How Titanic the Musical Nearly Sank on Broadway 

If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out our patreon to get even more behind the scenes stories from the stars who lived them with our monthly speaker series! www.patreon.com/witw

How are there so many mysterious producers always dying at inconvenient times and then turning out to be even more mysterious in the Broadway business?

Have you ever done Bingo cards? Because I feel like "Shady Guy promises money he can't get" and "Someone dies suddenly and fucks up some plans" are regular occurrences on your videos.

This show might be imperfect, but its first twenty minutes rank amongst the most stirring and glorious openings in recent Broadway history, if not ever. Saw it in concert at Lincoln Center and was moved to tears.

Well at least the musical had a happy ending unlike the Titanic.

I took my mum when she was visiting NYC saying "we'll see a show that will go down in history as a huge flop." Instead, I was stunned by the show. Later, someone I know was involved with a national tour, and that smaller scale, with no sinking ship, was actually more powerful. They used "ghost ballroom dancers" in dim lighting to bridge scenes and it was suitably haunting. As others have commented, the first 20 minutes are devastating, up there with "Sunday" from Sunday in the Park with George.

When he said that the "show had a revised ending" I was legit convinced that the show had an emergency ending where the ship actually reached New York if the set broke down and they couldn't sink the boat.

I was supposed to go to the one of the first preview performances with my aunt and uncle. It was going to be my first Broadway show. Someone called my aunt and uncle's house just as we were about to leave to drive to the city to say the performance was canceled because the ship wouldn't sink... We didn't really know what to say in response. We all had a really good laugh and then got last minute tickets to see Sarah Jessica Parker in "Once Upon a Mattress." I did get to go see "Titanic" the next time I went to visit my aunt and uncle.

I just did a production of Titanic last year in Milwaukee. It was very poignant because it was originally supposed to happen in the fall of 2020. Two years later and many souls lost gave the show a whole new meaning. We even had the names of those who perished in the sinking lined up in the stairway from the dressing rooms to the stage. It was incredibly demanding, the vocals are no fucking joke. We’ll Meet Tomorrow was my least favorite just because blocking it was a huge challenge for us to pull off and it was easy to feel drained running over small moments and singing those notes. I mean act two is basically a running marathon for the peformers. The same goes for the musicians - the triangle is played almost 2,000 times throughout the show. We counted. 😂 But everyone loved it. Our run actually got canceled early due to Covid, but due to high ticket sales they remounted the production. So we were able to perform it both the spring and fall of 2022. PLUS one of the employees at the theatre shared her family story of her great grandfather surviving the sinking on his 22nd birthday. Truly a life changing experience. 💜

I am intensely into Titanic: The Musical. Like, more than pretty much anyone in my generation. I've been in it twice. And the music is just BEAUTIFUL.

We'll Meet Tomorrow never fails to reduce me to full blown sobs. As in shoulders shaking, holding a hankie over my mouth to try and be quiet level of sobs. I can't even listen to the song on the cast recording without tearing up. I can 100% understand how adding it in saved the show. On a related note, I recently took my cousin to see the UK tour. It was my third time seeing the show but his first. I warned him that I was going to cry the whole time but there was a bit in act 2 that would open the flood gates. Right on queue, out comes the Mum with the baby singing about getting in the lifeboat while Dad stays here and I was gone. What do I hear next to me? Little sniffles coming from my cousin. I don't think I've ever seen him cry at a piece of entertainment before.

I was fortunate enough to work on a production of this where Maury himself came to watch. He sat on the edge of his chair. He loved every second, even though the staging was multi-purpose and in the half-round showing the ship from bow on. He insisted on meeting everyone afterwards and went into amazing detail. His son Max was with him and they told us about the writing of the scene to cover the stage lifts being reset. He loved telling us how they discovered during the writing that they found that the characters "introduced themselves in groups of 3". An amazing man. Can honestly say I was a fan of the music before doing it, or even meeting him.

