Latest news with #TitanictheMusical
Chicago Tribune
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: In ‘Titanic the Musical' at the Marriott, the music alone is reason enough to make a voyage
At times you wonder if the musical director had threatened to remove all lifeboats from the rehearsal room, such is the vocal force of the Marriott Theatre's new production of 'Titanic the Musical.' The pervasive current view of this 1997 Broadway musical with a score by Maury Yeston and a book by the late Peter Stone is that the narrative of the show (which is not connected to the James Cameron movie that came out that same year) suffers from an over-familiarity of anything and everything to do with the wreck of the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912. That's undeniably true. Such is its titanic place in popular culture that you currently can choose from this seriously epic revival in Lincolnshire, or decide instead to head downtown and see the amusing parody ' Titanique.' And if you go to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, you can visit an interactive and artifact-laden museum inviting you to stick your hand in a bucket of water to get a sense of the deadly chill of the North Atlantic. All of this stuff draws from the same disaster, of course. And all have to be careful not to cross the bounds of good taste, given that all of the fame draws from an incident in which some 1,500 souls perished. In the case of 'Titanic the Musical,' you get what we journalists call a tick-tock account of what happened, from an optimistic boarding in Southampton to the aftermath of the notorious fatal encounter with the iceberg. The songs are distributed between the bosses (Adam Pelty is owner J. Bruce Ismay, David Girolmo is Captain E.J. Smith and Christopher Kale Jones is ship designer Thomas Andrews), passengers (such as the second-class pair played by Lillian Castillo and James Earl Jones II and the sweet older couple essayed by Heidi Kettenring and Mark David Kaplan) and the crew (Darian Goulding, with a huge voice that could drown out a ship's turbines, is the stoker). Since everyone is aware of how the story ends, we all spend the whole show in a state of knowing a lot more than the characters, which can be a pleasurable state in any piece of dramatic art. Certainly, nobody has to work to follow what transpires. I, for one, don't necessarily need to hear this sad and familiar story again. But this show has a truly magnificent score (as recently heralded when the show was performed, concert-style at New York's City Center), especially when it comes to its choral anthems, many of which are scored for the entire ensemble. Beyond 'Les Misérables,' very few other shows compare. Dramatically, the music functions here as a lifeboat of its own, especially in those huge numbers like 'In Every Age.' And this cast of premiere Chicago vocalists, from Garrett Lutz to Kelli Harrington to Eric Amundson, sing as though they would otherwise go down with their ship. I'd describe the experience as one of encountering a giant wall of sound, except that Marriott stages shows in the round and the director here, the very skilled Connor Gallagher, also had the task of turning a show that often invites actors just to plant their feet on deck and open their mouths into something that works in that format. 1 of Erica Stephan and Garrett Lutz in "Titanic the Musical" at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. (Justin Barbin) I was mighty impressed by how well Gallagher thread that particular needle, as well as how well he keeps the stakes high and makes the stage feel ship-like in every possible way. I wish Marriott had added a few players to its small but here over-amplified band, given the particular demands of this title and the cumulative power of the singers it cast, but this production still offers a formidable musical experience, coming at you with more emotional intensity and existential gravitas than any other time I've seen this particular show. 'Titanic the Musical' has a lot of music and relatively little book. Erica Stephan's lively Irish dreamer Kate is perhaps the most developed character, albeit also something of a trope in a show full of them, but Stone's main intention was to commemorate the whole community, if that's the word, and come up with enough dignity to avoid any sense of maudlin exploitation. In the end, it was Yeston, the oft-underrated composer who is still very much alive, who fulfilled that expectation spectacularly well. That's why this show, when produced at this high level, still has so much artistic heft to go with its ever-bankable title. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ Review: 'Titanic' (3.5 stars) When: Through June 1 Where: Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Chicago Tribune
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Marriott Theatre has delivered fun and escape for a half-century
There's nothing like spending an evening lost in a dreamy musical to take one far and away from today's bedlam. On the stage, one sees the human spirit stronger than our current ceremonial ministries and the despair they cultivate. Such amusement is needed for many, and over the weekend they flocked to the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, which has served dishes of theatrical pleasure for half a century. As German playwright Bertolt Brecht pointed out decades ago: 'From the start it has been the theatre's business to entertain people … it needs no other passport than fun.' Fun is what the Marriott, celebrating 50 years of live and award-winning theater, delivers annually. The fantastic cast, crew and orchestra of 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' certainly infected a packed house with their passionate renditions and stirring dance numbers. The rousing offering injected new life into the visionary chestnut Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Sir Tim Rice first offered audiences in 1969. For the Marriott, it was the third staging of 'Joseph,' which first took the in-the-round venue in 1985, again in 2000 and lastly, until this month, 2009. The production runs through March 30. As part of the year-long theatrical celebration, the resort's signature eatery, Three Embers Restaurant, which overlooks some of the grounds of the 175-acre Marriott Lincolnshire Resort, has introduced a rotating pop-up dining spot that is slated to be an extension of what's being presented on stage. For example, during the run of 'Joseph,' Joseph's Dream Grill features menu items such as koshari, the comforting vegan bowl of lentils and chickpeas which happens to be the national dish of Egypt. Those familiar with the Biblical telling of 'Joseph' and the treachery bestowed on him by his brothers know why the meal is being served. What other food delights the pop-ups have in store this theater cycle only the chefs at the resort know for certain. Other Marriott productions scheduled for this golden anniversary year include 'Titanic the Musical'; the world premiere of 'Always Something There,' an '80s-centric jukebox musical; 'Catch Me If You Can: The Musical,' based on the 2002 film of the same name starring Leonardo DiCaprio; and 'Million Dollar Quartet Christmas,' which should find Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley crooning yule favorites beginning on Nov. 5. Nothing heavily dramatic here, but something to whet theater-goers' appetites to spend an evening or matinee surrounding the near-1,000 seat stage being entertained by Actors Equity union professionals. It's a formula that has worked for the producers and audiences since the stage first was christened in December of 1975. The Marriott hotel clan, now Marriott International based in Bethesda, Maryland, eyed the once-rural property between Routes 21 and 22, and the Des Plaines River in the late 1960s. The luxury resort, which includes the 18-hole Crane's Landing Golf Club, opened in April 1975. The Marriotts must have liked Lake County. A year later, they opened Marriott's Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, which since then has been owned by various entertainment entities. When the resort opened, the village of Lincolnshire soon replaced unincorporated Half Day as the main government agency. Across the street from the resort was the Chicagoland Airport, once a satellite landing field during World War II for Glenview Naval Air Station. Concrete landing strips were unearthed and eventually turned into the sprawling Lincolnshire Corporate Center. The Marriott is one of the most successful regional theaters in the nation, presenting close to 250 stage productions the past 50 years. The number of its subscribers, who purchase advance seats to all the annual productions, amounts to some 30,000, according to one estimate. Many of those theater-goers span not only Lake County, but also Cook and McHenry counties, along with Kenosha County in Wisconsin. The resort and theater have become destinations for those seeking a bit of county culture. Like other county attractions — the Historic Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, known for presenting global, national and regional music acts, and the iconic Volo Auto Museum — come to mind, the Marriott Theatre is a gem. For 50 years, it has been the gift that keeps giving us top-notch productions, allowing us to see close-to-home entertainment. That lets us spend an evening absorbed in high-quality stagecraft, leaving behind worries about our national characters' propensity to ham it up.
