Sometimes, the barrage of new movies on other streaming services means I don’t get to use my Broadway HD subscription as much as possible, but every once in a while, I still check something out. This Tony winning musical from the 90’s has never really been a personal favorite. i decided to tackle it, because obviously titanic would have some visual elements, and broadway HD is 99% non-audio described. In an effort to get them to consider expanding their selection, I still talk about these titles.
I ended up enjoying the musical more than I thought I would, sitting down and attacking it from start to finish, but there is the task of what is happening when the Titanic sinks, and how they handle that on stage. Since there’s no audio description, there really wouldn’t be a reason for me to recommend this over listening to the cast album. Yes, you would be missing some dialogue, but this musical is very visual. Should King Kong ever find its way to the service, I’ll say the same thing. Some of these things are about the spectacle, and the “how did they do that?”. For other musicals, perhaps those with a lot of establishing dialogue, I am sometimes inclined to grade it even without audio description, or if the recording features a significant cast that didn’t get a cast recording. But, that isn’t the case here.
I can’t think of a single reason you’d have a better experience watching this without audio description and paying for Broadway HD, then instead just listening to the cast album, which is probably on whatever music service you use, or can be rented from your local library for free.
Final Grade: Unwatchable
Projected Grade if it Had Audio Description: C+, B-, B, B+
