Jimmy Titanic
Closed 1h 15m
Jimmy Titanic
79

Jimmy Titanic NYC Reviews and Tickets

79%
(34 Ratings)
Positive
82%
Mixed
18%
Negative
0%
Members say
Great acting, Clever, Entertaining, Absorbing, Funny

About the Show

Irish Rep presents this one-man comedy starring Colin Hamell as a Belfast shipyard worker named Jimmy Boylan, as well as more than 20 other characters whose lives were connected to the doomed ocean liner.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (34)

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774 Reviews | 246 Followers
85
Absorbing, Resonant, Quirky, Funny, Thought-provoking

See it if Actor plays “Jimmy” from the Titanic and other people from 1912 and in heaven. Good depth and humor. Pride in our work outlasts disaster.

Don't see it if You aren’t interested in a fun offbeat solo show where the actor is playing a crew member one minute and Angel Gabriel the next.

380 Reviews | 138 Followers
80
Absorbing, Clever, Entertaining, Great acting, Masterful

See it if you have an interest in the Titanic and enjoy watching an actor masterfully portray many characters -- on earth and in heaven.

Don't see it if you are offended by somewhat sacrilegious depictions.

14 Reviews | 5 Followers
68
Great acting, Great accents, Historical fiction, One man

See it if You like historical fiction. You are charmed by Irish accents. Have lived in Ireland. You like minimalist productions.

Don't see it if You dislike one man shows. If you are looking to learn about Titanic.

6 Reviews | 2 Followers
87
Great acting, Hilarious, Refreshing, Clever, Delightful

See it if You like great acting and amazing accents or delightfully dark humor

Don't see it if You know you don't like one man shows

4 Reviews | 2 Followers
63
Ambitious, Slow, Refreshing

See it if You want to see how many characters one actor can bring to life! It's an ambitious script for a one-man show and Mr. Hamell is engaging.

Don't see it if There are SO many characters that it is, at times, difficult to differentiate them.

179 Reviews | 29 Followers
During previews
100
Funny, Great acting, Great staging, Great writing, Absorbing

See it if Told from the perspective of a coal trimmer, this fascinating epic tale intertwines more than two dozen characters real and imaginary

Don't see it if you do not like storytelling Read more

50 Reviews | 18 Followers
During previews
95
Clever, Ambitious, Funny, Great acting, Profound

See it if Enjoy one-man shows performed by an amazing actor. Show is clever and fast paced.

Don't see it if You do not enjoy one-man shows.

78 Reviews | 12 Followers
During previews
93
Clever, Great acting, Great writing, Hilarious, Thought-provoking

See it if Want to see an extremely funny, well written play that never becomes boring.

Don't see it if You’re easily offended by religious humour. Read more

Critic Reviews (12)

Theatermania
January 30th, 2018

"An unabashedly strange solo play...Stars an enthusiastic Hamell...Far shorter and more intimate than the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster, yet it manages to pack in just as much schmaltz...All of his characters are given distinctive voices and physicality...Unlikely to offer anything new to disaster aficionados. Through his affable presence and sheer force of will, though, Hamell manages to keep this show afloat just long enough for us to safely disembark."
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Lighting & Sound America
February 6th, 2018

"McMullan creates some lively and unusual situations...Far too much...is concerned with Jimmy's antics in heaven...These cutesy astral-plane comedy routines are jarringly out of sync with the passages focused directly on the Titanic disaster...As a result, the evening coasts on the skill of Hamell...But even he can't keep 'Jimmy Titanic' from feeling tediously overextended...Has its moments, but overall, it is a leaky dramatic vessel, overloaded with ideas, few of which get fully realized."
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CurtainUp
January 31st, 2018

"Prepare to laugh and cry...No question that the piece has a serious underlining...The chief delight here comes from watching Hamell bring alive those 20-odd characters. He unabashedly dives in and inhabits crew members, the millionaire John Jacob Astor, a New York Times editor, the narrator, and more...Much depends of course on O'Reilly's seamless direction...Written for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, the production is still floating along just fine."
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Theater Pizzazz
February 2nd, 2018

"Hamell is a wonder to behold, moving energetically from one scene to the next in rapid-fire flashbacks, careening through time and place and running the gamut of emotion...McMullan, packs a great deal of substance into 75 minutes of play and he does it with a delicacy of storytelling that’s titanic in itself...O'Reilly kept the pace moving briskly and helped navigate the piece with a steady, sure hand."
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Theatre's Leiter Side
February 3rd, 2018

“Time jumps around nonlinearly and sometimes confusingly, with scenes both in heaven and on earth…Some of this is informative, some of it satiric, some of it touching…But the specifics of what happened…are too often mingled with snarky diversions, especially the extraneously jokey stuff about Jimmy's fun life after death…Hamell…is consistently energetic and charismatic. He doesn't nail all the accents, though,…and it's occasionally difficult to separate one character from another.”
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W
January 31st, 2018

"Portraying over 20 characters...actor Hamell shape-shifts with the best of them. A wide variety of accents are employed. Most offer distinctive cadence...Performance is energetic, and impressively focused...Playwright McMullen's perspective manages to be at once original, moving, humorous, and informative. You can't help but be thoroughly entertained...As the unsophisticated, jaunty, likeable Jimmy, Hamell is irresistible."
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This Week in New York
February 14th, 2018

"The scenes on board the ship are genuinely gripping as Hamell reveals how passengers of different backgrounds, from class to ethnicity to gender, faced peril. Whenever McMullan steers the story back up to heaven, the energy is drained...The show drags a bit until it shifts back to the commotion rising on the ship...Despite its drawbacks, 'Jimmy Titanic' offers a unique and compelling view of one of the worst tragedies of the twentieth century, focusing on the men behind the scenes."
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BroadwayWorld
June 25th, 2013
For a previous production

"A decidedly different point of view...Through a variety of accents, tones of voice, mannerisms, and postures, Hamell clearly differentiates the characters...'Jimmy Titanic' sinks or swims on the talents of the solo performer. Hamell has both comedic and dramatic acting chops...However, his greatest asset for this role is his storytelling ability and the connection he makes with the audience."
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