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A Set to Sing About
By Rob Stevens
You are not supposed to come out of a musical humming the set, but fortunately, or
unfortunately as the case may be, that is what happened with the recent Civic Light Opera
of South Bay Cities’ production of Titanic at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts
Center. This Peter Stone/Maury Yeston musical won several Tony Awards a few seasons
back, including Best Musical. When the touring company came to the Ahmanson Theatre
in 1999, it was very unimpressive as Tony winners go. In this first regional staging, the
book is still too fragmented and the score is still ho-hum, but the show is better.
The difference: a $750,000 scenic design by Thomas Buderwitz that gave us a ship
we could all sail on. There wasn’t much of a set on Broadway. As a matter of fact, Gerard
Allessandrini spoofed the show in his Forbidden Broadway with the ditty "Ship of
Air." The touring production had even less of a set. Producers James Blackman and
Steven Ullman really gave South Bay audiences something to look at. They also gathered
a trio of talents--director Michael Michetti, choreographer Lee Martino, and musical
director/conductor Steven Landau--to guide the large cast through this gargantuan
production. That terrific threesome and the set made setting sail with this Titanic
pleasurable.
Stone’s characters are many and thin, and Yeston’s score is uninspiring for the most
part. But this cast really made the most of their time on that stage. There were some nice
characterizations and the singing voices were glorious, both solo and especially in chorus.
Standouts in the cast included Richard Kline and Danny Michaels as the Captain and 1st
Officer and Kevin Earley and Richard Israel as the Stoker and the Radioman. Also making
impressions were Bob Lauder, Jr., Lois Bourgon, Lisa Dyson, John Bisom, Kevin
McMahon, Doug Carfrae and Mark Capri.
(Next up for CLOSBC at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan
Beach Blvd. in Redondo Beach is the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic Carousel,
May 30, June 17. (310) 372-4477.)
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