Titanic

Act I

Titanic begins ("Prologue") as Thomas Andrews, the architect of the great ship, pores over the blueprints of his design ("In Every Age"). The curtain then rises to reveal the Ocean Dock in Southampton, England, where people are gathering to wonder at and to board the ship on sailing day: first a stoker ("How Did They Build Titanic?"), then additional crewmen ("There She Is"), officers and stevedores ("Loading Inventory"), the owner, the architect and the captain ("The Largest Moving Object"), the Third and Second Class passengers ("I Must Get On That Ship"), and finally the First Class passengers ("The 1st Class Roster"). Now fully boarded, the ship pulls out as the company sings a prayerful farewell ("Godspeed Titanic").

One by one, the dreams and aspirations of key characters are presented: Barrett, the stoker who wanted to get away from the coal mines ("Barrett's Song"); Murdoch, the ship's officer contemplating the responsibility of command ("To Be a Captain"); Kate McGowan and the Third Class passengers who yearn for a better life in America ("Lady's Maid"); Chief Steward Etches and the millionaires he serves who exult in the wonders of their world ("What a Remarkable Age This Is!").

Barrett finds his way to the Telegraph Room, where he dictates a proposal of marriage to his sweetheart back home ("The Proposal") in a telegram transmitted by Harold Bride, a young telegraph operator smitten with the possibilities of the new radio technology ("The Night Was Alive").

The next day, April 14, after Sunday morning church service, the First Class attends the shipboard band’s spirited out-of-doors dance concert ("Hymn/Doing the Latest Rag"), an exclusive event crashed by Second Class passenger Alice Beane, a hardware store owner's wife who wants more out of life ("I Have Danced"). That evening, as Fleet the lookout scans the horizon ("No Moon") and bandsman Hartley regales the First Class Smoking Room with a new song ("Autumn"), the ship sails inexorably towards her collision, which ends Act One.

Act II

The suddenly awakened First and Second Class passengers are assembled in the Grand Salon ("Dressed In Your Pajamas In The Grand Salon") for life-belt instruction by Chief Steward Etches, before being sent up to the Boat Deck to board the lifeboats. In the Telegraph Room, Captain Smith, Mr. Andrews and Mr. Ismay, the owner, argue over who is responsible for the disaster ("The Blame") while Mr. Bride tirelessly sends out the S.O.S. Up on the Boat Deck, the male passengers are separated from their families ("To the Lifeboats"), and all express hopes of being reunited ("We'll Meet Tomorrow") as the final boat is lowered. Isidor Straus (the owner of Macy’s) and his wife Ida remain behind together, as she refuses to leave his side after 40 years of marriage ("Still") and Mr. Etches utters a prayer ("To Be a Captain - Reprise"). In the abandoned Smoking Room, Thomas Andrews desperately redesigns his ship to correct its fatal flaws until the futility of his actions leads him to predict, in horrifying detail, the end of Titanic just as she begins her now-inevitable descent ("Mr. Andrews’ Vision").

In an Epilogue, the survivors picked up by the Carpathia numbly retell what had once been Mr. Andrews’ dream ("In Every Age - Reprise"). The living are joined by their lost loved ones in a tableau recapturing the optimistic spirit of the Ocean Dock on sailing day ("Finale").

— Peter Stone

The original Broadway production had a cast of 37 performers, including chorus. Doubling was employed in almost all parts.

Principals
(3 female; 10 male)

Thomas Andrews — the ship’s designer and builder, late 30's
J. Bruce Ismay — the ship’s owner, late 40's, fastidiously dressed, dark hair and moustache
E.J. Smith — captain of the Titanic, grey-bearded
Murdoch — first officer; doubles as 2nd-Class Passenger, a Scotsman, 39
Harold Bride — radioman
Frederick Barrett — stoker, 24
Frederick Fleet — lookout; doubles as 1st-Class Passenger & 2nd-Class Passenger
Henry Etches — senior 1st-Class Steward; doubles as 3rd-Class Steward; 50
Joseph Bell — chief engineer, doubles as bandmaster Wallace Hartley & 3rd-Class Passenger
Isidor Straus — 1st-Class Passenger; doubles as 3rd-Class Passenger; late 60's
Ida Straus — Mrs. Isidor Straus; doubles as 3rd-Class Passenger
Alice Beane — 2nd-Class passenger, middle-aged, American with middle-west accent
Kate McGowan — a young Irish girl and 3rd-Class passenger

Other Officers & Crew
Lightoller — second officer; doubles as 2nd-Class Passenger, 38
Pitman — third officer; doubles as The Major & Fourth Man; 32
Boxhall — fourth officer; doubles as Taylor, Rogers & 3rd-Class Passenger; 28
Hitchens — quartermaster; doubles as Bricoux & 3rd-Class Passenger, a Cornishman, 23
Bellboy — doubles as 3rd-Class Passenger

Other First-Class Passengers (all double as 3rd-Class Passengers)
John Jacob Astor, 47
Madeleine Astor, 19 — the very young Mrs. Astor
Benjamin Guggenheim — an American millionaire
Mme. Aubert — Guggenheim’s French mistress
John B. Thayer
Marion Thayer — John’s wife
Jack Thayer — their nine-year-old son
George Widener — doubles as Carlson
Eleanor Widener — George’s wife
Charlotte Cardoza, a handsome woman in her 40's
Edith Corse Evans — doubles as 2nd-Class Passenger
J.H. Rogers — doubles as Boxhall, a bespectacled American in his 40's
The Major — doubles as Pitman

Second-Class Passengers
Alice Beane - middle-aged, American with middle-west accent
Edgar Beane — husband of Alice
Charles Clark — young, British and middle-class
Caroline Neville — young, British and aristocratic

Third-Class Passengers (all double as 1st-Class Passengers)
Jim Farrell, a handsome Irishman
The Three Kates - young Irish girls
Kate McGowan
Kate Mullins
Kate Murphey

Others
Frank Carlson — an American on shore; doubles as Widener
Andrew Latimer — steward in First Class
Stewardess Robinson
Stewardess Hutchinson
The DaMicos — professional dancers
Wallace Hartley - bandmaster (doubles as Bell)
Taylor — bandsman; doubles as Boxhall
Bricoux — bandsman; doubles as Hitchens
Stevedore
Stokers
Sailors
Stewards — for all three Classes
Additional 1st-Class Passengers [Fleet, Farrell, McGowan, Mullins and Murphey]
Additional 2nd-Class Passengers [Murdoch, Lightoller, Fleet and Edith
First Man — from 3rd Class; doubles as Thayer
Second Man — from 3rd Class; doubles as Widener
Third Man — from 3rd Class; doubles as Guggenheim
Fourth Man — from 3rd Class; doubles as Pitman
German Man — from 3rd Class; doubles as Isidor
Italian Couple — from 3rd Class; double as Mr. & Mrs. Astor
Additional 3rd-Class Passengers [Boxhall, Hitchens, Bell, Bellboy, Ida, Aubert, Marion, Jack, Eleanor, Cardoza and Edith]