The Return of The Titanic

The Milwaukee Rep will open its Quadracci Playhouse subscription season September 20 to October 23 with the musical that ended its last season and achieved some of the company’s best reviews ever, including ours, under artistic director Mark Clements – Titanic the Musical.

But the reason is far more than taking an extended curtain call. An iceberg known as COVID-19 hit the show last spring and, partly because of its enormous cast, cost it two weeks of performances as cast members had to depart under Covid protocols, which are still rigorously enforced.

That has forced the Rep to cancel the musical, Ragtime, intended to open its season and keep most of the Titanic cast intact for this engagement while hiring a swing cast to keep the ship afloat just in case any epidemic again tries to come aboard.

Some actors had to honor previous commitments. The original review praised Lillian Castillo in a central role as the nosy busybody whose prattle actually connects the various passengers. She is being replaced with a polished performer– Alex Keiper, a Pennsylvania-based actress and teacher who is already familiar to Rep patrons. Other actors singled out for praise in the original review, such as Milwaukee favorites Matt Daniels and Carrie Hitchcock, are returning.

To freshen community interest, the Rep under music director Dan Kazemi has posted a video of the cast as a choir performing three and a half minutes from the musical.

Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here.