One of Belfast's most famous exports will come home this May, when Titanic the Musical arrives in the city.




Graham Harvey (centre) who is playing the part of Captain Smith in Belfast Operatic Company's production of Titanic� the musical, accompanied by two members of the Belfast Titanic Society in period costume.


The 1997 Tony award winning show about the Belfast-built liner's only voyage has already taken Broadway by storm.

Belfast Operatic Company has secured the rights to the musical, which it says will be its biggest and most expensive production yet.

The show, with a cast and crew of more than 100 people, is at the Grand Opera House, Belfast from 17-21 May 2005.

Belfast Operatic's chairman, Karen Glass, said the company "absolutely had to bring it to Belfast" the city where the Titanic was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard.

Irish Premiere

The musical has been staged in the UK, but May will be its Irish premiere.

Ms Glass said she did not think it was in bad taste to perform a musical about a disaster in which 1,500 people lost their lives.

"This is a wonderful tribute to the people of Belfast who built that ship," she said.

"At its time it was the largest, most expensive and most extravagant vessel on the waters and I think it's a tribute to those people and also those who perished and those who survived."

Among those who died on the 1912 voyage was Titanic designer Thomas Andrews, who will be played by Belfast actor John Hinchey said to bear a striking resemblance to the Harland and Wolff man.

The £80,000 production will feature 13 scenes and a crow's nest, which has to be flown in from England.

The Belfast Operatic can be reached via the following means:
Website: http://www.belfastoperatic.org
Email: t-mcveigh -assign- belfastoperatic.org (replace the assign with @ excluding --)
Phone for reservations: 028 9024 1919 (Grand Opera House, Belfast)