I worked in a bookstore when Titanic-mania hit the media and I actively avoided it (the musical and the movie) despite being a theater geek. Years and years later I finally took a listen to some of it and I'm like "oh, this is utter choir/ensemble madness, I totally would have loved this."

I sang in the ensemble for the Reunion of the original Broadway cast in 2014 and I fell in love with that show. Hearing Bryan Darcy James cut through during the panic of all the passengers during "To The Lifeboats" and into "We'll meet Tomorrow" brought tears to my eyes and shook me to my core. I'm so saddened this show doesn't get the love I think it deserves. The music is just as majestic and powerful as the Titanic itself, and I really wish I could see it again!

I went to see the show during its run. The day I was going to see it, the skies opened and there was a torrential rainfall. My friend and I got soaked. Sitting through Titanic the Musical in my soggy clothes KINDA made it an immersive experience. But then a fuse blew and the curtain came down. My friend Michael was Thomas Andrews and he said," I really DID build the unsinkable Titanic!" A few minutes later, the show resumed. I instantly bought the CD and listened to it on repeat for about a year.

When I saw you were covering this, I had to remind myself that there was a Titanic musical other than the animated monstrosity with singing animals.

First of all: dang dude, it’s *astonishing* what kind of neat facts you find for these videos, the thing about the first movie about the Titanic being less than a month afterwards blew my mind. Second, I remember seeing Titanic both on Broadway (for possibly its last matinee) and in DC at the Kennedy Center. The KC’s Opera House is so big it actually made the set feel dinky. 20-something years later I still remember the Forbidden Broadway Titanic medley, while the moment from the actual show that’s lingered is the duet between Isidor and Ida Straus, “Still”. Great work as always!

I have to say, we'll meet tomorrow has to be the most moving song in the show. As a theater kid who also loves Titanic, it's one of my favorite songs in it.

rosie used to have broadway shows on all the time to try and give more attention to them. my mom remembers seeing lion king preview on her show and instantly bought tickets. she saw it while she was 7/8 months pregnant with me-no wonder why im obsessed with theatre.

I remember singing an infamous medley from this show in high school choir. We weren't able to learn it fully, it's so complicated. And then we were supposed to learn other music for the spring concert and none of that happened. I still have "Sleek--and fast/ At once a poem /and the perfection/ of physical/engineering" droning in my head, driving me mad, to this very day.

Saw the dinner theater production of this locally and I was completely blown away by it. The Night Was Alive completely floored me, I couldn't believe this musical was being told so beautifully

My high school did Titanic the musical for my senior year and I played Quartermaster Hitchens. and we had a three-level ship on the stage with a 15 deg. tilt for the sinking .it was a musical that i won't forget being in

Since this video was posted Titanic The Musical has become a staple of musical theater worldwide....across Japan, China, Korea, Europe, Australia, South America, the UK and six European countries, in 8 languages and is widely regarded as among the greatest musicals ever.

Fun fact: Joop van den Ende, whilst co-founder of Endemol, a massive television production company, is also the founder and owner of Stage Entertainment, the LARGEST theatrical producer company in Europe, who owns theatres in Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and even at a point Russia and the USA. Whenever you see, for example, a Disney-musical produced in Europe, chances are that it's being produced by Stage Entertainment.

I remember reading how critics were already predicting the headlines: "Titanic: The Musical launches; there are no survivors"

This channel accidentally made me a theater geek

Adult, sophisticated, musically brilliant, one of the great (and increasingly rare) Broadway musicals in the tradition that started with Showboat and is now all but extinct.

For me Maury Yeston is one of the most underrated composers. Since I first saw „Be Italian“ by the TV Broadcast of the Tonys decades ago I loved his music. And „Titanic“ has such a great score, absolute worth discovering it!

I saw Titanic on Broadway. Watching this, I wasn't sure if I actually had until seeing the sets! The thing that I really being most impressed with was the use of forced perspective thru out the show. I recall being struck by the little touch of the gang plank being so short on the lower end and tall at the top.

i saw it in the early 2000's in the netherlands. Produced off course by Joop van den Ende. The impressive thing about that show was that it was a touring production. With a tilting set and everything.. Impressive piece of musical theatre!

