Picking the Show - Titanic the Musical
It’s the question asked more often than any other when I’m chatting with friends about my avocation - “how do you pick a musical?”
Most of “my” shows have been high school musicals for Campolindo High School in Moraga, CA. The characteristics and strictures of the Campo program, as it has evolved over 60 years or so, are what frame the decision. Add tradition, the personal tastes of the artistic staff, a little internal politics and a dash of high school angst, and the decision can be fraught.
In Campolindo’s case, there are some baseline requirements that limit the pool:
Traditionally we want a full-scale Broadway Musical
We need a large (very large) cast - we have 100 or more cast members in each show… many shows are written for a small cast with no real “ensemble”… something that just doesn’t work for us. Nothing’s written for 100 people… but if there’s a decent ensemble with some good production numbers, we’ve become pretty adept at expanding
Acceptable material - conformation to school and parental expectations for “acceptability"
Accessible material - subject matter, music, setting, characters - all need to resonate with Moraga high school students
Availability - you can’t just “put on” any show… you have to purchase a license for the production and plenty of shows we’d like to do just aren’t available (they might be still open on Broadway, on a national tour or restricted for some other reason.)
The rest of it is a little artsier…
Style, setting, theme - how do these compare to recent shows we’ve done? We try to avoid doing 2 or 3 Disney shows in a row, and we try to vary the era and subject matter.
Familiarity - will our audiences know the show so well that they're not interested in coming to see it, or will it be something they’ve never heard of… so they’re not interested in coming to see it?
How many lead roles are there for girls? for boys? - Most Broadway shows have lots of men in them doing cool stuff, with one female lead and a few women dancers. Our casting pool is about 5 to 1 girls over boys.
What are the dance requirements? - While we have a group of excellent dancers in our casting pool, they make up only about 15% of the group - and they’re almost all girls. We like shows that can feature our dancers without requiring the whole company to break out in tap
What’s the musical genre and how challenging are the vocals? - at Campolindo, the musical is an outgrowth of the choral music program, so at least we start with singers. But we do consider the requirements for each soloist and try to imagine if we have enough people available who have the potential to carry the role
Are there roles that have immutable requirements - ethnicity, special skills, physical appearance, age - and do we have resources who can meet them?
Titanic, the Musical - This was our thinking on the 2020 production at Campolindo and how it met, or not, our decision criteria.
Titanic is certainly full-scale. In fact, it’s so “full” that the show is not produced often because of the number of actors required and the crazy engineering necessary to sink a ship on stage. With 45 named roles, most with singing solos, Titanic offers up more opportunities for individual “moments” in the spotlight than any other show I’ve directed. Sailors, stewardesses, stewards, stevedores, along with First, Second and Third Class passenger ensembles make plenty of space in the cast for those not quite ready to carry a solo. The many group numbers in the show provide ample vocal and acting work for the ensemble and the settings lend themselves to large groups on stage. This show is certainly easy to expand beyond the original forty or so in the Broadway cast - roles designed in the original show to be “doubled” we gave instead to separate actors and each of the passenger classes had many members.
In 2019, we produced Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, an operatic melodrama with hundreds of period costumes, an overwrought set replete with special effects and a challenging score not approached by many high schools. It was a grand (and very successful) spectacle and we first thought we’d pull back and look for a more traditional comedy for 2020. But everything we looked at seemed small and bland. What could we do to involve the masses? How could we maximize opportunity and give everyone plenty of work? The casting opportunities and the appeal of a story everyone knows but few people have seen on the stage won out over the desire to pivot to a lighter tone and less demanding sets and costumes. The rich score and lavish choral numbers of Titanic catered to Campo’s musical strengths and, with a single dance number (along with a few requiring “choreographed movement”) there would be few inaccessible moments for the non-dancing ensemble. Despite the huge challenge associated with costuming any period drama - especially when every cast member plays two or more roles and most roles require at least two costume changes - Titanic, the Musical rose, fairly quickly, to the top of the list.
Fortunately, we had on our side a truly talented, miracle-working costume designer who is a masterful organizer. She begged, borrowed, rented and made hundreds of costumes for our cast of 125. Just to be difficult, we double-cast the show, so every lead and every supporting role would be played by two different students. To further complicate matters, we double cast the ensembles as well - those in Third Class either became a First or Second Class ensemble member in the other cast or perhaps took on one of the lead roles. All of the leads in one cast became ensemble members (or, in some cases, other leads) in the other cast. We took measurements during auditions and cast the ensembles in “size pairs” so that we could share costumes between casts. The challenge was huge - the outcome miraculous.
So… we didn’t quite shift the tone from “serious” to “light” and we completely failed on the “less grandiose costume requirements” - but the chance to offer nearly 100 characters with “lines,” a true story filled with teachable moments, gorgeous score, heartfelt songs and unforgettable moments won the day.
Titanic the Musical has been a great success for Campolindo - twice, now. We first produced it in 2010 and again this year. Even though the production was cut short by Covid-19 shut-downs, each cast had a chance for two “full-house” live performances.