Line #45 Theatre/Titanic


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/titanic_production2.png]]
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3	TheMusical of the ''UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic''[='s=] launching and eventual tragic sinking.
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5	Yes, you read that right.
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7	''Titanic: The Musical'', (or officially just ''Titanic'') was a Broadway musical that opened in 1997 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on the 23rd of April, starring John Cunningham as Captain E. J. Smith, Michael Cerveris as Thomas Andrews, and David Garrison as J. Bruce Ismay. The musical won 5 Tonys including Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical, and ran for two years. A UK production opened in 2018.
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9	The plot of the musical follows the crew and passengers of the RMS ''Titanic'' as it makes its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in April 1912. It focuses on no-one in particular, instead choosing to give almost every class of person on the ship a song and or a moment and therefore has no one single protagonist (Other than the ''Titanic'' herself, if you will).
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11	The musical is also unique in that the Broadway stage could tilt to simulate the sinking of the ship, and that most of the characters are actually people who were on the ''Titanic'' with only a few names changed here and there and a few people who died lived and vice versa.
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13	The relation to Creator/JamesCameron's ''{{Film/Titanic\|1997}}'' in the same year is probably just coincidental.
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15	The 2023 U.K. tour was filmed, streamed live to theaters, then released online via [=BroadwayHD=] on December 15, 2023.
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18	!!''Titanic'' provides examples of:
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20	* AllMusicalsAreAdaptations: A real-life example.
21	* ArtisticLicenceHistory:
22	** For being a show that got most things right about the ''Titanic'', it does get a few things wrong: One of the lyrics in "Mr. Andrews’ Vision" says "the water poured in a 300-foot gash". It didn't, it poured in several holes along a 300-foot '''length''' and this was 1997, they knew by then. It probably just rhymed better. Additionally, Andrews said the exact same thing in ''Film/ANightToRemember'', at the time the most accurate dramatization of the sinking.
23	** Both Edgar Beane and Stoker Frederick Barrett {{d\|eathByAdaptation}}ie in the musical, but in real life, they lived, despite both being part of groups (Second-Class men and Engineering Crew respectively) that had one of the highest casualty rates. A Frederick Barrett did perish with the ship, but he was married and his wife had given birth to twins shortly before the sinking.
24	** Henry Etches is portrayed as the Chief Steward and Andrew Latimer as his subordinate. In real life, it was the other way around. The proshot, however, casts Etches as younger-looking than Latimer.
25	* CompositeCharacter:
26	** The real Kate [=McGowan=] was a middle-aged spinster who died in the sinking, unlike the younger Kate in the show. She appears to have been conflated, whether intentionally or accidentally, with Kate ''Gilnagh'', who was the right age, was really friends with the people the fictional [=McGowan=] associates with, and survived the sinking.
27	** Jim Farrell boards a lifeboat by claiming to be a seaman. This is how First Class passenger Arthur Peuchen managed to get into Lifeboat 6, Jim Farrell died during the disaster.
28	** The Major appears to be based on both Archibald Butt and Archibald Gracie. The major shares his rank and friends with Archibald Butt, while his personality is very similar to Archibald Gracie. Like Archibald Butt, the major is not shown amongst the survivors whilst Archibald Gracie would survive and write a famous book about his experience.
29	** Harold Bride is merged with his fellow radio operator, Jack Phillips, who died in the sinking. [[note]]This trope actually happened in real life. Conflicting reports about Phillips getting to Collapsible B was chalked down to a mix-up between Bride and Phillips. Bride was, in fact, on that collapsible, which overturned. No one knew how Phillips really died, and his body was never recovered.[[/note]]
30	* CoolBoat: Takes place on one. It was the largest and most luxurious ship ever made at that time after all.
31	* DarkReprise: Plenty, after the iceberg is struck and things go rapidly downhill.
32	** "To Be A Captain" is a short song sung in the first act by First Officer Murdoch about the importance of the position of Captain and how he feels he isn't qualified to take it. In the end, the same song is reprised by Chief Steward Etches as a eulogy for Captain Smith.
33	** "Lady's Maid" is sung by Kate [=McGowan=] and the rest of the third-class passengers while dreaming of the bright future awaiting them in America. The reprise is sung ''to'' Kate by her new fiancé Jim as he tries to convince her to get into the lifeboat and leave him behind with most of the other third-class passengers as the ship sinks.
34	** "Autumn" is a sweeping melody about being content with one's life as one grows older. Andrews desperately sings a few lines from the song as water floods the doomed ship, his life's work failing before his eyes.