I went to New York in June of 1996 to see RENT, as I had been obsessed with that since seeing the Jonathan Larson story on Dateline NBC the previous summer. I had been listening to the cast album for 9 months and knew it by heart. I decided to go see another musical, so at my hotel, I asked to get a ticket to Cabaret, but it was full. Since I had seen the Titanic cast perform on Rosie, I decided on that. And it was glorious....It blew RENT right out of the water musically. The music and songs were spectacular. I fell in love with it immediately and bought the cd the next day in NY. Back home in Quebec, I listened to it constantly for a year and returned to New York the following June just to see it again. I would have gone every year, but I found out the show closed in March of 98. I have found that the Sydney, Australia performance , up on youtube, looks the closest to the New York version and I watch it yearly.

I was fortunate to get a front row seat for this production, as my first Broadway play. When Victoria Clark, who played Alice, turned around in her Carpathia blanket, a chill went down my back at the life drained out of her. Will always look on this play fondly.

No moon, no wind is still one of my favorite songs

I saw a production of Titanic at the Signature Theatre just outside DC several years ago and it was one of the most moving theatre productions of my life. Whereas the original Broadway production of Titanic seems to have a humongous number of people onstage as well as technically complex sets, the Signature Theatre production cast only 20 actors (with most performers doubling roles and ensembles). It was performed in a blackbox, in the round, and the set consisted of several ramps and staircases extending from a flat central stage through the audience. That meant the action was happening all around you and you were totally immersed into the story. It brought the immediacy of the story into focus in a way that I wasn't expecting. Yes, you know the Titanic sinks, but you don't necessarily know which characters will live or die (other than obvious exceptions like the Captain) and it was absolutely heart-pounding. I sat in the lobby and cried for about 20 minutes after the show! I think this is one of those musicals that actually feels the most powerful when it's NOT presented as a 90's mega-musical but as something more stripped down, letting audience's minds fill in the details.

I remember Rosie O’Donnell constantly talking about it on her show..btw, have you done a video on the Boy George musical she produced, Taboo.?.🤔

I remember seeing a commercial for Titanic the Musical right when it was first announced. It was a black screen with white dots and lines that would form into the show's logo (the words Titanic but it was shaped like the ship). I remember the commercial being very haunting in some ways and really sticking out to me. I have not seen that commercial since and I've tried looking everywhere online.

Fun fact: I actually (somewhat) know Robert Ballard (he prefers Bob, which I love). His son and my brother were best friends in high school. I went over to the Ballards a couple times, and he told my brother not to go into marine biology unless he wanted to be poor. As he said it, the only way to get money off of being a marine biologist was to discover the titanic. My brother became a business major instead. Cool guy all around

As someone who did a local youth production of titanic a few years back, it is genuinely shocking to hear that we’ll meet tomorrow almost never happened. It is such an emotional gut punch that anything else would’ve utterly ruined the scene.

I saw this show in Chicago. I've always thought this show would have been a lot more successful if it focused more on a core group of characters instead of a big ensemble cast and trying to base everything on real life people on the ship. The music's gorgeous and the opening 20 minutes are really strong.

I saw this show on Broadway and ADORED every second.

I was Caroline in a community theatre production a few years ago and this was the most impactful and rewarding show I've ever performed in! It will always hold a special place in my heart and the music still gets stuck in my head regularly. Everyone in the cast did tons of research on the real people our characters were based on / inspired by (some of them are more accurate to real life than others) and on the disaster as a whole and we all became very close through the experience. The messages in the show of hope and dreams are so powerful and beautifully presented. Our stage was relatively small and totally stationary, but I think that actually worked in its favor, bringing the audience so much closer to us all. I still rewatch the recording of our performance from time to time and I would love to be in the show again if I ever get another chance.

I first saw it many years ago and have always loved it. The music ranges from inspiring ("There She Is", "Barrett's Song), emotional ("Godspeed Titanic", "The Proposal") to haunting ("No Moon", "We'll Meet Tomorrow"). I'm disappointed that it's seldom done anymore. I would LOVE to see it again.

