This Ship Can't Sink!

On Wednesday I decided to treat myself to a theatre trip. I hadn't been in ages and also I want to start going to a more diverse range of shows. Whilst browsing the Arts Hub website I happened to notice an advert for Titanic the Musical at Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre. I knew I had to see this, I have a great interest in Titanic and the story has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Recently I have been watching all the programs that have been on to coincide with the 100th year anniversary of the sinking. 

                              

I was able to get a great seat in the stalls at a brilliant price with my student card, and realised that Wolverhampton is only thirty minutes away by train, the theatre is also right across the road from the rail station which is a bonus.

The production was by the West Bromwich  Operatic Society (WBOS), who are well know in the area and have performed some brilliant shows over the years. I thought that it was something they had written and created themselves, but upon reading the programme which was filled with interesting facts about the story, I learnt that the musical was actually originally on in Broadway in 1997 and had won a number of Tony Awards including 'Best Musical'.

I thought it was a brilliant production, there was such a big cast but each person was just as strong as everyone else. The songs were powerful, moving and captivating. And each character was either a real person who had been on board, or closely based on a real person who had been aboard, just with the names changing slightly, which makes it even more powerful. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and with the exception of a school trip, I was probably one of the youngest in the audience, I think the theatre and the WBOS have quite a lot of regular theatre goers. 

In the programme it also stated that one of the cast members found out whilst researching his character that he was the great-great nephew of Ellen Shine who was 20 at the time of the sinking, she was a third-class passenger crossing from Ireland to start a new life in America. She survived, and was 101 when she died in 1993, the last remaining Irish survivor. 

Overall it was a really good performance, and also the theatre is lovely, will definitely be venturing there again. 

                                           Sneak Peek of WBOS in rehearsals.