A scene from Titanic.Cylla von Tiedemann
To answer Titanic: The Musical's most pressing question first: How does Ben Heppner fare in his first musical theatre role?
Playing department-store owner Isidor Straus, a first-class passenger on the RMS Titanic, Heppner does quite well – which feels like a funny thing to be saying about one of the opera world's great heroic tenors. But then again, he's not singing Tristan or Siegfried here.
Heppner, dapper in top hat and tails, is charming in his minor role as the sweet-natured tycoon, but his only showcase number is a short duet with Judith Street as Isidor's wife, Ida, that's so schmaltzy and old-fashioned it could have been written when the real Titanic set sail in 1912.
That, however, is partly the point of Maury Yeston and Peter Stone's epic 1990s Broadway musical, now receiving a revival at the Princess of Wales Theatre in a midsized-but-mighty, made-in-the-U.K. production. Unlike a certain James Cameron film, Yeston and Stone's Titanic prides itself on historical accuracy, right down to its musical styles. Don't expect to hear any power ballads from songwriter Yeston on the order of My Heart Will Go On. Rather, prepare yourself for stirring anthems in the vein of Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance, along with sentimental ballads, hymns and a little ragtime dance music just for fun.
Stone's book, meanwhile, sticks close to the facts and populates the story with real people like Straus, Captain Edward Smith (Philip Rham) and the ship's owner, J. Bruce Ismay (Simon Green) – the latter the reckless villain of the piece, whose need for speed sends his "ship of dreams" hurtling toward disaster.
The Titanic – the "world's largest metaphor" to quote satirical website The Onion – has long been a favourite symbol of industrial-era comeuppance, its sinking a giant smackdown to man's hubris. But Stone and Yeston, respectful of the more than 1,500 people who lost their lives in the tragedy, downplay that angle, choosing to see the Titanic instead as a symbol of hope – a ship of dreamers.
There's Ismay, who in his opening number – sung thrillingly by Green – aspires to have his ocean liner take its place with such man-made wonders as the Parthenon and the pyramids. Then there's the discontented bourgeois wife (a perky Celia Graham) stuck in second class, who dreams of being part of the upper crust on the upper deck. Meanwhile, down in steerage, a gaggle of poor Irish immigrants share their fantasies about building a new life in America.
And this Titanic outdoes Cameron's film with not one, but several shipboard love stories – including the tender one of old married couple Isidor and Ida and the wry one between a geeky young telegraph operator (a delightful Matthew Crowe) and his Marconi wireless.
The musical actually preceded the movie, opening on Broadway in early 1997 as a big-budget spectacle and winning five Tony Awards. This vigorous revival, directed by Thom Southerland and first launched at London's Southwark Playhouse two summers ago, is a scaled-back version that lacks in visual pizazz but compensates with a superb company of 25 actor-singers and a muscular six-piece band that makes like a full orchestra.
Most of the original U.K. cast repeat their roles for this North American premiere. Although the show is a true ensemble piece, there are stand-out performances by Matt Beveridge as a rugged boiler-room stoker with a girl back on shore; Victoria Serra as a feisty pregnant Irishwoman looking for a man; and Greg Castiglioni as Thomas Andrews, the ship's tortured architect, agonizing over a fatal flaw in his blueprints even as the vessel slides into the icy North Atlantic.
The ship is mostly left to the imagination on David Woodhead's skeletal metal set, where an elevated walkway serves as the bridge and a mobile staircase doubles as a gangway and crow's nest. When the ship goes down, there's a clever but underwhelming effect to suggest the sloping deck.
Fresh from seeing the creative minimal staging of Peter and the Starcatcher at the Shaw Festival and The Dybbuk at Soulpepper, I felt a little cheated. But Woodhead's splendid costumes could have been pinched from the wardrobe of Downton Abbey and Gareth Owen's ominous sound design almost makes you feel the impact of the iceberg.
There are times during the long first act when Stone and Yeston's docudrama threatens to be undone by its own grand ambitions. With its mania for detail and scope, it can start to feel like a Wikipedia article with music. But it takes on emotional power in the second half. By the end this well-built Titanic has successfully steered a middle course, pleasing both history buffs and musical lovers alike.