Finding a Titanic: The Musical magnet at a church rummage sale across the street from my apartment is how I found out this musical existed. Yes, I bought it. Along with magnets from Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, and West Side Story. They're on my fridge right now. Still some of my favorite things I've ever found anywhere.

Seeing the original set my school absolutely nailed it with the tilting set and everything (and all of the actors were amazing but now they all graduated 😢). This musical is extra special to me being the one I did crew on as a little 7th grader with all the high schoolers and it was an awesome experience (we also got super lucky because we closed on March 8, 2020)

this is the best timing im literally starting rehearsal for titanic the musical next week

Pov: you were watching the premiere then it stopped and wondered wtf happened

The score for Titanic is glorious. The choral work is stunning. I would have loved to have seen the full tilting set in London, Richard Jones is such a creati,ve director and always brings an interesting viewpoint to his work. He directed the first London production of Into The Woods (not revival) and it was nothing like the Broadway production. A much darker, more european production. I prefer it to the OBC.

I love this show so much. Thanks for doing a vid on it. My high school performed it my sophomore year (I played 3rd Officer Pitman), but the show was sadly interrupted by the pandemic. It felt strange to be performing this story of human loss when a similar circumstance was occuring worldwide in 2020. It is really such a beautiful musical that I think people forget about because the movie came out the same year and was this whole phenomenon. Just so many iconic lines and songs, from the incredible 20-minute intro to Lady’s Maid to Barrett and Bride’s duet to my personal favorite, The Blame. Please check it out if you haven’t!

This was my second ever Broadway show when I went in December 1997. Heard the soundtrack beforehand and REALLY enjoyed it! The cast featured Michael Cerveris, who I really really liked ever since hearing him in "Tommy" and of course the whole CONCEPT of the Titanic musical was kind of wild and I just wanted to see HOW they did make the ship sink! (obviously this plotline should NOT be a spoiler like 100+ years on now from history, lol) I thought the show was pretty damn good! Cerveris, David Garrison, Victoria Clark, Brian d'Arcy James (his Barrett was amazing!), I also really liked the three Kates (blanking on the names of the actors though lol), Allan Corduner (who i saw later on in "Topsy Turvy" the movie, lol)....but the CONCEPT was so wild I just enjoyed HOW they did the separation of the classes and the cabins and the engine room and crow's nest, etc. Very creative actually (i've never seen a local or regional production of this, but i'm not sure how if anyone DOES this show, it must be fun and difficult for figuring out the staging without a broadway budget!) The whole stage tilted to simulate the sinking...very clever (although the little "titanic model" ship that was used a few times in the show got more laughs than i think it probably deserved, lol) Anyways, I did enjoy the show and the music still affects me! Fully recommend it if you want to listen to some good songs ("Titanic Overture and opening", "Barrett's Song" , "The Night was Alive", "No Moon/Autumn", "The Blame" and even the song "Still" (very affecting...the last hours of the Strauss Family), and finally "Mr Andrews Vision" (how the architect of the ship could see the faults WHILE the ship sinks around him...and how he could've only fixed it!)...very cool

From a purely musical standpoint, TITANIC is one of the greatest musicals of the past 30 years. The score itself is a glorious achievement on a level most modern musicals cannot begin to approach.

Gosh I remember seeing this on Broadway in September ‘97 - I still have the CD, programme and merch… The music is so beautiful. I still get goosebumps even thinking of “No Moon” - the haunting melody, the hopelessness of it juxtaposed against the hopefulness of “Autumn”, the foreboding “no moon, no wind” refrain ahead of the iceberg finally being spotted, then the orchestration and staging as the ship sails straight into it.

