Review: Titanic: The Musical at The Lowry is ‘incredible, and will bring a tear to your eyes’

Titanic: The Musical

Titanic: The Musical is about a ship of the same name that sank in 1912.

It follows the survivors and non-survivors throughout the period leading up to the crash and after.

The show is 2 hours and 40 minutes which is how long it took for the Titanic to sink from its first collision.

I like the subtleness of that and I figured it out while waiting for the show to begin.

The stage is set up as the ships hull making us feel a part of the show.

The side panels are also made to look like the hull of the Titanic.

David Woodhead’s stage set-up

It was a subtle way of making the stage feel more like the ship, as the set was the upper deck and the main deck of the ship. Props to David Woodhead as the set is my favourite part.

Having a section of the ship as the set does set a rather big challenge but Woodhead did a fantastic job and the creativity is one I admire.

Around 20 minutes before the show started, Martin Allanson (who plays J. Bruce Ismay) sits at his desk as he conceives the idea of the Titanic.

When it hits half 7, the lights go down and the show begins. It’s again, another subtle way of bringing the audience into the show and making us feel a part of the show.

Some of the cast walk off stage as they move items on the ship and again, making us feel a part of the show.

They introduce the characters with the first song Godspeed Titanic which helps considering there are so many and not a single one of them is more important than the other.

They introduce them by having the announcer call out first and second class.

The lower class introduce themselves which shows the class difference between them all. There’s no one to introduce them because no one cares about
them.

I don’t have a stand-out performance as everyone has their moment to shine but I do have a favourite moment.

That moment may seem rather morbid but it is when they hit an iceberg.

incredible lighting and set work

They use lighting and set work to make it feel as if they’ve hit an iceberg. Howard Hudson does a very creative job at making the stage and set feel bigger than it is.

He uses a rather bright, white light to showcase the iceberg rather than having a big set piece of it.

They use sound too during this moment, mimicking the sound of the ship scraping along the iceberg.

Andrew Johnson is to credit for the sound.

It is such a creative way of showing the collision and in the programme, it mentions what the lookout said when he noticed the iceberg which they incorporated into the show.

It shows that they did a lot of research and that this show is a very thought-out production which makes it all the more real.

A certain character standout because they made me feel rather emotional was Valda Aviks and David Delve who plays Ida and Isidor Straus.

They play a very famous couple who refused to be separated from each other.

In history, Ida Straus was seen saying to her husband ‘We have lived for many years’.

Where you go, I go.’ Throughout the show, they are shown being loved up and it made me want a love like them.

While the ship is sinking, they have a duet called Still and they sing about how they love each other after all this time, still.

RMS Carpathia

At the end of the show, the survivors show up with robes that say RMS Carpathia, paying homage to the ship that risked everything to rescue the survivors.

Behind them, a sign comes down that says In Memoriam, Titanic, with the list of 1500 that died during that fatal night.

Even after the actors have done their bows, they bring it back down for the audience to look at.

Titanic: The Musical brings a tear to your eyes with its incredible music and concept without dishonouring the lives that were lost.

Titanic: The Musical is playing at The Lowry till the 8 Th of July.