35	** "Godspeed, Titanic" concludes the opening number of the show as the entire cast bids the Titanic a safe journey across the ocean, and also concludes the show itself as the survivors of the disaster watch the ruined ship sink beneath the waves.
36	* DramaticIrony: [[TheMusical The Musical!]] Act 1 of the show largely depicts the hopes and dreams of the passengers and crew as they sail aboard the majestic ship, all the while the audience is well aware of the fate that awaits them all.
37	* DrivenToSuicide: The 2023 proshot has [[spoiler:Captain Smith kill himself with a pistol during the sinking]].
38	* EnsembleCast: Rather than focus on one particular member of the ship, the show is focused on multiple members of the crew and passengers. Practically everyone has at least one solo.
39	* EpicRocking: If "In Every Age" and "The Launching", which is made up of roughly five or six songs, are both considered one continuous musical number, then the opening number of the show lasts for about ''sixteen minutes''.
40	* FinalLoveDuet: "Still", a duet between Isidor and Ida Straus. [[spoiler: More final than most because they die soon after.]]
41	* ForegoneConclusion: It's a musical about the ''Titanic'', one of the most famous shipwrecks ever.
42	* FramingDevice: The 2023 proshot's Overture starts after the disaster has taken place as reporters and survivors rake Ismay over the coals, then flashes back as Andrews displays his plans for the ship.
43	* HateSink: Bruce Ismay, who’s given HistoricalVillainUpgrade, is turned into a bullying JerkAss who pressures the captain into speeding up despite everyone else telling him it’s a foolish idea. Upon grasping the seriousness of the situation, Ismay starts to point fingers at everyone except himself, before fleeing in one of the few lifeboats. Ismay's redeeming qualities, such as his guilt after surviving the disaster, are removed from this version of the story, making him much more loathsome than usual.
44	* HenpeckedHusband: Edgar Beane is the long-suffering spouse of Alice Beane, who'd rather spend her time associating with the rich and famous than spend time with her husband on a leisure trip overseas.
45	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: As is typical for many adaptations of the incident, Bruce Ismay is depicted in a very critical light. He spends most of the first act constantly urging the captain to increase the ship's speed (despite objections from the crew) to generate good press for the Titanic's maiden voyage and to please the wealthy first-class passengers - directly leading to the ship's fatal impact with the iceberg due to being unable to turn in time to avoid it. In reality, there is no evidence that Ismay ever did such a thing, and indeed as the head of White Star Line (whose ships were famed for prioritising luxury and comfort over speed), he would be the ''least likely'' person to insist on hastening the voyage.[[note]]For context, the fast, flighty Cunarders that contended for the Blue Riband had an average cruising speed of around 25 knots -- which is as fast as the ''Olympic''-class' ''maximum'' speed. But the "Greyhounds of the Atlantic" paid a price for all that power: they were known to rattle uncomfortably during the voyage from the vibration of the engines. White Star, on the other hand, deliberately chose to go in the other direction, and were quite successful at it.[[/note]]
46	* IWantSong:
47	** "Lady's Maid", a song about what the 3rd class passengers want to do when they get to America.
48	** "I Must Get on That Ship", a song about, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wanting to get on that ship.]]
49	** "I Have Danced" - Mrs. Beane enthuses about the lives of the rich and powerful and desiring it for herself (and her husband), while the more practical and cynical Mr. Beane tries to talk her out of dreaming.
50	* JobSong: "Barrett's Song" discusses the lead stoker's job shoveling coal in the boiler room of the Titanic and compares it to his previous life as a miner, and how there's no real difference between them.
51	* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber: "The Launching: I Must Get On That Ship", where the 3rd and 2nd class passengers sing about why they are, well... getting on that ship.
52	* MistakenForServant: When Captain Smith tries to address Harold Bride, the telegraph operator, while the latter is busy sending out the distress signal to alert other ships that the Titanic is sinking.
53	-->'''Smith''': Radio man, have you managed to reach any ships?
54	-->'''Bride''': ''(snapping)'' Can't you see I'm busy?! Go bother the captain!
55	-->'''Smith''': This '''is''' the captain!
56	* MinorCharacterMajorSong: Fleet, one of the ship's lookouts (at the time of hitting the iceberg) gets "No Moon".
