Opera House Players, Broadbrook, CT
through May 21, 2017
by Michael J. Moran

With music and lyrics by Maury Yeston (“Nine”) and a book by
Peter Stone (“1776”), the original Broadway production opened in 1997, when it
won all five Tony awards it was nominated for, including Best Musical. Perhaps
the reason no actors were nominated is that “Titanic” calls for a true ensemble
effort. While there’s not a weak link in the OHP cast, several standouts
deserve special praise.
As the triumvirate who share “The Blame” (in Act II) for the
disaster, Dennis J. Scott portrays Captain Smith with affecting dignity;
Stephen Jewell gives Thomas Andrews, the ship’s designer, a tragic pride; and
Tim Reilly invests Titanic owner J. Bruce Ismay with obnoxious bluster. Tara
Kennedy is a hoot as upwardly striving second-class passenger Alice Beane, and
more laughs come when another character muses, “Maybe I should go into
politics; then I wouldn’t have to know anything.”
Musical highlights include: the stirring anthem “There She
Is,” heartily chanted by most of the company; the haunting “No Moon,” rendered
by Andrew D. Secker as lookout Frederick Fleet; and the lovely duet “Still,”
tenderly sung by Jayne Newirth and Glenn Gordon as an aging couple, the
Strauses (he co-owned Macy’s), who refuse to separate and perish together.
Flexible set design by director FitzHeny and Francisco Aguas
allows for quick and seamless scene transitions by cast members in shadow to
atmospheric underscoring by musical director Bill Martin’s crack four-person
band. Lively choreography by Aileen Merino Terzi for the “Doing the Latest Rag”
scene, sensitively varied lighting by FitzHenry, and brilliant period costumes
by Moonyean Field also make this transporting production a must-see.