Titanic The Musical is currently showing at Milwaukee Rep’s Quadracci Powerhouse after opening on April 6. The show, featuring a 30-person cast and grand set production, is a marvel to watch. We’ve rounded up five reasons that you should go before it closes on May 14.
1. The Off-Stage Experience
Milwaukee Rep did an incredible job creating an experience out of this show beyond what happens on stage. When you enter the lobby, you’re given a ticket to ride the Titanic with the name and information of a real person who rode the ship. Before taking your seat, you can scan your ticket at a machine by the door to see if that person survived. And in the lobby, informative displays about the Titanic provide historic background for the production.
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2. The Music
The force of thirty voices singing in harmony fills the theater with emotion from the opening of the show, the music building to the moment the ship takes off in “Launching: Godspeed Titanic.” Loud “farewells” ring joyfully throughout the theater, to be contrasted in the second act, with the tragic, beautiful ballads “We’ll Meet Tomorrow” and “Still.”
3. The Set
Titanic‘s massive set is its own engineering masterpiece. Rotating walls serve as both the exterior and interior of the ship, shifting smoothly from the Grand Salon to the third-class hallways to the deck. A railing in the distance that creates the feeling that the audience, too, is sitting on the ship. This effect is only heightened when the cast breaks beyond the stage and performs in the aisles. The most impressive aspect of the set design, in my opinion, occurs as the boat is sinking … but I’ll let you see that for yourself.
4. The Stories
One of the most incredible parts of this musical is that each character is based on a real passenger on the Titanic. A third-class woman who wants a new, safe life in America. A second-class woman who hilariously sneaks her way into first class. A rich, first-class couple who chooses their love for each other over everything. A stoker who wants to get back to his partner after the voyage. Seeing the talented actors bring these real stories to life was one of the most haunting and powerful parts of the show.
5. The Emotion
Between the sheer talent of the actors, the brilliant set design, the stories and the moving score, this is quite the emotional show, filled with hope, love, tragedy, blame and heartbreak. Be prepared to feel all of the feelings that are powerfully conveyed through live performance. After years of virtual programming, it’s an incredible to once again experience that with fellow audience members.
