For some reason, the Titanic seemed to have one of its biggest cultural moments in 1997, 85 years after the maritime disaster occurred.

Not only did the stage show Titanic: The Musical make its Broadway debut on April 23, 1997 (just days after the anniversary of the ship’s demise), and then go on to win five Tony Awards, including best musical; but also, in November 1997, James Cameron’s blockbuster film Titanic premiered, broke numerous box office records, and bagged 13 Oscars (including best picture and best director).

Of course, when I told people I’d be seeing a production of Titanic: The Musical at the Power Center, presented by the University of Michigan Department of Musical Theatre from April 17-20, I quickly felt compelled to add, “It’s not about Jack and Rose.”

The hit movie is the Titanic property most people are familiar with, not surprisingly; and there’s a reason theater lovers have had precious few opportunities to see a live production of Titanic: The Musical: like the titular ship, the show is jaw-droppingly enormous in scope, with a huge cast (passengers in first, second, and third class, the ship’s crew and servers, etc.) and ambitious tech demands to match.

This is likely why Saturday marked my first-ever opportunity to see the celebrated musical. With soaring music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, and a book by Peter Stone, the show is a true ensemble piece, opting to tell the stories of many on the ship instead of focusing on one or two lead characters. The reason for this seems obvious: The scale of the tragedy casts a wide net, so why shouldn’t a show about it aim to do the same?

Even so, the choice comes with an emotional cost: because we get mere glimpses of many (while also already knowing how this all ends), our attention and investment are spread too thin to feel particularly moved by any of it.

That having been said, you’d be hard-pressed to find a production of Titanic: The Musical anywhere (New York included) that looks and sounds even half as good as U-M's. From Suzanne Young’s gorgeous costumes—era-appropriate, lushly textured, and meticulously detailed, paired with hair and makeup by Brittany Crinson—to music director Tyler Driskill’s flawless orchestra (not to mention the students’ goosebump-inducing vocals), the show was, from top to bottom, a theatrical marvel.

Among the characters who appear in the show are ship designer Thomas Andrews (Sutton Kaylor); below-decks lead coal stoker Frederick Barrett (Jason Mulay Koch), who aims to marry his girl upon his return; Captain Edward J. Smith (Landon Wouters) and radio man Harold Bride (Nile Andah); a pregnant young Irishwoman named Kate McGowan (Audrey Graves), in third class, who befriends two other Irish Kates on board and woos Jim Farrell (Brendan Dallaire); several members of the aristocracy, like Isador (Lleyton Allen) and Ida Straus (Elle Michaels), of Macy’s department store fame; Bruce Ismay (Drew Perez Harris), the White Star Line chairman who keeps pressing Captain Smith to make the ship go faster; and second class passenger Alice Beane (Abigail Aziz), who longs to rub elbows with the rich, and her beleaguered hardware businessman husband Edgar (Logan Krushinski).

Director André Garner keeps the show’s pace brisk without ever rushing, so that each scene gets its emotional due while the transitions in between happen quickly and quietly (a small miracle, given the number of locales depicted). Meanwhile, Molly Garner’s choreography works so beautifully and seamlessly to tell the story of these people—their awe, hope, blind spots, love, and fear—that it’s hard to imagine it being improved upon. In addition, lighting designer Shelby Loera, sound designer Patrick Schrock, and scenic designer Eli Sherlock work in tandem to pull off a theatrical miracle, making us feel as though we’re watching the historic shipwreck happen live before our eyes.

And while the ensemble was uniformly impressive, some extra-memorable performances included Koch and Andah—particularly during the scene they share to sing “The Proposal” and “The Night Was Alive”; and Allen and Michaels’ heartbreaking rendition of “Still,” wherein the elderly Strauses celebrate their love one last time while staying aboard the sinking ship.

But my very favorite number of the show, bookending the start and the end, brought every performer onto the stage, singing about the sublime wonder that was the Titanic, and how it had inspired the world to dream—thus capturing that soul-stirring, hopeful moment, made all the more wrenching by our knowledge of what happens next, in glorious, rafter-raising song.

I mean, is it any wonder the world was seduced by the siren call of the Titanic?

Jenn McKee is a former staff arts reporter for The Ann Arbor News, where she primarily covered theater and film events, and also wrote general features and occasional articles on books and music.