Humble Thoughts

You think cruise ship, you typically imagine poolside cocktails, a bevy of buffets, or the gift shop’s line of kitschy swag.

Yet most, if not all, house a stage that offers escape from it all. Equipped with plush seating, spotlights, and even door greeters who are forced to laugh at the guests most banal jokes, a ship’s theatre boasts it all: comedians, cover bands, musicals, and all that jazz.

Every week the contracted singers and dancers of the ship headline a professionally produced production; a flashy, if not streamlined “greatest hits” of the world’s premium theatrical epicentres: New York and London. Can you guess its title? Yep, West End to Broadway. Clever…

Evidently, in light of a new cast turnaround, I was asked to produce a promo – later to be shown in heavy rotation on the ship’s TV schedule – that essentially captures the experience of “being there.”

My end result was impressionistic approach, condensing the 45 minute musical (of my own handheld camera work) into a comprehensible edited package of razzle-dazzle.

Bob Fosse, eat your heart out.