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Out Of The Pack

On The Bookshelf:
`The Wedding Jester' . .98

Making A Splas

The Tony Award-winning "Titanic: The Musical" docks at the Fisher Theatre.

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JIM FARBER

Special to the Jewish News

he same year that the film Titanic
dominated the Oscars and Leonardo
DiCaprio and James Cameron pro-
claimed themselves "King of the
World," a very different Titanic was sailing high
on Broadway.
In comparison to Cameron's celluloid behe-
moth, Titanic: The Musical is a lean, mean float-
ing machine. The brainchild of writer Peter Stone
and composer/lyricist Maury Yeston, it captured
the 1997 Tony Award for best musical, best book,
best orchestrations and best sets.
Titanic: The Musical arrives at the Fisher

401

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Theatre in Detroit for a three-week run on Sept.
facts, was careful to do the necessary research. "I
7. And the cast and crew of the first national
read everything that I could," says Yeston, who
touring company are hoping that their maiden
went through mountains of documents from
voyage is less rocky than their namesake's.
survivors.
The idea to write a play about the
Among the passengers were many
catastrophe came to Maury Yeston
Jews,
and Yeston and Stone incorporated
Abov e:
more than a decade ago, but the con-
some
of them into the play. "This was
Passenger. s board
cept became a reality in 1989, when
the
height
of the immigrant era and the
the asaft st ship
he and Peter Stone were both working
Titanic was built to accommodate those
ever b wilt.
on Grand Hotel. "During a conversa-
immigrants," says Yeston.
tion, we discovered that we had a
"I wrote a song about Ida and Isador
mutual and passionate interest about the
Straus and their undying love, and it's sung as
Titanic," he recalls. "Shortly after, we decided to
Ida gets out of the lifeboat to be with her hus-
collaborate — he would write the story and I
band."
would do the music and lyrics."
Yeston's bio bursts with Broadway and Off-
The creative team, determined to stick to the
TITANIC on page 84

sa

9/3
1999

Detroit Jewish News 81