The tale of the sinking of the Titanic is an epic one and any telling of it therefore needs to be on a matching scale.

Titanic: The Musical meets that criterion and Worthing Musical Comedy Society must be congratulated for its boldness in tackling a mammoth task with its huge cast and numerous scene changes.

The story will be well known through the various film versions which have been made. Mercifully this version is free from any saccharine love story and instead concentrates on the reason for the tragedy. It is the obsession of the owner, Ismay, to cross the Atlantic in record time and the Captain's weakness in caving into him that provides the show's dramatic tension.

Around this centrepiece are woven a few vignettes of the passengers and crew illustrating the class structure of a cruise liner and the social aspirations of the travellers.

In particular, there is a fine comic thread of a second-class passenger trying to gatecrash the world of the first class.

The show is weakest in its second half and this is due, in the main, to the book. It contains a number of scenes which are superfluous and mawkish. For example, the dramatic tension is broken between the scenes where the passengers embark on the lifeboats and when the survivors recount the last moments of the boat.

The show's score is dramatic and its lushness is well-served by having a large orchestra which does the music justice. However, the downside is that, at times, the cast have to fight, and not always successfully, to be heard lyrics and dialogue being difficult to hear.

The success of the show lies in the superb choral numbers rather than in the individual ones.

The haunting melody of Ship Of Dreams is developed as a recurring motif throughout and is matched by the anthemic Godspeed Titanic. In contrast there is the wistful Lady's Maid and the jaunty Doing The Latest Rag.

Particularly effective is the number Blame wherein the owner, captain and architect accuse each other for the ship's failure.

Showing until Saturday, November 12, call 01903 206206.