By Ben Lerner
With yesterday’s Tony nominations announcement, the 2025-2026 Broadway season has come to a close. Full of ups and downs, hits and flops, and some big surprises, the season’s offerings spanned genre, budget, and tone, including some of the more intense productions in recent memory (Oedipus, Bug, and Ragtime, to name a few). Titanique, the newly opened Titanic parody/Celine Dion jukebox musical, which received four Tony nominations, is firmly in another camp – the campy camp, to be specific! And unlike the infamous doomed voyage that inspired it, this show delivers exactly what it sets out to.
A transfer from its hit Off-Broadway run at the Daryl Roth Theatre, Titanique has set sail at the St. James, a large, three-level, traditional Broadway theater that generally houses big-budget or classic musicals. There are a few added bits and a larger set, but the satirical, referential script and the dinky costumes/props to match the tone are unchanged. Those expecting flawless vocals, perfectly tight choreography, and expensive costuming that most Broadway musicals provide may be briefly taken aback by the kitsch factor in a huge venue that hosted Sunset Boulevard last season – but most will get used to the vibe as the lower-budget, lower-brow, high-camp parody it’s meant to be. Lovers of the Off-Broadway run would only be disappointed if they expected the transfer to reinvent the wheel and rework itself into a bigger show more traditionally suited for The Great White Way. Titanique is a parody a la Forbidden Broadway, so it does not and does not intend to do so.
For those who missed it and are wondering if it’s now worth the trip… ‘shall we go for it?’ First, ask yourself if you’re a fan of any of the following: 1) Titanic, the 1997 film; 2) Celine Dion’s personality and discography; 3) theatre-related inside jokes; and 4) near-constant references to gay/LGBTQ culture. If you feel nothing for these four topics, I’d look elsewhere. But if you enjoy multiple or all of them, like this reviewer, you’ll feel it’s a tailor-made extravaganza conceived from the corners of your own mind.
In fact, Titanique is conceived by original stars Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli with director Tye Blue, whose laugh-a-minute book was just Tony-nominated, alongside the production for Best Musical. Mindelle stars as emcee/narrator Celine Dion, retelling her version of the Titanic story with her own catalogue of music, save for “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” (rights issue). Rousouli plays Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack Dawson appropriately and hilariously as an dancing, “aging twink” in tight pants earnestly wooing Rose. Mindelle is a genius impressionist and deservedly received one of the show’s two acting nominations, even if her and Rousouli’s vocals may not match the level of certain costars, or, of course, Celine herself.
The other Tony-nominated actor is vocal standout Layton Williams, who won an Olivier Award for originating this track on London’s West End – I won’t spoil which legendary songstress the Iceberg transforms into for a showstopping drag number. Vocally, the other standouts were John Riddle as Cal, Rose’s fiancé, also reprising his role from off-Broadway, and cast newcomer (but longtime music veteran) Deborah Cox as the “unsinkable” Molly Brown, whose “All By Myself” blows the roof off the St. James.
Along with Cox, the new additions to the Broadway transfer are Melissa Barrera as Rose, Frankie Grande as Victor Garber as the ship’s captain, and Jim Parsons as Rose’s bitter mother Ruth. While Williams, Riddle, and Cox’s vocals often outshine other cast members, the strongest comedy comes courtesy of Mindelle as Dion and, perhaps more unexpectedly, Jim Parsons (Our Town, The Big Bang Theory) as an iconically scene-stealing Ruth. His voice is the least strong, but it simply doesn’t matter due to the character’s deadpan one-liners and slapstick comedy, complete with slaps. In sum, what certain performers like Jim Parsons or Marla Mindelle may lack in vocal prowess they more than make up for in their comedy, while Deborah Cox and Layton Williams are there to provide the classic top-tier Broadway belting needed to balance it. It feels apt that one of the comic standouts (Mindelle) and one of the vocal showstoppers (Williams) were those singled out by the Tonys, along with Mindelle, Blue, and Rousouli’s hilarious script.
At times, Titanique is silly, campy, stupid, ridiculous, amateur, and farcical. It’s also laugh-out-loud funny and a delight from start to finish. No, it will not be everyone’s cup of tea or sense of humor, and many without prior connections to Dion, Titanic, Broadway shows, or queer culture may find a lot is lost in translation, leaving them underwhelmed by a low-budget parody on a Broadway stage, with prices to match. But those who get it will get it. If you’ve ever enjoyed a karaoke singalong to “My Heart Will Go On,” a RuPaul’s Drag Race “lipsync for your life” reenactment, a fully improvised fourth-wall-breaking section, or an SNL parody, book yourself a voyage on Titanique – it’s a gay old time.