The timing of this video could not be better, I’m literally going to see this tonight at the Fulton in Lancaster PA 😂

Graduated 8th grade/grammar school in 1998, and Titanic was our theme throughout the year (Sept 97 to June 98). Our graduating song was My Heart Will Go On. Our yearbook was Titanic themed. This musical was our Big Graduation Field Trip. Asked my friend/classmate recently if they remembered going to see this and she thought I was making it up. I cannot, for the life of me, remember one damn thing about this musical except for the one dude who had a striped coat and straw boat hat. That's it.

it's funny that you describe joop van den ende's involvement as surprising, because as a dutch person i see him as THE musical guy. like, i didn't even know he was also big in television lmao.

By Far my Most Favourite Broadway Score Ever!

I saw this a few years back in London at a tiny 260-seat theatre. The set was minimal, and the venue made it feel really intimate, so finding out about all the other productions being so huge and bombastic is wild to me!

I've actually done this show! We did a regional production at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma in 2019! It's a shame that it's literally never done anywhere. The music is absolutely stunning, and the soundtrack remains one of my faves! "Barrett's Song", "No Moon", and "The Night Was Alive" - so gorgeous. It's truly an epic show. I'm very proud to have this on my resume!

Im glad to see this musical covered. Love it. The opening numbers for launching the ship always amazes me, and We’ll Meet Tomorrow changed me as a person I think

Wait, WHAT! You’re telling me the musical titanic is actually a allegory for the Challenger disaster??! Whoa!

Fun fact, if you're ever at a grocery store and the intercom chirps "John Thayer to the Customer service desk' and you shout 'Vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad!' Everyone around you won't join into singing the first class roster, but will just glare at you... At least so I've been told...

We had this in China back in 2010s and it was marvelous, I believe if the set and songs are true to people it will continuous to thrive! Thank you for this " short " video introducing the history, it was remarkable to know all the stories behind.

I love this musical. My favorite part is when the dog started rapping.

I've been lucky enough to perform in a immursive production of this musical, it will always be one of, if not, the best show I've been apart of

OH MY GOD THANK YOU FOR COVERING THIS.!!! The titanic musical has been my special interest for a very long time & i never seem to find much content surrounding it.

Great video as usual. I saw my first production of this musical one month ago at Hale Center Theatre - the most innovative theater in Salt Lake City. They always do amazing staging so I wasn't surprised when the center portion of their set tilted for part of the sinking and split at the very end. Being a theater in the round there are no bad seats and they can't hide anything. The way they created the ship for the audience was so immersive and added so much to the show.

I was first exposed to this show by hearing the soundtrack which I fell in love with. I was able to see a touring production of it and I could see some pacing problems, but the glorious score just has to be one of the best.

The RMS Titanic has a very special place in my heart. I have always been fascinated by the history of the ship and it's passengers and crew. However, I have never seen this show or listened to the music. But I can say the problem with doing anything Titanic related is that the people putting it together tend to underestimate how much it is going to cost. The ship was massive and even if you scale it down you still need to find a way to sink it (every night on stage in this instance).

I've been obsessed with 1776 for the past couple of weeks, for no reason that I can particularly explain, so hearing you mention my current Serotonin And Dopamine Source was very strange.

I saw the national tour and enjoyed it. I saw the Georgia production you referenced where the set was in a lake--bacteria aside, it was phenomenal! Seeing the lifeboats actually rowing away while people were falling into the water and screaming was incredibly powerful. I saw it twice. For reference, that was the same theater company that performed Miss Saigon outdoors with a real helicopter flying in and out.

One of the best Musicals ever written. Saw 2 productions of it and was part of 2 productions. Love this wonderful Musical❤

One of my favorite shows. I got to attend a review of Titanic in NYC a few years back and it was amazing!

Your videos are always brilliantly produced. Whenever I watch one I either wish I had seen the show… I’m glad I didn’t see the show… Are you bring back memories of a great production that I didn’t get to see. Never a disappointment. No icebergs in your future.

I saw this play in 1998 with the original cast and I loved it. The soundtrack is amazing.

another incredible video!!!!! I love titanic the musical and love the insight into the show

I performed in this show in my senior year and it’s still near and dear to my heart.

