Celine Dion! That Voice! Those chart-topping hits! “My Heart Will Go On,” that globe-resounding James Horner-Will Jennings Titanic theme!
You might think it a bit of an honor for Dion to be the focal figure/narrator of Titanique, a stage parody that opened off-Broadway in 2022 to generally welcoming reviews and closed in 2025, only to reopen on Broadway right now. That’s after the property won Olivier awards in London.
This is a version enlarged by set designers Gabriel Hainer Evansohn & Grace Laubacher for Iron Bloom Creative Production, lighting designer Paige Seber, sound designer Lawrence Schober and costume designer Alejo Vietti, all working full steam ahead.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★☆☆ review here.]
Reviewer’s disclosure: I missed the downtown run, not deliberately. I meant to catch up with it but somehow let it slide. I also didn’t look at it in the West End. So, I remained unaware of the enterprise’s contents, book by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, and Tye Blue—Mindelle appearing as Dion, Rousouli as the film’s Jack Dawson (the Leonardo DiCaprio role), and Blue directing. At least I assume they’ve had those assignments all along.
Now I’ve seen Titanique. And? And I regret to say it doesn’t sail breezily through my own Strait of Hormuz, not even were it to agree on paying an exorbitant toll.
Instead, I disappointedly report that Titanique—narrated by uncanny Dion lookalike Mindelle as an arch diva—is my idea of lowbrow entertainment at its just about lowest. What else might you say of a comic endeavor that receives its biggest laugh (or very close to the biggest) with the line—wait for it—“Go f*** yourself”? Unasterisked, of course.
Furthermore and along the lines of too many contemporary entertainments, the much-repeated f-word is often joined before its 90-minute fade-out by the repeated s-word and only once by the c-word. (Is there a record somewhere of obscenities spoken aboard the Titanic, especially in the immediate moments after striking the iceberg? Would be interesting to compare.)
The wearying current dirty words phenomenon is likely due to the plethora of writers and producers rightly convinced that today’s audiences will respond heartily and often vociferously to the sour dialogue and the numerous obscene innuendos and puns.
Puns? Oh yes, there’s a surfeit of those titter-provokers, more than a few times uttered by actors brandishing self-satisfied and/or naughty expressions. The effect is enough to cause embarrassment for those who find them amusing. You want an example? Okay: The apparently repeated mention of “seamen.” Get it? See, you’re already embarrassed for those busy bookwriters.
Of course, the Titanic plot is followed more or less and includes the major James Cameron film counterparts: Rose De Witt Bukater played here by Melissa Barrera, the unsinkable Molly Brown played by Deborah Cox, Cal Hockley played by John Riddle, Victor Garber as Thomas Andrews played by Frankie Grande, Iceberg played by Layton Williams, as well as Ruth De Witt Bukater played by Jim Parsons.
(As for Parsons: Enthusiastic thanks to him for his love of Broadway performing, although he might resist choosing items that feature unfunny bird-hats that belittle him.)
It behooves me to say right here that the cast members are awesome up and down the list. (The tired adjective “awesome” crops up in the text.) They’re actually more than awesome. They replace gas pumps with plenty of energy throughout, many of them used to the role demands, having already filled them for some time.
I admired all of them as they interpreted the clumsy spoof and look forward to seeing them in the future strut their considerable stuff with superior material. Yes, I’m talking about Mindelle, Rousouli, Barrera, Cox, Williams, and, well, the entire caboodle.
Williams, by the way, won an Oliver award for the acclaimed London production and this side of the pond takes on the best interlude, a full-bodied reprise of the Ike and Tina Turner “River Deep, Mountain High” (written, eternal thanks to them, by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich). The superb rock ‘n’ roll anthem is given full force by him, Cox, and eventually the entire cast. And remember that Celine Dion spectacularly covered the classic with her own, um, awesome power. Note: Ogling it on YouTube might be the best way to honor her.
At one point during the visually, aurally and splendiferously capitalized Titanique Molly Brown says, “Money can’t buy you class.” That bold and irrefutable fact is confirmed here.
Titanique opened April 12, 2026, at the St. James Theatre and runs through July 12. Tickets and information: titaniquebroadway.com
