LARRY KEITH: Nick Davis To Isidor Straus

JULIA C. MEAD

There is too little sportsmanship today, too little integrity, too little self-sacrifice, nobility, profound commitment. "We think it is not enough to triumph. Your enemy should suffer."

And that, said Larry Keith, a veteran of Broadway musical theater and television, is the example that Isidor Straus, the character he plays in "Titanic: The Musical," could teach modern-day men.

Mr. Keith, with his gentlemanly reserve, regal bearing, and aristocratic baritone, is well suited for the role of Mr. Straus, the Abraham & Straus and Macy's department stores owner, who, by all accounts, was a gracious, dignified, and kindhearted man. He died on the Titanic after declining a place in one of the few lifeboats. His wife, Ida, died with him, refusing to leave his side.

Personal Affinity

Mr. Keith has played the role eight times a week since the show opened two years ago, not counting a two-week vacation at his Amagansett house begun last week.

Legs crossed, seated on a sofa placed to maximize a view of the ocean, Mr. Keith said he felt a personal affinity for Mr. Straus, for his Old World manners and morals. Playing that role has been inspiring, he said, but also has been an unhappy reminder of just how much things have changed.

"To Isidor and Ida Straus, there was something more important than staying alive: staying together. We are, today, a society of people seeking personal gratification as quickly as possible. It's who gets the cab first. We seem to value that more than the quality of how we interrelate."

Mr. Keith has owned his house on Marine Boulevard for 21 years and in that time has done personal battle with the sea, adding 100 feet of beach with snow fencing and beach grass to his property. He now is embroiled in a more trifling conflict with the East Hampton Town Zoning Code that is holding up expansion of his modest house.

But he seems willing to concede defeat: "I don't want an unpleasant fight with the town, but this does not make any sense to me at all."

Mr. Keith calls himself a creature of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s - each decade, in a different way, imparted a sense of "integrity" and "innocence," he said.

Public School

He was raised in Crown Heights, a mostly Jewish and Italian, middle-class neighborhood near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, by parents who had "suffered through the Depression and had that mentality." The family never had much money but shared a rich intimate family life and spirit of inventiveness born of necessity.

Public schools presented him with the opportunity to sing and perform, Mr. Keith said, noting that many such programs are now considered "froth" and are the first to fall "to budget cuts."

Singing in ensembles taught him "cooperation, blending, listening to others . . . how a group can create something of surpassing beauty."

Broadway Roles

He studied at Brooklyn College and then at Indiana University's Graduate School of Music, intending a career in classical composition and performance. He ended up in New York, in some of the best roles of the moment.

Among his five appearances on Broadway, he was Honore La Chailles in "Gigi" - the father role played in the film by Maurice Chevalier, who has all the best songs - and as Professor Higgins in "My Fair Lady."

He has been in a dozen Off Broadway productions, including the title role in "The Rise of David Levinsky" and in Anne Meara's "After-Play." In summer and regional theater, he recreated Professor Higgins and played Thomas Becket in "Becket" and Woody in "Finian's Rainbow."

Soap Opera, Too

This summer, he was the narrator for an all-Mozart concert by the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, accompanying the music by reading some of Mozart's and his father's letters.

His is a familiar voice, having been heard in hundreds of radio and television commercials, and his face is well known from many guest appearances on such television shows as "N.Y.P.D. Blue" and "Law and Order."

But Mr. Keith is perhaps most widely known for a television role he played on and off for 25 years, Nick Davis, the father-in-law and, for a brief time, the lover of the conniving, raven-haired, and oft-married Erica on the popular daytime soap "All My Children."

One of the original cast members, Mr. Keith left after realizing that he and Erica, played by another East End resident, Susan Lucci, "would never be a great couple."

Leap Of Faith

When he first heard rumors of a musical about the Titanic, he scoffed. "You've got to be kidding. . . . Why not do the Hindenburg next?" he wondered. He auditioned, he said, more out of curiosity than anything else.

The stage was to be raked back to front and tilted right to left, ranging in various scenes from about 15 to 45 degrees. The producers warned that performing on such a surface for eight shows a week would be physically demanding.

"I made the leap of faith and have never once been sorry for it," said Mr. Keith.

He described the talents and creativity of Richard Jones, the director, Peter Stone, an Amagansett resident who wrote the book, and the rest of the cast and crew, warmly.

