When Melissa Vartanian-Mikaelian learned her employer, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, was performing "Titanic" this season, she was "super excited," because the musical reminds her of the greatest love story she knows.
Her great-grandfather, David (Davit) Vartanian, an Armenian immigrant seeking a better life in North America, survived the Titanic sinking in 1912, and was reunited with his wife Mary 11 years later.
Decades later, when David's daughter Rose put her visiting grandchildren to bed, Melissa and her sister Jennifer would say, Tell us a story of when your Dad jumped off the Titanic.
More than a century after the British passenger liner foundered in the North Atlantic Ocean, interest remains high in the stories of people rich and poor who survived the sinking — and the more than 1,500 who didn't.
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The musical "Titanic," by Maury Yeston and Peter Stone, premiered in 1997, the same year as James Cameron's popular movie "Titanic," but they are not connected. The Broadway production won multiple Tony awards, including best musical and best original score.
Milwaukee Rep artistic director Mark Clements sees Cameron's movie as an action vehicle, but he says the musical concentrates more on characters, including the immigrants traveling third class and people like Fred Barrett, the Titanic's lead stoker.
But fear not, Clements promises plenty of visual spectacle in the Rep's staging of "Titanic." Performances begin April 5. With a cast of 30 actors, it will be one of the largest musicals the Rep has staged.
Vartanian-Mikaelian, the Rep's managing director, called it "very special" that "the place I have given 20 years of my career to is doing a production that has such historical relevance to my family. It is like my two worlds are colliding in a really beautiful way. I have felt truly honored that so many of my colleagues have taken an interest in hearing about my family history."
The Titanic sank on his birthdayDavid Vartanian married a fellow Armenian, Mary, in 1911. Soon after, he left the turbulent Ottoman Empire, with the plan of sending for Mary when he established himself.
He was in the ocean liner's steerage level with other passengers when the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 15, 1912 — his 22nd birthday.
"They knew something was happening. Exactly like in the movie, they broke down the gate so they could get out," his daughter Rose Vartanian told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl in a 2009 interview.
In that same interview, Rose Vartanian told Stingl that David, swimming in the icy water, grabbed onto a lifeboat. Passengers, fearing it would capsize, rapped on his hands to try to make him let go. That's the story Melissa Vartanian-Mikaelian heard growing up.
But when Melissa talked with the Brantford Expositor newspaper in Ontario for an article in 2012, she learned details about her great-grandfather's experience that made his survival even more remarkable.
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After being rescued and then treated for a few days in a New York hospital, David Vartanian arrived in Ontario. Shortly thereafter, he and another Armenian survivor were interviewed by the Expositor, which published an article in 1912 about their experiences.
Melissa learned that shortly before the Titanic foundered, David and some other men, none of whom spoke the same language, discovered a collapsible lifeboat that had not yet been lowered. Working together despite the language gap, they released it into the ocean. It started to wash away, so they jumped into the water and swam for it.
After going down twice, David managed to make the lifeboat with a "big swim," he told the Brantford journalist. Others already in it pulled him aboard.
Unfortunately, they had traveled only 20 yards or so when the collapsible lifeboat went down. Finding himself in the water again, David swam to another lifeboat where, this account says, others in that lifeboat paid little attention to him, so he managed to pull himself into it. He was one of the 700-plus survivors rescued by the RMS Carpathia.
As he established himself first in Canada and then in the United States, David Vartanian tried every means he could to get messages to his wife, Mary. He learned in 1915 that her village was raided during the Armenian genocide; he could no longer be certain even if she was alive.
Finally, he connected with her brothers, who had come over to work in the United States, learning that she had fled the genocide all the way to Syria, before eventually returning to her home village. David and Mary were finally reunited in 1923 at Niagara Falls.
The Vartanians settled in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he was known as Titanic David. "The lower half of my grandfather’s body had a bluish tint from being in the frigid water for so long, and remained that way,” his grandson Greg told a reporter for The Armenian Weekly in 2009.
“Dad never showed any further interest in swimming," Rose said.
At some point after the 1940 census, the Vartanians moved to Detroit, where David died in 1966.
Melissa said her grandmother Rose was "kind of obsessed" with all things Titanic, taking her and her sister to any event or exhibit related to the doomed ocean liner within driving distance. Rose felt, and Melissa herself feels, it is important to learn the history and honor both the souls that survived and the ones who didn't.
So Melissa was pleased when a major traveling exhibit of Titanic artifacts came to the Milwaukee Public Museum in 2008-'09.
She was home sick a day from work, watching "The Morning Blend" on WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) during its "Wedding Week" promotion, when she heard about a contest with the first prize of an expenses-paid wedding at the Titanic exhibit. Already involved in planning her wedding to Vache Mikaelian, Melissa entered and won the contest. She understands why some people might see the whole episode as incongruous. But to her, it was a way of honoring her legacy.
Her husband was completely on board.
"It’s her family history," he told Stingl in 2009. "It’s become an important story to me, too, now."
Melissa was in high school when the musical "Titanic" opened on Broadway. She bought the original cast recording on CD and listened to it "nonstop." She also bought the CD for her grandmother Rose to hear.
"I love the music, the score. The orchestrations are phenomenal. And it's so majestic," she said.
As the Rep's managing director, Melissa oversees human resources, facilities, information technology and other departments, so she is privy to artistic planning discussions, and she knew that performing "Titanic" had been under consideration for several years. It originally was scheduled for autumn 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic shutdown.
Of course she wants you to see the Rep's production of "Titanic." Mark Clements "has been really sincere in trying to honor the memory of all of those that lost their lives that night, or fought for their lives that night," she said. "I couldn’t imagine any better director to lead this massive production."
But she also hopes you will stay with this story after you leave the theater.
"Explore the people that were on this boat and their stories. Explore more about the ship and how it was built and why it was built and what happened afterwards," she said.
Contact Jim Higgins at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.
Milwaukee Repertory Theater performs the musical "Titanic" April 5-May 14 at the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, visit milwaukeerep.com or call (414) 224-9490.
