Director Don Stephenson delivers an elegant, thoughtful production of the Tony-winning musical "Titanic" this week at the Muny. It has never before played the open-air theater, where the stage matches the show's title.

The cast is superb and the orchestra, under musical director Kevin Stites, sounds as lush as velvet. The dramatic set, designed by Michael Anania, and the gorgeous clothes from Kansas City Costumes make the show look as rich as the liner's first-class passengers.

If "Titanic" measured up to all this care, it would be quite an evening. But instead, this ensemble show lacks the center usually provided by leads, playing characters we can relate to. It's like looking through binoculars the wrong way.

The complex music, by composer/lyricist Maury Yeston, further keeps us at a distance - and the words are often difficult to understand. Of course, we know the story already; we aren't really looking for information. But we do need a way in.

The actors try to provide that, with sharp sketches of some of the people on the doomed voyage. They include Henry Stram as the dedicated first-class steward, Telly Leung as the smart young radioman and Jessica Grove as an Irish girl dreaming of a better life in America.

As Captain E.J. Smith, Joneal Joplin embodies self-discipline, erect in posture and crisp in speech. A song in which the captain, the ship's owner (William Youmans) and its designer (Tom Hewitt) trade angry accusations is one of the most emotional moments in the play, and the most apt. Of course they feel angry, guilty and eager to shift blame. It grows out of their terrible circumstance and their roles in creating it. As the lookout Frederick Fleet, Nick Cosgrove endows "No Moon" with similarly vivid emotion, particular to his time and place.

But in their commitment to "the big picture," the show's creators - Yeston and Peter Stone, who wrote the book - turn most of their characters into types, and most emotion into set pieces.

We know that a proposal implies love, so when the stoker Frederick Barrett (Ben Crawford) proposes to his girl at home, via radio, we allow ourselves to sigh, encouraged by Crawford's rich, beautiful voice. When the Strauses (Ron Raines and Claudia Catania), the long-married owners of Macy's, reaffirm their love as they face death together, it's touching. But it's also pro forma, disconnected from these particular characters. We barely know them.

Musicals don't have to be happy and bright, even though that's what we tend to expect at the Muny. But there are plenty of exceptions. "West Side Story," a masterpiece, is a tragedy that we appreciate because we come to care about its lead characters, Tony and Maria.

Real-life tragedies can inspire musicals, too. World War II may be too big for the musical stage, but in "South Pacific" Nellie and her Frenchman give it a human scale. "Titanic" doesn't have a Maria and Tony, or a Nellie and Emil. It has an ensemble, and even an excellent one just isn't the same thing.