Review: TITANIC THE MUSICAL, King's Theatre, Glasgow

First staged on Broadway in 1997, Titanic The Musical ran for two years on Broadway and was the winner of five Tony awards.

Act One of Titanic The Musical introduces us to several of the passengers on-board, from all classes and including staff. Each has their own story to tell and their reason for travelling to America. While I appreciate that they are trying to give us a wider view of who was on-board the ship, there are so many subplots happening that it is difficult to get emotionally invested in any of them.

Act Two takes place after the boat hits an iceberg (should I have added a spoiler warning?) and is definitely the more captivating act. The stage setting is fairly simple and doesn't change much throughout the performance apart from when the ship starts to sink.

The biggest problem with Titanic The Musical is, well, the music. The company are incredibly strong and there is a fantastic mix of powerful voices. However, the lyrics aren't great and it made a story that should have been very moving quite laughable at times. One song titled "The Blame" has three of the strongest voices in the show descending into a complete rabble and the song ruins the moment where the captain, ship designer and the founder of White Star Line try to determine whose fault it was that the ship was sinking.

This touring production of Titanic The Musical is a decent production of a weak musical. It has several positives such as a terrific cast and its main focus is to examine what actually went wrong with the ship rather than focusing on a Hollywood style love story. At the end of the performance there is a list of the names of the 1503 souls that died in the disaster which is quite a striking image to finish on.

Titanic The Musical is at the King's Theatre, Glasgow until Saturday 2nd June.

Photo credit: Scott Rylander

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