57	* MoodWhiplash: As Bride is frantically sending distress calls to anyone who would listen, screaming his lines - "CQD, Titanic CQD, situation critical, repeat situation critical," - Captain Smith comes up to him asking whether he's reached any ship. An understandably irritated Bride snaps back that he is busy and that the asker should go bother the captain, at which Smith retorts, "I am the Captain!" Bride's resulting panicked snapping to attention would be extremely comical if the situation wasn't so stressful.
58	* MotorMouth: Alice Beane has a PatterSong as she excitedly raves to her HenpeckedHusband about each of the First-Class Passengers, [[AsYouKnow doubling as exposition to modern-day audience members who may not necessarily know who each of the then-famous passengers were]].
59	* TheMusical: Of one of the most famous maritime disasters of all time.
60	* OhCrap:
61	** Frederick Fleet's reaction when he spots the iceberg. "Dear Mother of God! ICEBERG, STRAIGHT AHEAD!"
62	** Harold Bride panics when he realized he's just told ''the Captain'' to go bother the Captain, springing to his feet. His earphones are yanked off his head by the force, as he has forgotten to take them off.
63	** The complaints about being roused out of bed and being in pyjamas in the Grand Salon dies as a serving tray rolls across the stage due to an (at that time imperceptible) incline, as it hits everyone that the ship really ''is'' sinking. This is replaced with a metallic screech in the proshot.
64	* OneSteveLimit: Very much averted, as almost every character in the show is named after a real-life crew member or passenger on the ship.
65	** The most notable example is the three Kates - Kate [=McGowan=], Kate Mullins, and Kate Murphy - who all meet before boarding the ship and even bond over the fact that they share the same name.
66	** Captain Edward "E.J." Smith shares a small scene with one of the ship's bellboys and asks him for his name, only to discover that he is ''also'' named Edward.
67	** Furthermore, we have John Jacob Astor and John Thayer among the first-class passengers, as well as Frederick Fleet and Frederick Barrett among the crew.
68	* PatterSong: "Mrs. Beane (The First-Class Roster)" is a fast-paced exposition song about who the upper-class Titanic passengers were.
69	* PregnantBadass: In some productions, pregnant Kate [=McGowan=] physically fights off a seaman trying to get her into a lifeboat, and runs back into Jim's arms.
70	* SanitySlippageSong: "Mr. Andrews' Vision", where Thomas Andrews [[spoiler:suffers a nervous breakdown over the design flaw that caused the sinking of the ship, redesigning the blueprints until he breaks off, imagining the fate of those left on the ship until he eventually dies.]]
71	* SettingOffSong: The Launching, a name for a collection of six songs about the launching of the Titanic that are, in order: "How Did They Build Titanic?", "There She Is", "Loading Inventory", "I Must Get On That Ship", "The 1st Class Roster" and finally "Godspeed Titanic".
72	* TheSongBeforeTheStorm: "Autumn/Finale" - Autumn is a slow, old-timey song that eventually gets mixed with bits of the previous song "No Moon" about how dark the night is and the fact that you cannot see anything but stars... then the [[MoodWhiplash iceberg hits.]]
73	* QuarrelingSong: "The Blame", where the Captain (E.J. Smith), one of the designers (Thomas Andrews), and the owner (J. Bruce Ismay) of the Titanic argue about who was to blame for dooming the currently sinking ship.
74	* UpperClassTwit: The young Madeleine Astor is the "Airhead Heiress" version of this trope, and almost runs back away from the lifeboats while the ship is sinking because she accidentally left her precious diamonds behind.
75	-->'''Marion''': And how did you find Paris, Mrs. Astor?
76	-->'''Madeleine''': Luckily, I didn't have to. Jake knew right where it was!
77	* WhamShot: The passengers' complaints about being turned out of bed and dressed in their pyjamas in the Grand Salon stop and everything goes dead silent for about 10 seconds as a serving tray rolls across the stage by itself due to an (at that time imperceptible) incline, as it hits everyone that the ship really ''is'' sinking. Panic ensues. The proshot replaces this with an awful bone-chilling screeching metallic noise as the lights flicker and go out.
78	* WhenImGoneSong: "We'll Meet Tomorrow" is a collective version of this, with the soloists being two men (Frederick Barrett and Charles Clarke) singing to their love interests. The cast says goodbye to their loved ones and prays for a reunion even while knowing that they are doomed.
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80	->''Sail on, sail on\
81	Great ship'' Titanic\
82	''Cross the open sea\
83	Pray the journey's sound\
84	Till your port be found.\
85	Fortune's winds sing Godspeed to thee\
86	Fortune's winds sing Godspeed to thee!''

Context Theatre / Titanic