Review: Titanic at the Charing Cross Theatre

Titanic 

Charing Cross Theatre

Reviewed on Tuesday 7th June 2016

★★★★

Thom Southerland's production of Titanic by Maury Yeston and Peter Stone created a huge buzz at the Southwark Playhouse in 2013. People were fighting for tickets and there were even whispers of a Broadway transfer. Having revived the piece in Toronto last year, Southerland has brought Titanic back to London to kick off his debut season as artistic director of the Charing Cross Theatre.

Niall Sheehy joins cast of Titanic at the Charing Cross Theatre

Niall Sheehy (Miss Saigon/Les Miserables) has joined the cast of Titanic as Barrett, replacing the previously announced Dom Simpson who has withdrawn from the production due to knee surgery.

Sheehy joins his former Les Miserables co-star Rob Houchen, as well as Scarlett Courtney, Matthew Crowe, Sion Lloyd, Shane McDaid, Philip Rham, Dudley Rogers, Victoria Serra, Judith Street, David Bardsley, Alistair Barron, Helena Blackman, Scott Cripps, James Gant, Luke George, Douglas Hansell, Claire Machin, Jessica Paul and Peter Prentice.

Having played the Southwark Playhouse in 2013, Titanic will run at the Charing Cross Theatre between 28th May and 6th August 2016. Director Thom Southerland reunites with producer Danielle Tarento and musical stager Cressida Carre. Musical direction will be from Mark Aspinall with design by David Woodhead, lighting by Howard Hudson and sound by Andrew Johnson.

Casting announced for Titanic at the Charing Cross Theatre

Casting has been announced for Titanic's return to London.

Having played the Southwark Playhouse in 2013, Titanic will run at the Charing Cross Theatre between 28th May and 6th August 2016. 

Director Thom Southerland reunites with producer Danielle Tarento and musical stager Cressida Carre. Musical direction will be from Mark Aspinall with design by David Woodhead, lighting by Howard Hudson and sound by Andrew Johnson.

Titanic returning to London

Thom Southerland's production of Titanic is returning to London this May.

Having played the Southwark Playhouse in 2013, Titanic will run at the Charing Cross Theatre between 28th May and 6th August 2016. Casting to be announced.

Southerland will reunite with producer Danielle Tarento and musical stager Cressida Carre. Musical direction will be from Mark Aspinall with design by David Woodhead, lighting by Howard Hudson and sound by Andrew Johnson.

Big Interview: Maury Yeston

Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist, author and teacher. 

After joining the creative team during out-of-town tryouts in Boston in 1989, Maury wrote several new songs for Grand Hotel which went on to transfer to Broadway where it won five Tony Awards. His contribution to Grand Hotel‘s score was nominated for a Tony and two Drama Desk Awards, and the Donmar Warehouse production picked up an Olivier Award.

Grand Hotel is currently being revived at the Southwark Playhouse by producer Danielle Tarento and director Thom Southerland, the same team who staged Maury’s musical Titanic at the Southwark Playhouse in 2013. The trio are hoping to reunite on a London revival of Death Takes a Holiday in the near future.

In addition to winning a Tony Award for Best Score for Titanic, Maury won a Tony Award and two Drama Desk Awards for his music and lyrics to Nine. Just a few of Maury’s other shows include Phantom, Death Takes A Holiday and the first entirely American full length ballet, Tom Sawyer: A Ballet In Three Acts which premiered in Kansas City. 

I recently sat down with Maury, who made a trip to London to see Grand Hotel, to discuss his thoughts on Southerland’s new production of Grand Hotel, how he originally came to join the musical’s creative team and the spectacular opening number ‘The Grand Parade’. We also talked about the new musical he’s writing, his advice for young writers, the golden age of musicals plus much, much more…

Were you impressed by this production of Grand Hotel?

Yes! Of course at the Southwark Playhouse everything is compressed. It’s shocking when you think the ordinary time frame for mounting a musical would be three or four week’s rehearsal and then two or three weeks of previews, but they just do it and the standard is so high!

Review: Titanic at the Southwark Playhouse

Titanic 

Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed on Wednesday 31st August 2013

The thing that lets this show down most is its title. 'Titanic, A New Musical' gives the impression to the uninitiated that this will be a bawdy jazz hands and tap dancing extravaganza. Fortunately, through Maury Yeston's sweeping, emotional score and Peter Stone's factual but slightly try-hard book we are presented with a realistic multi-dimensional world full of hope, chivalry and that certain sense of foreboding attached to any piece whose protagonist is The Unsinkable Ship. Without having a more substantial character-driven plot, the musical becomes simply a document of the tragedy and adds no further comment to the disaster than those explored in James Cameron's 1997 film, with which constant comparison for the modern audience is unavoidable.