Titanic: The Musical Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Titanic: The Musical Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 2, 2024

Maury Yeston must be some sort of glutton for punishment. While the celebrated composer and lyricist managed to somehow successfully adapt Fellini's immortal 8½ into the musical Nine (hey, what's six months and/or number of films between friends?), Yeston had the misfortune to try to musicalize The Phantom of the Opera years before some schlub named Andrew Lloyd Webber or something did, leading to the rather long postponement of Yeston's own Phantom (which this musical lover finds more evocative than the much better known version). Yeston also had the temerity to musicalize the Titanic tragedy on Broadway a few months before a little film called Titanic virtually swept the entire world into its undertow, considering its cultural zeitgeist impact. While certainly (and understandably, given the limits of its venue) not the blockbuster that the Cameron film was, this musical Titanic weathered its own iceberg laden seas of pre-production trials and some frankly mixed reviews to help make 1997 the year of what the inimitable Onion cheekily called the sinking of the "world's largest metaphor".

There's no Jack and/or Rose, um, anchoring this formulation, and that may be one indication of the fact that the sprawling book by Peter Stone attempts to weave a patently insane number of characters in and out of the tale. That in turn may keep emotional tethers at bay (sorry, seafaring puns are seemingly unavoidable), at least until the heart wrenching finale, though one semi-focal couple, the elderly Isidore and Ida Straus, certainly come close from the get go. They may be the best representatives of the first class clique, but some of the "lesser" class characters (mostly fictional, or at least fictionalized) and crew members have their own moments to shine.

Yeston is on record as stating he wanted to bring a "symphonic" sound to the musical, and sought to emulate period appropriate British composers like Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughn Williams. I don't think I'd find much argument in musical theater aficionados if I state that Yeston, for all his talent, is no Stephen Sondheim in the lyric writing department, and that perceived deficit that includes some unbelievably exposition heavy sung moments combined with Yeston's own self admitted goals for the music side of the equation can mean the score often comes off as a series of recitatives in search of an actual aria or two (the operatic reference is intentional, as a lot of this show is through sung). The biggest issue with this production is that it whittled down what was a rather sizable Broadway pit band (with original, luminous Tony winning orchestrations by the legendary Jonathan Tunick) down to just a handful (and as a frequent pit musician and/or Music Director myself, I understand the budgeting issues). That unfortunately gives the "reworked" arrangements a somewhat thin quality that may not fully support Yeston's announced desires for the sound of the show.

Titanic's huge and complicated (for Broadway) set actually was one of its pre-production problems, and while there are no issues with this performance, anyone coming to this musical expecting the same kind of CGI wonderments as suffused the 1997 film is going to be seriously disappointed. This is a "unit set" for all intents and purposes, with two levels and an indication of the riveted hull of the ship, but it's pretty minimalist and leaves a lot to the imagination.

Titanic: The Musical Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Titanic: The Musical is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Liberator Film Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.90:1. This is another "Broadway HD" (despite having been filmed in London) offering, and anyone who has seen others in this "series" will know that coverage tends to be very good in these productions, and that's once again the case here. Both wide framings which offer some idea of the immensity of the ship and close-ups are interchanged frequently, and detail levels tend to be excellent despite those changes. The backdrop is often kind of lustrously blue, and texturing on the ship's hull is easily perceptible. Fine detail on costumes is also typically excellent. There are some brief moments of banding, mostly late in the proceedings when "fog" and/or "mist" enter the fray and some upstage lighting arrays shine through the miasma.

Titanic: The Musical Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Titanic: The Musical features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options. The surround track offers a noticeably more robust midrange and low end, and it does open up the soundstage, albeit perhaps not as much as might be hoped for. Impressive surround activity tends to be limited to occasional boisterous moments with the ensemble, and unfortunately the relative tininess of the pit band means that there's no overwhelming swell of instrumental forces in the side and rear channels. Still, fidelity is excellent and all singing and spoken material is well rendered. Optional English subtitles are available.

Titanic: The Musical Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 1:47)

Titanic: The Musical Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For anyone who ever had to suffer (?) through a Music Theory class, it may be salient to note that one of Maury Yeston's better known scholarly works was a treatise on Schenker Analysis, which was for me personally the absolute bane of my own Music Theory schooling. That may at least support the perception of how knowledgeable Yeston is, but knowledge doesn't necessarily always translate directly into "success", as someone like, say, Bruce Ismay might attest. Titanic is kind of an ungainly musical, huge in scope and incredibly ambitious in terms of its music. The "iceberg" in this particular instance may simply be the ambitions of the creative staff, and if those ambitions don't ultimately completely imperil the production, they may give it a certain "heaviness" that can weigh down the show's intermittent ebullience. Technical merits are generally solid, and with caveats noted, Titanic: The Musical comes Recommended.