I was lucky enough to see this on tour and for some reason the individual characters' stories were unmemorable, but the music and lyrics themselves are quite stirring. That's not to say the character narratives were bad. I remember being engaged by all of them in the moment, but I couldn't recall a single one for you now. There aren't any real heroes or villains like are usually portrayed in Titanic stories; "The Blame" demonstrates this by having characters try to point fingers at each other before realizing there's no one person at fault and that it's just an unfortunate situation. Each character seems to have a rich backstory and dreams of the future, but we never spend enough time with any character to really know them personally--And I think that's the point. Instead of being about any individuals, the show is about a group of people all experiencing this event as a collective and I think that's what comes through in the music: "The night was alive with a thousand voices fighting to be heard." So many unique stories overtaken by the grander tragic narrative.

omg I'm so excited for this video! Titanic is my FAVORITE musical

I love this show a lot! Thanks for covering it :D

…not the best time for the algorithm to recommend me this💀

God, I wish they’d revive this. I’ve had the soundtrack since I was seven and I’ve seen an amateur recording on RU-vid and as an amateur Titanic historian I’m pleased with how the story was told. The musical in this show is beautiful; no wonder it swept the Tonys.

I have to say, seen the UK 10th anniversary tour a couple of weeks ago and i have to say, best show i have ever seen, it was amazing!!

You'd think at this point I'd know to expect anything in youtube essays but somehow Joep Van Den Ende still caught my dutch ass off guard lol

I sang the mother's song in my college's performance of Titanic! That production had so much drama behind the scenes, but I got tears going every night

Loved this documentary, and I love this show! I'm actually playing Alice Beane in a production of it right now, at Tacoma Musical Playhouse in Tacoma, WA!

The first time I heard it, I was hooked There is some very stirring music. I saw the production at Serenbe. It was incredible. I just with the guy in charge of it weren't such a trash human.

I saw Titanic the musical and I enjoyed it 🎉

I saw the original Broadway production and loved it. The set was remarkable (video can’t capture how impressive it was), the score was stirring and the performances wonderful. Flawed? Absolutely, but never dull and sometimes quite moving.

I was in a community theatre production of this show, it went really well, my family cried when they saw it.

I saw this show at the Lunt-Fontanne about 3 months into the run (Broadway Babies Brian D'Arcy James, Michael Cerveris, and Victoria Clark were "on board") I gotta make popcorn before I watch this stroll down memory lane! So glad I got the subscriber alert!

I saw the 2018 UK Tour of this show in Dublin Ireland and loved it personally. The music, costumes and sets were stunning, even if it isn't the most historically accurate

My husband and I saw Titanic the musical 5 times on Broadway. It was an amazing show. To this day, it is my favorite show of all times. I am hoping that in 2027, the 30th anniversary of the opening, it will be staged again with the original set along with the same number of actors and huge orchestra. fingers crossed!!!

One of my FAVORITE musicals!!!

“The only reason he wouldn’t be at rehearsal was if he was dead” *oh no*

I've seen the London 2016 Production at the Charing Cross Theatre twice. I didn't know anything about it, but found it so refreshing. It's the only West End musical (and Off West End as well) that I've seen with such a range of actors' age and character development. Some songs are amazing (I personally love No Moon and The Proposal, but the verses in "In Every Age" are my favourite, the way the cast sang "a floating city" was perfection). This musical is not focused on one character, but the main focus is how people from every class and country were forced together by the same tragedy and how they lived through it. So good. This comment is basically me trying to convince everyone reading it to go listen to the Broadway Cast recording! You won't regret it!

I love this musical! Seen it twice and know both the English and Dutch versions by heart.

Loved the show😊

Omgosh! I kept checking your channel to see if you’d made a video on this as we are doing this at our school! I’m playing Murdoch. We’re about to rehearse in our theatre. It’s such a moving musical!

Glad to see you giving the book “Singular Sensation” some credit. They did a heavy lift for your research. Well done as usual. 👏🏼

Surprisingly its actually one of my favorite musicals to sing

I saw that one when it was open on Broadway and enjoyed it immensely