NEW YORK CITY—It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 30 years since Jack and Rose’s story first appeared in the movie “Titanic,” an epic tale of two young people who follow their hearts aboard the ocean liner as it speeds toward a rendezvous with an iceberg in the North Atlantic in April 1912.
A Take on a Classic Tale
The story is now being retold on stage in “Titanique,” as seen through the eyes of someone who claims to have actually been there. The musical is at Broadway’s St. James Theatre following a lengthy run downtown, with port stops in London, Australia, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
A tour guide at the Titanic Museum dutifully describes artifacts retrieved from the sunken ship until an elderly woman covered in newspaper and other debris remarks, “That’s not the way I remembered it.” She reveals herself to be none other than singer Cèline Dion (Marla Mindelle), with all signs of age immediately vanishing and proceeds to take everyone, audience included, back to her time on the ship.
As the ship prepares to leave port, we meet Jack Dawson (Constantine Rousouli), a roguish sort trying to earn enough at cards so he and friend Luigi (Frankie Grande) can book passage. We also meet lovely Rose DeWitt Bukater (Melissa Barrera), a young woman promised in marriage to the uptight, chauvinistic Cal Hockley (John Riddle). The union arranged by Rose’s iron-willed mother, Ruth (Jim Parsons), arranged the union and repeatedly reminds her daughter of their financial straits.
Jack and Rose are immediately drawn to one another despite their class differences. Also onboard: the future Unsinkable Molly Brown (Deborah Cox), a newly wealthy woman prone to social gaffes; Victor Garber (Grande), the ship’s captain and designer; and Garber’s trusty Seaman (Layton Williams).
What follows is part parody, part mashup, and part love letter to the 1997 film, with numerous cultural references tossed in. I stopped counting nods to musical theater at about a dozen. There are mentions of the actors from the movie, among them Kathy Bates, Leonardo DiCaprio, and of course, Victor Garber.
Holding court over all this is Mindelle, whose Cèline Dion persona inserts itself into almost every serious or intimate moment, often breaking into song. Mindelle, who co-wrote the book with Rousouli and Tye Blue, plays the role perfectly—over the top enough to draw laughs, but never so overbearing as to annoy.
The show gleefully parodies scenes from the film—the sketching scene, the Irish dancing—while constantly breaking the fourth wall. The cast makes repeated asides to the audience, each other, and the onstage orchestra. Parsons has a particularly hilarious moment when he grabs sheet music from a musician and screams at them to “Memorize! I did!” The sequence culminates with a wonderful “Gypsy” Momma Rose moment.
The cast also invokes moments of comic foreshadowing, reacting with double-takes when anyone mentions that the ship is unsinkable or lifeboats are in short supply. Their high-brow airs—the clinking of non-existent glasses—convey people quite ready to fiddle while Rome burns. Or in this case, sinks.
High-Notes and Hiccups
The show also has problems. It could easily lose 20 minutes; the creators didn’t always know when to quit. One cloying sequence features the Iceberg (Williams, channeling Tina Turner) making passengers lip-synch for a spot in a lifeboat. Lyrics and dialogue were also frequently difficult to hear, which diminished the overall impact.
Mindelle and Parsons are the standouts in an excellent cast. Rousouli and Barrera work well as the star-crossed lovers, while Cox proves to have an excellent singing voice as Molly Brown. The songs, many recorded by Dion fit the story well. Nicholas James Connell’s orchestrations are wonderful, and Alejo Vietti’s costumes are fun, including a candelabra-inspired look in a “Beauty and the Beast” moment. Charles G. LaPointe’s wig and hair work also deserves mention.
With a mostly firm grip on the wheel, “Titaníque” simply wants everyone to have a good time. Book passage soon.
‘Titaníque’
St. James Theatre
246 W. 44th St., New York
Tickets: TitaniqueBroadway.com
Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes (no intermission)
Open run
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