Seacoast Rep to Present TITANIC, 4/15-5/15

Audiences for the Seacoast Repertory Theatre's coming production of the musical "Titanic" will not have to worry about spoilers - the ship sinks. But they may nonetheless be in for pleasant surprises in this staging of the Tony-winning musical, starting with the fact that it is not the same story as the blockbuster movie it preceded.

"We know how it ends," said director Danielle Howard. "But it's very exciting."

"Titanic" opens at the Seacoast Rep in Portsmouth on April 15, 104 years to the day from when the "unsinkable" Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1,500 people on board. Unlike the love story of the James Cameron movie, "Titanic" the musical depicts the intertwined dreams of multiple passengers and ship officials - dreams that soar as the ship sets sail, only to dissolve in tragedy.

It is based in part on survivor interviews conducted for a book on the disaster.

"There are several story lines that audiences will follow," Howard said. These include emigrants seeking to escape class constraints and social strivers looking to rub elbows with the rich. They also include those who dream of greatness, including the ship's architect, the owner and the captain.

"The ship is the embodiment of all these dreams. Not only is it the literal vessel that will take them to this place, it is in many ways this metaphor of greatness and beauty and hope and all of those things that are wrapped up with all of these characters" Howard said.

"That sense of sense of yearning and want, that is really the engine of the piece. That is what audiences really are going to be thrilled by," she said.

"Titanic" is Howard's second maritime play at the Seacoast, after last year's hit "South Pacific."

The Seacoast's "chamber" production is a stripped-down version of the show by Maury Yeston and Peter Stone that won a Tony award for best musical in 1997 and had a cast of 37. This version, with a cast of 20, debuted in 2012 and was nominated for 11 Broadway World awards.

"This chamber version strips it down like a very beautiful poem, you have less, and I think it can say more," Howard said.

More than 100 actors auditioned - a sign of strong interest in the Seacoast Rep. Among new faces in the cast are cabaret singer and actor Jonathan Thomaselli from Boston, playing the ship's owner, J. Bruce Ismay.

New York actress Tess Jonas plays Alice Beane, the enthusiastic, socially climbing American who serves as a source of comedy in the story.

Jim Burkholder, playing the captain, is a veteran of several "Titanic the Musical" stagings around the United States. "Pardon the pun, but he's a great anchor in the production," Howard said. "There really are a lot of nautical metaphors used in the theater."

Among Seacoast veterans, Kevin Mahaney, who drew raves as Luther Billis in "South Pacific" last year, is back to portray Edgar Beane, Alice's husband.

Befitting the more-intimate production, the music is orchestrated for a string quartet, piano, and percussion. "The show is about 90 percent song, it is nearly an opera. It's like between the 1990s and 2000s, before we got into rock musicals, this kind of contemporary sound that still feels like a classic, " Howard said. "There's lots of moments where it just the full ensemble, with this gorgeous chorus of voices singing together, soaring musical numbers that I think are really going to move people."

The set, dominated by the image of the Titanic's blueprints, was designed by the University of New Hampshire's Szu-Feng Chen, who also teamed with Howard on South Pacific.

"That idea of the plans, the idea of the potential, that's kind of what haunts us about the Titanic," Howard said. "It was going to be a new world, a new age, it was going to be new lives, and all of that gets cut short and unfulfilled."

Howard got advice from a historical consultant, Kate Gilbert. The Amesbury-based actress is an expert on the Titanic sinking who curated an exhibit at the Custom House Museum in Newburyport, Massachusetts for the disaster's centennial in 2012. Gilbert gave a presentation to the cast, and helped separate history from invention.

"Sometimes as a director I want to know if this is a historical fact, if this is a place they took artistic liberties, which will tell me something about what the moment is about," Howard said.

Gilbert will also hold two discussions on the Titanic with Seacoast Rep audiences - on opening night at 6:45 pm, and at the Sunday matinee on May 1.

Both the movie and the musical debuted in 1997, with the stage production preceding the Hollywood film by several months. Both versions were inspired by the discovery of the wrecked Titanic on the floor of the North Atlantic in 1985, which lent new life to an enduring interest in the disaster.

"This particular disaster has held our attention and compelled our imaginations," Howard said. "Tt went from thinking it was unsinkable, to this unthinkable disaster in about two hours. "I think of that very much as kind of the ancient Greek theater which was really based on these myths. We all know how Titanic ends, but we watch to see how can something so great fall, just like the tragic hero. We're fascinated by that. It's at the root of theater."

Seacoast Rep will also be partnering with the Seacoast Science Center, who themselves have a connection to Titanic, having presented multiple exhibits. Members of Seacoast Science Center will enjoy reduced admission to Titanic. The Center will be raffling off tickets to the musical, and theatergoers can enter to win a Seacoast Science Center family membership at The Rep when they go to see the show. Ticketholders may, save their Titanic the Musical ticket stub and present it at the Center to receive one free child admission per family through May 31, 2016.

According to Seacoast Science Center Marketing Director Karen Provazza, "The serendipitous timing of our program theme and The Rep's production about the infamous Titanic presents the prefect opportunity for families to learn more about the discovery of the wreck and how scientists are exploring the deep sea."

"Titanic" the musical runs April 15 through May 15. Show times are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are available through the Seacoast Rep box office at 603-433-4472 , or online at www.seacoastrep.org/tickets. Titanic is proudly sponsored by Optima Bank and Trust. For student discounts, call the box office The 2016 Seacoast Repertory Theatre's Season is sponsored in part by Bondgarden Farms, Portsmouth Public Media, MacEdge and Mesh Agency

Photo by Jasmin Hunter

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