As composer and lyricist Maury Yeston wrote in the programme notes for Titanic, the Tony Award-winning musical he penned with librettist Peter Stone which is currently playing at the Edinburgh Playhouse as part of its first UK tour, “We write musicals by thinking with our hearts”. And Titanic, his third Broadway show after Nine and Grand Hotel, is one such musical: a heartfelt and human labour of love about a “magnificent dream” dubbed a “floating city” which “carried across the sea even more compelling human yearnings”.

Unfortunately for the ship’s owner J. Bruce Ismay (Simon Green) of White Star Line, his magnificent dream of launching a maiden voyage to “create a legend” proved to be right – for all the wrong reasons – when in a tragedy of errors he overruled shipbuilder Thomas Andrews (Greg Castiglioni) and ordered Captain Edward Smith (Philip Rham, who excelled as the titular skinflint in Pitlochry’s 2016 production of Scrooge!) to go too fast, too soon.

As a result, the “unsinkable” did the unthinkable and collided with an iceberg the size of “The Rock of bloody Gibraltar” and plunged over 1500 people to their deaths at the bottom of the Atlantic which in a rare moment of levity one character bluntly described as “That water looks as cold as a polar bear’s arse”. Quickly followed by the sobering refrain: “And it won’t be long before we’re in it up to ours.”

In a dense opening to a lengthy first act in which the lyrics are more industrial prose than memorable poetry, several groups of passengers from different social standings are introduced. In third class, a trio of working class girls from Donegal who in addition to sharing the same Christian name of Kate (“I’m Kate too”, “I’m Kate three”, badum tish) harbour similar dreams of falling in love and finding secure employment.

In second class, a Hyacinth Bucket-type figure of fun in Alice Bean (Claire Machin) who unlike her unambitious husband Edgar (Timothy Quinlan) wants to see the world and rub shoulders with the rich and famous rather than settle for “plain old Indianapolis, Indiana”. And in first class, said rich and famous who yearn to add a few more noughts to their return on investments before quaffing champagne over a sumptuous feast. All of whom and more, including First Officer William McMaster Murdoch played by RSAMD graduate Kieran Brown, are depicted with great respect.

Unfortunately, for long stretches of the production as directed by Thom Southerland for Capital Musicals Ltd in association with Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, the respect borders on reverence, which allied with the sombre tone, industrial prose and largely static set, reduces the emotional involvement of the audience. A flaw which is remedied in a moving finale which on opening night drew a lengthy standing ovation for the excellent twenty-five strong cast who were joined onstage by the accomplished musical director Mark Aspinall.

Few of the numbers are memorable and it is very much an ensemble production, though in minor roles Oliver Marshall as the lonely telegraph operator Harold Bride and Lewis Cornay as the cherub-faced Bellboy and velvet-voiced bandleader Wallace Hartley shine as bright as the stars in the moonless sky under which the “floating city” slipped beneath the “smooth as polished glass” surface of the icy Atlantic. A magnificent dream which unlike this fine production ended in magnificent failure.

Peter Callaghan
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