Titaníque, the off-Broadway parody sensation, has found a home at Broadway’s St. James Theatre for a limited engagement. It is great, silly fun, loaded with familiar songs, concocted by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, and Tye Blue. The trio has already earned numerous honors for Titaníque, including Obies for the original off-Broadway production, Olivier Awards for the London production, and four Tony Award nominations.
If you’ve seen the movie, or any of the dozens of movies and documentaries about the wreck of the Titanic on her maiden voyage, it’s not necessary to relate the plot here. The conceit is that the story of what really happened to the luxury liner Titanic is related by Céline Dion, who claims she was on board that fatal night. She tells her version of the story, which strangely resembles the plot of the movie Titanic, complete with characters from the film: the ship’s Captain; a seaman; socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater, her mother, Ruth, and her fiancé, Cal Hockley; artist Jack Dawson; and American millionairess Molly Brown.
As a director, Tye Blue is a skillful ringmaster, guiding the wildly comedic nonsense with a firm hand. Mindelle’s Céline Dion is a dead-on parody, complete with French-Canadian accent and a floor length gold lamé gown. Rousouli plays Jack Dawson less as a love-struck lower-class boy and more as a Broadway leading man. Melissa Barrera makes a lovely, independent-minded Rose, torn between true love with Jack and the social and financial expectations of her mother Ruth, played by Jim Parsons in not-quite-full drag. John Riddle is the venal, snobbish Cal Hockley, who gifts Rose with a sapphire necklace big enough to serve as an elephant’s headpiece. Grammy-nominated singer Deborah Cox plays Molly Brown, while veteran gay actor-singer Frankie Grande plays Victor Garber playing the Captain (who just loves all his Seamen). Finally, Broadway newcomer Layton Williams not only plays a Seaman but pulls off a dazzling turn as Tina Turner playing the Iceberg.
The show is played out on a multi-level set that serves for all the levels of the ship, created by Gabriel Hainer Evensohn and Grace Laubacher for the design group Iron Bloom Creative Production. Alejo Vietti’s costumes run the gamut from early 20th Century haute couture to everyday working class to ocean liner crew uniforms, including a shimmering, fringe-laden costume for Williams’ portrayal of Tina Turner/Iceberg. The imaginative lighting of Paige Seber and Lawrence Schober’s sound design enhance the antics happening on stage. Rounding out the musical end of things is Geoffrey Ko, leading an 18-piece on-stage orchestra, and three background vocalists (Sarah Gallo, Polanco Jones Jr., and Kristina Leopold)
Titaníque is frenetic and funny, with physical antics and outrageous puns and jokes. The score is not original, but does contain many familiar songs, including “My Heart Will Go On”, “River Deep Mountain High”, the title song from “Beauty and the Beast”, and “Who Let the Dogs Out?” It’s a version of history as seen in a fun house mirror, wanting nothing more than to make you give in to its own tangled logic. If what you want is a night of sheer laugh-out-loud entertainment, purchase yourself a ticket and set sail on the Titaníque!
Titaníque is presented at the St. James Theatre, 246 West 44th Street in New York, through Sept. 20. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to titaniquebroadway.com.
