Sail On! Behind the scenes of TITANIC, THE MUSICAL at Arizona Broadway Theatre

Nate Bertone and Danny Gorman on the set of Titanic, the Musical at Arizona Broadway Theatre
photo by Leigh Treat

by Haddi Meyer

The story of the Titanic is one that has permeated pop culture for over a century. We have always been fascinated by it, which has led to many books and, of course, the infamous Titanic movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. However, the legendary Titanic’s sinking also led to the 1997 Tony-sweeping Titanic: The Musical. In the end, the ship might go down, but the show goes on as Titanic opens at Arizona Broadway Theatre this Friday.

This particular show is unique for many reasons. It is not only a massive production with a large cast, but it also finds a way to tell the Titanic’s story a bit differently than James Cameron’s movie. When compared to the Oscar-winning film, you will find few similarities aside from that they both tell Titanic’s history. They both might end with the ship going down, but the musical showcases the true lives of the people who were involved with the famous vessel’s sinking from those who built it to the crew and passengers. As such, you shouldn’t expect that Jack and Rose, the characters from the hit film, will make an appearance, but you can still expect the same level of emotion and tension.

On a dinner break during their busy tech week, set designer Nate Bertone and director Danny Gorman were able to sit down and answer a few questions about why their production is a lot more than just a typical Titanic story.

Nate Bertone, Set Designer

Trying to recreate such a terrible moment in history on stage must come with many challenges. This is also a show that takes place on many levels of the ship, in drawing rooms, ballrooms, the boiler room and the bridge. What were some of the challenges you discovered in creating your designs for this production?

“The ship sinking. We have a section of a ship, but we don’t have a miniature ship that sinks. We have a bit more of an artistic expression of what the ship felt like, and then when the ship goes down our interpretation of how the ship sinks, and the visual you see is a bit more poetic than a literal ship sinking.”

I know in the original Broadway production the mechanical set design would sometimes get stuck when the ship was supposed to be sinking. What should ABT audiences be expecting as far as how elaborate your designs are for the show, and can you reveal any secrets in how the Titanic will be sinking nightly on stage in Peoria?

“I actually didn’t know that about the Broadway set. I came into this show pretty blind, so what you can expect is quite a different production than what is usually performed on the ABT stage. We have really opened everything up, and we use every inch of the stage that we can. A lot of the time, you portal in the set to make it smaller, to make it more intimate, but what we have done is we really opened up the space - there are incredibly high ceilings on this stage - to make it feel grand and like the expanse that is the endless Titanic. This is also one of the most difficult to engineer sets on this stage. It is a curved wall which is 20 feet high and 45 feet wide with a platform that curves across the entire stage and it really gives us the feeling of being inside the ship. We also aren’t just sinking a tiny ship on stage...what we try to do is expose [the ship] for it’s human element, which is the fact that it isn’t just a miniature ship sinking in the ocean, it is all of the planning and heartache that went into the planning and creation of the ship, and what it must have felt like for those who thought they may have caused this. But in the end it’s hard to say who is to blame; there was an iceberg where there wasn’t supposed to be an iceberg.”

This musical is based on an actual historical event, and so everything about the show has to be historically accurate. How did you go about researching and designing all of the sets that appear on stage?

“A lot of the design comes from the actual physical historical elements of the ship which remain. We have the remaining blueprints, we can see them in archives. We have documents, and photographs, and videos of the pieces of the Titanic that were salvaged. The main inspiration in the show came from an image of the wall that remained. I believe it was of the largest piece of the Titanic walls that were salvaged from below, and looking at that and having that be the basis for the idea of what that ship was, is really where everything came from. I looked a lot at the original plans for the ship in the first place, and then everything else came from just time period research of what might have been on the ship. But being accurate really came from what remained on the ship, because I am certainly not 106 years old, so I was not there!”

From a technical standpoint, there must be many spectacular scenes that you bring to life between the ship sinking, the ballrooms and such, which scene is your favorite to see become a reality?

“You know, I think that question is yet to be answered fully, but right now for me, it’s when the ship actually sinks. It’s that gradual progression through act two, from the moment where the ship hits the iceberg to the end of act two, that gradual transition of what we have on stage technically and the ship sinking is the most exciting to me. So it’s hard to say because there are so many beautiful small moments throughout the show where things shift and change that are really expressive, and the lighting design really paints gorgeous pictures and draws our eyes to the emotion that we need to be conveying.”

