The ocean liner RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, killing more than 1,500 passengers on its maiden voyage from Ireland to New York.
Looking back at the tragedy during this anniversary week, Carnegie Mellon University’s spring musical is the 1997 show “Titanic, The Musical,” which runs through April 23 in the Purnell Center for the Arts on the university’s Oakland campus.
Most people know about the 1997 blockbuster film “Titanic,” directed by James Cameron and starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. But that same year, a Broadway musical with the same name premiered.
The stage show won the Tony Award for Best Musical, along with four others. It boasts a story and book by Peter Stone, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston.
With a large cast of characters and a sweeping scale, “Titanic” is quite an undertaking for the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Fortunately, alum Telly Leung was tapped to direct.
Leung graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 2002 and has enjoyed a lengthy career onstage, onscreen and in music. He has been onstage in seven Broadway shows, including “Rent,” and appeared on television in the Fox series “Glee.”
He looks back with great appreciation for his time at Carnegie Mellon.
“Coming to Carnegie Mellon was like Harry Potter finding Hogwarts for me. … I met these amazing professors who were so good at their craft and who trained generations of actors to do what it was that I wanted to do,” Leung said. “I credit every success that I have in the arts and in theater to my formative years at Carnegie Mellon.”
In his own senior year, he was cast as the lead in Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” which itself had an alumnus guest director — Billy Porter. He hopes to emulate the mentorship that Porter offered him with the Class of 2025.
“For me, it’s to get the chance to do what Billy did for me then, which was take all of that wonderful training that I had at CMU and be somebody that I could look up to, who had gone through the same four-year training, the same ups and downs, the same imposter syndrome, the same lessons learned … to have somebody like that to reinforce that training that you have.”
Leung admits that he said “yes” to directing even before he was told what musical Carnegie Mellon selected. Even so, he thinks that “Titanic” is a great choice, especially to put students through their paces.
It is an epically large musical, befitting its subject. With a grand score played by a six-piece band, a multi-level set that’s used to great effect, and lighting and projections that lend a sense of immersion, the hard work of the cast, musicians, crew and designers is all left on the stage.
Twenty actors make up the cast, but the show makes it feel like a horde of hundreds of passengers.
“Every actor … they are running offstage, doing a quick change, and coming back onstage with a new accent and a new wig,” Leung said. All of the actors except three portray multiple characters, and accents range from American to British to Irish to German.
And those costume quick changes require lots of sharp, awe-inspiring 1910s period garb. Lots and lots of it. “I think this is the most costumes our shop has held for a long time,” Leung said.
Kelsey Harlow, a third-year graduate student in stage and production management, is the stage manager for “Titanic.” She agrees that the number of costumes is the most ambitious that the shop has ever seen — some actors even have to wear multiple ensembles within the same musical number.
As stage manager, Harlow is responsible for calling cues from backstage.
“I teach a class called Theater Process for nonmajor students and I was trying to explain what I do to one of my students. They were like, ‘oh, so you’re the conductor of everything else?’ and I was like, ‘yes, absolutely.’ … Michael (McKelvey, musical director) is conducting the pit, I’m conducting light, sound, intros, exits, all of that.”
Given how ambitious the technical aspects of the show are, she’s got her hands full. “It’s a big one. … But this cast makes my life so easy, they’re so incredible.”
Harlow is amazed at how upbeat and hardworking the cast is.
“I was talking with the director last night and he was like, ‘well, the show is so sad onstage that we have to have fun offstage.’ This cast really embodies that.”
Leung is stunned by the skills and chops of the students he’s directing in “Titanic.”
“They’re just better and better,” he said. “I look at this senior class, and I’ve had a couple of my classmates from the Class of 2002 come back and visit, and I turn to them and say, ‘were we that talented in 2002? Would we have gotten in now?’ ”
Featured Local Businesses
“Titanic, The Musical” runs through April 23 at Carnegie Mellon University. For tickets and information, visit drama.cmu.edu.