Bruce Ismay (Adam Heller) goads imperious Captain E.J. Smith (William Parry) into pushing the Titanic ever faster to set a transatlantic speed record. The ship's architect, Thomas Andrews (Kevin Gray), feels uneasy about Ismay's meddling but doesn't voice his concerns.
Down below, others sense the danger. Stoker Frederick Barrett (Brian d'Arcy James) knows it's foolish to strain a new ship to the limit on her maiden voyage. Radioman Harold Bride (Dale Sandish) keeps sending the captain messages received from other ships about icebergs in the area.
The passengers, though, are oblivious. We're introduced to several couples, each emblematic of their social station. Isidor Straus (S. Marc Jordan), a wealthy department-store owner, is vacationing with his ailing wife. Edgar Beane (David Beditz) is a down-to-earth hardware man from Indianapolis who has his hands full trying to keep his social-climbing spouse, Alice (Liz McConahay), in line. In third class, fiery Kate McGowen (Melissa Bell) has her heart set on strapping Jim Farrell (Richard Roland), who seems helpless to avoid her pushy charms.
Stone manages to juggle the myriad stories of these characters and others with the ongoing drama of impending disaster; our foreknowledge adds poignancy to everything that transpires, no matter how mundane.
Yeston's music successfully combines several genres appropriate to the Titanic's era and culture, including ragtime, Irish folk music, lush symphonic passages reminiscent of Elgar, even a touch of Gilbert and Sullivan-style operetta. Tuneful, sophisticated, superbly crafted, always attentive to the momentum of the narrative, it's a brilliant score — possibly Yeston's best.
In a top-drawer cast, the tenors are all standouts. James, who mesmerized in the Broadway production, retains his piercingly resonant delivery and intensity in "Barrett's Song," a chilling indictment of those responsible for putting the ship in danger. Gray, who owns one of the finest voices in musical theater, is underused in the role of Andrews, but he opens the show with a bang in Yeston's smartly constructed prologue, "In Every Age."
Not all the performances are memorable. Parry's Captain Smith is a touch too starchy to make us feel anything other than contempt for someone who should come off as a decent man whose pride is his one tragic flaw. Bell, too, plays Kate one-dimensionally. Her spirited Irish lass seems to have sprung fully formed from an Irish Spring commercial.
But with a cast this large, there's plenty of talent to look at, and not much that seems ill-conceived or out of place. At the final curtain, there's the satisfying feeling that finally, the Titanic story is being told the way it should be: as human drama, not spectacle. If you want to see the big ship plunge to the bottom, rent the video. If you want to get a sense of the real people and actual events leading to the ship's demise, sail on up to the Ahmanson fast — tickets are selling briskly.