Danny Gorman, Director

There have been many different retellings of the Titanic’s sinking, from books to movies, and all of them are different from each other. The most widely known is clearly the Oscar-winning James Cameron film. I know that the fictional characters of Rose and Jack from the movie aren't present in the musical version, but what makes this musical version unique, and how else does it differ from the movie?

“Of course, you know the Titanic story is the Titanic story. There’s no getting around the fact that this event actually happened. What’s wonderful about the musical is that we get to honor the memory of what happened that night, even though we’re [106] years out from the event itself. In terms of what makes the musical different from the other stories, is that it’s a musical! The music is such an important character in the show...it heightens the atmosphere and heightens the environment. It perfectly encapsulates the tone of the time and of the people who were on the ship. It’s a really moving experience I think, hearing it scored and sung on stage.”

This show focuses on the lives of several passengers and crew aboard the Titanic at the time of it’s sinking. For someone unfamiliar with the show, they might go into it expecting to see Jack and Rose from the film. What can you tell me about the characters the audience will be seeing onstage in this version?

“Since I was approached to do the show, and I told people I was, the two questions I always got were ‘How are you sinking the ship?’ and ‘Who is playing Jack and Rose?’ The other was, ‘is 'My Heart Will Go On' in the show?’ and the answer is none of the above, for all of those questions. What’s great about this story and this show is that, by and large, the people that we see in this show are actual people...we follow them and their journey through. We follow the lives of the first class passengers, all of whom were real people...We get to see them in real time and see how the lives of their loved ones were affected in their passing. This show is unique in that it is about real people, many of whom lived and many of whom died that day.”

There are many stories and shows that are full of drama, emotion, and daring, much like Titanic. What made you want to direct this show in particular?

“Like Nate, I also didn’t know the show before coming into this...and actually that’s kind of my favorite way of doing a show, is to not know it beforehand so that I don’t have any preconceived notions or judgements about it. Of course when the offer came to me to do it, I was incredibly daunted. It’s an enormous show...so it’s intimidating but, you know, the opportunity for me to bring my interpretation of this story and to help bring [the characters] to life and to honor the memories of the people we’re following. As a director I am most attracted to people. Interesting people and people who are complicated and complex and who have dreams and ambitions and hopes and the conflict that comes with that. To me this show was less about sinking a ship and more about bringing to life the stories of these people who haven’t had their stories told for the last 106 years.”

This is a musical where pretty much everyone knows how it ends. Though the score and book find a way to add plenty of tension and drama to the piece, there still are plenty of characters in the show who end up going down with the ship. How do you convey such moments of horror on stage yet make them relatable and poignant? 

“It’s a delicate dance. It’s a story we all know so well, and we know the outcome. We want to do it in a tasteful way that is honoring these people as opposed to spectaclizing them. So it really comes down to a number towards the end of act two, 'Mr. Andrews’ Vision,' which, as the ship is in its final moments, he kind of explains to us as, in almost like a dreamlike state, what is going to happen. The bow is going to start to go below the surface, the boat deck is going to slant like this, the people are going to be hanging from the railings before falling 250 feet. It’s pretty expressive in what he is saying. What we try to do is encapsulate flashes of that without going too graphic and without sinking a ship but showing what the feeling was while the ship is going down. So it’s sort of like this nightmare sequence of flashes and pops of what people might have seen in their final moments and then it’s gone because that’s what happened to them, and then what's really kind of spectacular and heart wrenching is that immediately after that in the story, we get to hear from the survivors. The juxtaposition between the frantic, fearful, anxiousness that Mr. Andrews explains happened when the ship went down to the people who actually survived it is jarring in just the right way to show the audience how they felt to be in that situation. Nate has done such a spectacular job at creating this world for us that, by the time we get into Mr. Andrews vision, the audience is right there along with them in the story. Our hearts are with them, our souls are with them and that’s what makes it ultimately devastating.”

CLICK HERE for more information on  TITANIC, THE MUSICAL at Arizona Broadway Theatre, which runs October 12th to November 10th