(Marla Mindelle, center, and the cast of Titanique on Broadway. Credit Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

by Tim Leininger

NEW YORK — Most seasons, I would be wondering why a musical like Titanique is running on a Broadway stage. Written by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, and Tye Blue, directed by Blue, choreographed by Ellenore Scott, with music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Nicholas James Connell, it is an infectiously funny musical spoof of the blockbuster James Cameron movie Titanic, featuring the songs of Celine Dion, and has found its home at the St. James Theatre at 246 W. 44^th St., where it will likely stay for a good while for a solid run.

This Broadway season’s collection of new musicals has been thin, with only a couple real standouts among them, so an upstart off-Broadway darling like Titanique getting the chance to shine feels like, for once, a refreshing spritz of a cool ocean breeze versus a massive iceberg dead ahead. It’s a truth that the quality of the overall season can dictate the enjoyment of a show. If Titanique came out in 2015 or 2017, I would be looking at it and wondering what it is doing on a Broadway stage. But the condition of the new Broadway musical being what it is, Titanique is one of the best new musicals of the season. I acknowledge that it’s a backhanded compliment, but the conclusion is the same. Titanique is a fun little musical that parodies one of the biggest movies of all time in a way that is hilarious and irreverent. It feels, though, that it would have a better connection on an off-Broadway stage.

(The cast of TITANIQUE on Broadway. Credit: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

The premise is that Celine Dion, played with chest beating bravado by Marla Mindelle, visits one of the kitschy Titanic relics exhibits that tour the world and reveals that she was on the ship during its doomed maiden voyage, recounting the events of Jack Dawson (Constantine Rousouli) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Melissa Barrera), singing her greatest hits along the way. The whole thing is absurd, as the characters promptly point out, but we go to sea with her, experiencing the events of the movie played out in a breakneck 90 minutes. Along the way we get hilarious takes on the Jack’s drawing abilities, the size of the Gem of the Ocean, the cartoonish nature of characters like Cal Hockley (John Riddle), and melodramatic turns of characters like Molly Brown (Deborah Cox) and Ruth DeWitt Bukater (Jim Parsons).

The cast is hilarious. Parsons and Cox, in particular, really push their roles to absurd incomprehensibility, leaving the audience laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of their behaviors. When Layton Williams comes out, playing the iceberg that hits the Titanic singing “River Deep Mountain High” (which I didn’t even know Dion covered) the audience lost it. It was a great moment.

Alejo Vietti’s costume design helps keep the humor alive and fresh as well, with an absurd bird headpiece for Parsons, keeping the costumes for Jack and Rose identical to the film, and an outlandish get up for Williams as the Iceberg that’s definitely honoring “River Deep – Moutain High” originator Tina Turner more than Celine.

(Layton Williams as The Iceberg and cast of TITANIQUE. Credit Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

It’s the irreverence that makes Titanique work. If it took itself seriously at all, it would have been a tedious retelling of Titanic with an exhaustive jukebox score that minimally adds to the plot. Instead, having it as a parody, not only makes us laugh at the story, but the use of the songs as well, amplifying the silliness instead of making it ironically funny.

The problem with the show, though, is its size. It feels stretched out at the St. James versus the smaller The Asylum or Daryl Roth, where the show has previously lived. A show with this kind of personality feels like it would fit more at home in a place that has a bit more intimacy. The banter that Mindelle has with the audience would read so much funnier in a smaller house where she can get into the audience more.

Still, for a fluff musical parody, Titanique is a cut above must of the others that I’ve seen. Does it feel like it’s in a space that exceeds its limits? Yes. But the concept is so absurd, and the cast dedicate themselves to their parts with such abandon, that it works.

PRODUCTION

Book by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, and Tye Blue; Music Supervision, Orchestrations & Arrangements by Nicholas James Connell; Director: Tye Blue; Choreographer: Ellenore Scott; Music Director: Geoffrey Ko; Scenic Designers: Gabriel Hainer Evansohn & Grace Laubacher for Iron Bloom Creative Production; Costume Designer: Alejo Vietti; Lighting Designer: Paige Seber; Sound Designer: Lawrence Schober; Hair & Wig Designer: Charles G. LaPointe; Associate Director; Billie Aken-Tyers; Associate Choreographer: Jeffrey Gugliotti; Production Stage Manager: Rick Steiger; Casting: The Telsey Office, Rachel Hoffman, CSA; Music Contractor: Kimberlee Wertz; Marketing Supervision: Brand-Nexus, Michele Groner; Advertising: Situation; Press Representation: Vivacity Media Group; Director of Ticketing and Revenue: Brent McCreary; Production Management: Bethan Weinstein Stewart; Company Manager: Lizbeth Cone; General Management: ShowTown Theatricals, Megan Curren

CAST

Marla Mindelle as Celine Dion

Constantine Rousouli as Jack Dawson

Melissa Barrera as Rose DeWitt Bukater

John Riddle as Cal Hockley

Jim Parsons as Ruth DeWitt Bukater

Frankie Grande as Victor Garber/Luigi

Deborah Cox as Molly Brown

Layton Williams as The Seaman/Iceberg

Sara Gallo, Polanco Jones, Jr., Kristina Leopold as Background Vocalists