Iceberg, Dead Ahead!

When you hear names like Edwin L. Wallace and Neil Sugarman, you naturally think of musical theater. Well, maybe not. But that’s not stopping the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys — the association with which Messrs. Wallace and Sugarman are so intimately associated — from holding a fundraiser around the Broadway musical “Titanic,” which docks in Boston this spring.

The MATA has secured some 400 tickets for the June 22 performance of the Tony-winning musical, which is indeed about a big boat that hits an iceberg and sinks but otherwise has nothing in common with the recent blockbuster movie.

Boston attorney Douglas K. Sheff is sort of the “cruise director” for this first-ever MATA “Evening at the Theater” and, according to sources, he’s been seen lately carrying around a wad of tickets in his suit pocket that he will happily peddle to lawyers he bumps into.

Some Lawyers Weekly theater aficionados who have already caught “Titanic” in New York insist that those who give in to Sheff’s hard-sell will not be disappointed — as long as they don’t step into the Wang Center expecting to see a singing and dancing Leonardo DiCaprio.

This “Titanic,” according to our theater spies, is a semi-operatic entertainment that is practically devoid of special effects, relying instead on creative staging to suggest the tragic events. And, although it is very much a musical, that grating Celine Dion song which inflicted severe emotional distress on an entire nation is nowhere to be found in it. (Insert sigh of relief here.)

The MATA, which is using the “Titanic” benefit to help establish the Massachusetts Consumer Law Foundation, says that ticket sales have already been brisk but that reservations can still be made by calling (617) 248-5858. Or, of course, you can just stop Doug Sheff in the hallway, in the courthouse, even in the middle of an opening argument, and we suspect he’d be happy to sell you a pair of seats on the aisle.