Ensemble Work

He describes an enthusiasm for ensemble performance, which is particularly apropos given that, in "Titanic: The Musical," the primary storytelling device is to build up a sense of monumental tragedy by offering the personal stories of one passenger after another. There are no starring roles.

The musical's overall dramatic impact is of enormous personal loss, whereas the Hollywood film (and here Mr. Keith warms to the comparison) "gives the enormous image and scope of the physical tragedy."

"We can't do that in the theater. We give the personal, the intimate. Each passenger stands for something."

Emotional Climax

The symbolism is never so apparent as in his and Alma Cuervo's portrayal of Mr. and Mrs. Straus. Unlike "those two insipid children" who were the focus of the film, which Mr. Keith found "rather boring," Isidor and Ida Straus were in their mid-60s and had been married 41 years when the Titanic hit an iceberg.

Their duet "Still" is the emotional climax of the show, their characters' gestures of loyalty and bravery standing, in true theatrical form, for the many others who chose to go down with the ship.

"These people over 60 say something far more profound about love and commitment. They had an unbreakable bond. The show uses the Biblical quote from Ruth - 'Where you go, I go' - and it gives the lie to the movie."

Film Inaccuracies

Mr. Keith also points out that the film has other historical inaccuracies. None is as galling to him as the scene in which Mr. and Mrs. Straus passively and despondently take to their bed to await the waters.

"Rubbish. They died on deck. Otherwise his body would never have been found." It was, dressed in a fur-lined coat and carrying a gold watch, a silver flask, and 40 British pounds. Neither the body of Mrs. Straus, nor that of John Farthings, her husband's manservant, were found.

"The essence of the Titanic tragedy wasn't told at all in the film. It could have been about the Andrea Doria or any other ship."

Despite mixed reviews when it opened, the musical won five Tony nominations, set new house records at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, and its compact disk has broken sales records. The success is solid.

The film also broke a record, selling $600 million worth of cinema seats in the United States. It went into video unusually early, with 20 million copies going on sale this week.

Mr. Keith said he was of two minds about the film, scornfully calling it a superficial "excuse for special effects," while acknowledging that the film-induced mania for anything and everything related to the disaster had helped the musical's ticket sales.

Extensive Research

As the film passed out of East Coast theaters, the mania waned a bit and the sale of tickets to the musical dipped accordingly, but only slightly. Fans, especially those who are not considered usual members of a Broadway audience, have continued to feed their appetite for anything Titanic-related by going to the show.

When he first heard rumors of a musical about the Titanic, he scoffed. "Why not do the Hindenburg next?" he wondered.

Mr. Keith and Ms. Cuervo did extensive research on their characters before the play opened, reading numerous articles and biographies written after the disaster, material provided by a descendant, and a draft autobiography Mr. Straus wrote in 1909, three years before the sinking.

What Mr. Keith found was a self-made, self-educated man whose family fled anti-Semitism in Germany in the 1850s and found success as merchants in the American South.

Contradiction?

As a young man, Mr. Straus tried unsuccessfully for admission to West Point, then offered the Confederacy a militia, which was rejected as being too green. Intent on serving the rebel government, he went to Europe as a trade liaison. The contacts he made served him in business after the war.

Mr. Keith finds the apparent contradiction of Mr. Straus's loyalty to the pro-slavery South and his being a Jew simplistic.

"He had dignity and a quiet kindness. How he made a profit mattered. . . . But you have to see him in the context of the times. Just because he had himself been discriminated against, that doesn't mean he was enlightened by current standards."

"Connect The Dots"

Asked how he develops the characters he portrays, Mr. Keith said it was essential to learn the details of the person's life.

"It's about what and how you do what you do. The 'what' is the tasks, objectives, and intentions. The 'how' distinguishes character. I played with Barbara Barrie once, and she said you have to connect all the dots before you can play the moment fluidly."

Despite his affinity for Isidor Straus, Mr. Keith admits they are dissimilar in significant ways.

"I have integrity, kindness, and fairness, but I'm quite capable of being undignified in my social life. I'm not an Edwardian-age millionaire or a turn-of-the-century immigrant. And I don't have his clear centeredness. . . . I'm in show business. I have the 'whats' of Isidor Straus but different 'hows.' "