There Are A Few Too Many Notes...
Because of changing the changes in scenary, you will notice that there are sections where extra notes have been added, longer vamps, maybe an extra little swirly bit of music, simply for the practical purpose of moving bits of scenary or characters on and off stage.
Doing The Latest....HUH?!
Be hard pressed to recognize choreography from the Broadway Titanic. OBC cast member Mindy Cooper has redone "The Latest Rag" so that it now includes some lifts and the dancing couple (whatever Etches may be calling them that night) splits apart to dance with the passengers. Alice Beane even gets to take a turn with the male dancer who plays Fleet. It also seems Lightoller doesn't dance with them anymore.
Even MORE Cross-Dressing?!
What Titanic DOESN'T need is more cross-dressing...yet more cross-dressing it has. Kristi Barber doubles in the role of Jack Thayer/Stewardess. One assumes this was done for entirely practical reasons (traveling with a young boy would mean paying a tutor, possibly carrying and paying an understudy boy who would also need to be tutored), cutting one more paycheck out of the production. Barber appears as Jack at the beginning and the lifeboat loading. She is a stewardess the rest of the show. The Bellboy, as always, is played by a woman, Rebecca Lowman.
Get A Hold Of Yourselves!--Line Changes
There are three major line changes in the tour: "Mr. Murdoch, get a hold of yourself!", the Captain tells the officers after giving the order to that it's every man for himself "You've done your duties" and the Bellboy's memorial line spoken by Etches. The latter lines were originally in the Broadway show during previews, but were cut.
At The Portholes
The porthole scene runs the same as the Broadway production, BUT looks different. All 12 actors are visible at all times as each set of four is illuminated for their scene. Also, inexplicably, Etches and Murdoch are switched in their porthole positions.
We're Going Down!--Sinking Sans Smoke Room And Hydraulics
The big change is the sinking. Mr. Andrews is now on the boat deck with the rest of the actors, singing his "Vision" near the bottom of the deck set, while the action of the sinking progresses around him.
Because the rake seems less severe than the Broadway rake (and probably because it doesn't seem to move either), the dying passengers are choreographed much more interestingly than the Broadway actors. Watch for the little stories going on while Mr. Andrews sings his "Vision": Murdoch and a second officer (Boxhall?) try valiently but in vain to get a comotose Mr. Widener to take a lifevest, a stewardess attempts a very balletic leap off ship, people grabbing onto the funnels...Plenty to interest the eye and tug at the heart.