Southerland tried to do something with ropes that rose and fell; the night we were there, one of the ropes got snagged, which was unfortunately comical, and added to by an actor trying to fix the ropes and then tripping (in one of those moments of "gee, I hope he doesn't forget about that other rope and trip on it"), and taking a face splat onto the upper platform. But even if they had done what they were meant to, it's hard to imagine that it would have achieved any real effect.
I don't think that "Titanic" necessarily needs a production as epic as the original Broadway - for a long time, there was video on YouTube from an Australian production that made do with a two level sit that did not tilt, and it worked perfectly well. It's just that in the Southwark, everything about it -- from the settings to the lighting, to the just-too-small cast, to the out-of-focus projector -- were chafing at the seams of the tiny space. This became particularly apparent in Act Two, when the production really hit against the wall creatively, in terms of how to show the evacuation and the sinking.
Their stripped down orchestra, though, worked well. And in some ways, with a little less instrumentation, it makes the beauty of the vocal harmonies all the more stunning. Despite my growing frustrations with the many changes made to the material as the show wore on, I was definitely in tears at the end of that magnificent opening.
I've asked this before, but does anyone out there know about approved changes to the performance script? This version had a full duet for Caroline and Charles in Act 1 (either a new song, or the song that was cut in Bway previews), and also took out some musical bits here and there, and also took out the great sequence of text quartets after the Lifeboats scene (the one that was staged in NY with the faces at portholes while the set was changed behind them). I presumed that the cuts were to do with the lack of actors, but am still flummoxed by that new duet.
(As I said here before, they were right to cut the Caroline and Charles duet the first time around, as it adds nothing to the show.)
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