Musical Sunday!
Jun. 13th, 2010 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalMy parents are leaving today on a cruise to Bermuda, so this week's musical selection is sort of timely and yet also kinda morbid, but I'm pretty sure they aren't going to run into any icebergs near Bermuda, so it's not like I've jinxed them or anything. (Besides, their cruise ship hit a coral reef the last time they went to Bermuda, so what are the odds of another mishap?)
Anyway, Titanic: A New Musical - which is now thirteen years old, so maybe they should've left the "new" part out of the title if they expected it to have staying power. I saw it twice - first on Broadway, and then later in Philadelphia when the national tour came through. It probably rivals Les Miserables for highest body count in musical theater, but they sink a ship ON STAGE and it's totally awesome. (Suck it, James Cameron!)
I should probably note, if you're not familiar with the show, it has nothing to do with the Kate 'n' Leo movie, except, you know, for the boat.
Of course, with historical events, you always run into the inevitable trouble that everyone already knows how the show is going to end, so you have to make the story compelling enough that knowing the ending doesn't ruin it. There is definitely a deliberate sense of dramatic irony in the opening number, as the characters extol the wonders of this majestic (and unsinkable!) ship and deliver lines like "Fare thee well, my darling, I'll be back before a fortnight has passed," which make you think, "Okay, so he's definitely not making it into a lifeboat."
But the Titanic is called the "Ship of Dreams" with good reason - every one of the characters has hopes and dreams, and some of them have given up everything to make it onto this ship and find a better life in America - and it's just heartbreaking to discover which of them will never realize those dreams. I'm pretty sure I cried both times I saw it.
Also, the music is AMAZING.
Fun fact: The actress who played Kate McGowan in the original Broadway cast went to my high school, and she actually came back and sang "Lady's Maid" with my high school choir in their spring concert. This is the only video I could find that features her - "Lady's Maid" starts about two minutes in.
Anyway, Titanic: A New Musical - which is now thirteen years old, so maybe they should've left the "new" part out of the title if they expected it to have staying power. I saw it twice - first on Broadway, and then later in Philadelphia when the national tour came through. It probably rivals Les Miserables for highest body count in musical theater, but they sink a ship ON STAGE and it's totally awesome. (Suck it, James Cameron!)
I should probably note, if you're not familiar with the show, it has nothing to do with the Kate 'n' Leo movie, except, you know, for the boat.
Of course, with historical events, you always run into the inevitable trouble that everyone already knows how the show is going to end, so you have to make the story compelling enough that knowing the ending doesn't ruin it. There is definitely a deliberate sense of dramatic irony in the opening number, as the characters extol the wonders of this majestic (and unsinkable!) ship and deliver lines like "Fare thee well, my darling, I'll be back before a fortnight has passed," which make you think, "Okay, so he's definitely not making it into a lifeboat."
But the Titanic is called the "Ship of Dreams" with good reason - every one of the characters has hopes and dreams, and some of them have given up everything to make it onto this ship and find a better life in America - and it's just heartbreaking to discover which of them will never realize those dreams. I'm pretty sure I cried both times I saw it.
Also, the music is AMAZING.
Fun fact: The actress who played Kate McGowan in the original Broadway cast went to my high school, and she actually came back and sang "Lady's Maid" with my high school choir in their spring concert. This is the only video I could find that features her - "Lady's Maid" starts about two minutes in.
