Michael Riedel

Michael Riedel

Theater

Sinking money into raising the ‘Titanic’

In 1996, I was having lunch at Sette Mezzo with Peter Stone, who wrote the musicals “1776” and “The Will Rogers Follies.” I asked him what he was up to, and he said he was doing a new show with Maury Yeston about the Titanic.

I couldn’t resist: “All singing, all dancing, all drowning!”

“Get it out of your system now,” Peter said.

Jump ahead to 1997, and I’m at the Lunt-Fontanne for the first preview of the $10 million “Titanic.” The show ran four hours, and, in a grim bit of irony, they couldn’t sink the ship.

Rumors swirled for the next month that “Titanic” was living up to its billing: a world-class disaster.

I went to the opening with Peter and his date, Lauren Bacall. Nobody expected much. But by the finale — when the survivors, draped in blankets from the Carpathia, mixed with the victims, dressed in the clothes they wore when they first boarded the ship — everyone, even the formidable Bacall, was sobbing.

Peter and Yeston, who wrote a haunting, shimmering score, had pulled it off: You knew the ship was doomed, but the characters were so appealing, you hoped they’d all survive.

The critics were dismissive, but Tony voters loved the show, and it won Best Book, Best Score and Best Musical.

Since then, due largely to the excellent cast album, “Titanic” has become a cult favorite. It’s also popular in opera houses throughout Europe.

Tuesday at Avery Fisher Hall, its reputation here in New York jumped several notches.

Manhattan Concert Productions presented a thrilling, one-night-only concert version of the show, directed by Don Stephenson and backed by the New York Chamber Orchestra and a chorus of 250 local high school kids. Several original cast members were on hand, including a sensational Michael Cerveris (as the architect of the Titanic).

With its cast of 30, “Titanic” is nearly impossible to revive in today’s dollars. But last summer, the Southwark Playhouse in London produced a scaled-down version that received rave reviews.

“This enterprise is on a collision course with glory,” said the Independent.

Fran and Barry Weissler have picked it up and, after a tryout in Toronto this summer, “Titanic” will once again set sail for Broadway in the fall. (If you need a Titanic fix before then, the Westchester Broadway Theatre has another small-scale version running until Sunday. Stephenson, who directed it, calls it “Tiny Titanic.”)

I hope someone recorded Tuesday night’s concert.

How often do you get to hear a glorious Broadway score performed by a 30-piece orchestra?


If you like seminars, knock yourself out at the third annual TEDxBroadway at New World Stages on Monday.

I don’t know much about these TEDx things, but I’m told a bunch of people get together and discuss . . . well, something or other. I suppose they’ll be yakking away about the future of Broadway. Robert Lopez and Diane Paulus will be on hand.

I don’t know.

I’ve always thought there’s nothing wrong with Broadway that a few hits can’t cure.