REVIEW: Revival Theatre’s ‘Titanic’ creates majestic voyage

CEDAR RAPIDS — When you fill the Titanic with killer voices and musicians, the ship still will sink, but the musical won’t.

Revival Theatre Company’s production of “Titanic” is majestic and heart-wrenching from beginning to end. The show, being staged at Theatre Cedar Rapids, has just four performances, opening Friday, Sept. 23, followed by two shows Saturday and a final outing Sunday.

Do not miss your chance to see this show, which was in fine shape during Thursday’s final dress rehearsal.

The world knows how the story ends, but the journey from the orchestral overture’s ominous undercurrents to the epilogue tolling the statistics shines a light on the drama and joy before chaos ensues.

It’s easy to see why the Broadway production swept up five 1997 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and a real shame that the epic film released the same year swept it aside. Thank goodness Revival Theatre’s founders and directors, Brian Glick and Cameron Sullenberger, realized its worth and brought their creative vision to this interpretation.

They never fail to deliver.

Wisely, they didn’t recreate the ship onstage. They recreated the spirit of the ship — the romance of the maiden voyage of the “ship of dreams,” where captains of industry and commerce shared the excitement of those on the lower decks.

The scenery is sparse to not only accommodate the cast, chorus and orchestra onstage, but also to accentuate the very human stories unfolding from the crow’s nest to the engine room.

Some are love stories, old and new, sweet and tragic. Others show the push and pull between J. Bruce Ismay (Steve Rezabek), director of the White Star Line that owns the ship; Thomas Andrews (Rob Merritt), Titanic’s designer; and Capt. E.J. Smith (Greg Smith) in charge of steering this “floating city” to New York, but never fast enough to suit Ismay.

Joyous departure

What pops out in Act I is just how joyous everyone is, especially the immigrants in Third Class who are imagining a new realm of possibilities awaiting them on U.S. shores.

This is a show without a singular star. Every aspect of the production is the star, yet none can work alone.

Some of the best voices in the Corridor’s theater scene are paired with a stellar 35-member chorus and Michelle Perrin Blair’s expert orchestra full of instruments not usually seen and heard in the pit, including alto flute, contra bass clarinet, oboe, strings and an impressive array of percussion and mallet instruments.

A series of video images sets the scene and marks the passage of time and place, as the ill-fated ship slices through the water, ever closer to its doom. Kristen Geisler’s projection design features an exciting mix of archival ship photos, blueprints and time stamps.

Every inch of the stage is used, including the empty orchestra pit beneath the stage, where several characters enter and exit, and smoke rises from the boiler room. The Edwardian costumes, designed by Melonie Stoll, are resplendent through all the class divisions, and the lighting, designed by Scott Olinger, bathes the action in red-hot drama below deck to splintered shafts of light as the ship sinks.

Outstanding vocals

Among the outstanding vocal performances are Merritt, full of anguish as he tries to figure out what went wrong with his plans; “The Blame,” where Rezabek, Merritt and Smith point fingers at each other’s shortcomings when they realize “the largest moving object in the world” is sinking; Anne Ohrt as Second Class busybody Alice Beane, desperately trying to rub elbows with First Class passengers; Joe Wetrich as Barrett, stoking the fires and dreaming of marrying his love upon his return to England; Catherine Blades as one of three Irish lasses named Kate, dreaming of better days ahead with the man she hopes to marry; and Sage Spiker and Zane Hadish, who power through their various roles and situations.

The final scenes are heart-wrenching, as families are torn apart and so many passengers are denied seats in the lifeboats. Yet, in ways musical theater does best, the show ends with a wall of sound that will blow your mind, and a glimmer of hope in the midst of tragedy.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com