Titaníque, a sendup of the 1997 Oscar winner Titanic by way of the jukebox musical, shouldn’t work. On paper, there’s no reason to revisit James Cameron’s bombastic big-screen blockbuster, let alone to reframe the action as if Celine Dion were one of the main characters. “You just sang the theme song to the movie,” one of the show’s characters tells the French Canadian-accented songstress at the top of the show. “You weren’t actually on the Titanic.”
“Or was I?” Dion replies with a confident turn of her head to the audience. Marla Mindelle, who co-wrote Titanique and has starred as Dion throughout its lengthy Off Broadway run, may wind up convincing you that she was not only a passenger on that historic voyage but also a star of the movie — and perhaps of a dozen or so other Broadway musicals and movies that are referenced through this laugh-packed lark of a show. She physically inserts herself between star-crossed lovers Jack and Rose (Constantine Rousouli and Melissa Barrera) as they’re about to smooth and pops up through a parodic retelling of the movie’s story.
Mindelle is a cool and confident mistress of ceremonies who recalls a young Carol Burnett with her charisma and quick wit. At one point, she interrupts the story to embark on a lengthy bit of improv as Rousouli and Barrera attempt to mouth the words she’s inventing on the fly. (At my performance, she skewered Matthew Morrison on his return to Broadway in Just in Time, complete with a lengthy dig at the former Glee co-star who’s currently appearing in Chess a few blocks away.) But Mindelle also does a spot-on impression of Dion, from the exaggerated neck tilts to the unorthodox accent to the vibrato-heavy soprano she deploys on many of the star’s greatest hits. It’s not easy to mimic a pop diva, but Mindelle can flip into her head voice with convincing ease while still belting to the last row. (Note to Tony voters: She’s the real deal, carrying this entire show on her slender, bedazzle-gowned back.)
True to its downtown origins, Titaníque may be the campiest show currently running on Broadway. The script — a collaboration between Mindelle, Rousouli, and Tye Blue (who also directs) — is studded with cross-dressing characters, pop culture references, and groan-worthy double entendres that hearken back to the days of vaudeville or naughty variety shows. This sort of humor is not for everyone, but theater kids, gay men, and millennials will relish it. There’s fun to be had sourcing all the throwaway shout-outs to Chicago, “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy, and Nicole Schlesinger in Sunset Boulevard — as well as the nods to Britney Spears, the movie Scream, and RuPaul’s Drag Race.
John Riddle injects a closeted backstory for Rose’s snooty fiancé, Cal, while Layton Williams, who earned an Olivier nomination for the recent West End production, plays a ship seaman (cue the gay jokes) as well as the iceberg as embodied by a bygone pop diva. He’s a twinkly-toed delight who punctuates his big solo with the splits. (Choreography by Ellenore Scott.) Blue leans into the community-theater aesthetic with jokey costumes (by Alejo Vietti), absurd hair and wig design (by CharlesG. LaPointe), and deliberately low-rent props (by Gabriel Hainer Evansohn and Grace Laubacher). That duo also designed the sleek but simple tiered set, lit to concert-worthy perfection by Paige Seber, that Mindelle aptly compares to The Voice.
The script has also been updated to complement the show’s stunty castmates: Frankie Grande as Jack’s steerage buddy as well as the Titanic shipbuilder played by Victor Garber in the film (here addressed only as Victor Garber, star of “the hit movie Legally Blonde“); Billboard chart-topper Deborah Cox as the unsinkable Molly Brown (who belts out a soulful rendition of “All by Myself” aboard an empty lifeboat); and Jim Parsons as a corseted and deliciously bitchy version of Rose’s snooty mother (who stoops in front of the onstage orchestra to deliver a burst of flatulence he dubs “a big bang theory”).
Yes, the show feels padded in places and runs well over the 90-minute running time Mindelle promises from the stage — though it’s well under the three-hour tour of the S.S. Minnow of Gilligan’s Island and boasts a much higher laugh-to-punchline ratio. Plus, the hard-working, eager-to-please cast lean into the silliness of the material while delivering legitimately strong vocals on familiar tunes from Dion’s extensive catalog of hits. Titaníque, complete with that Frenchified accent to emphasize the final syllable, is one of the funniest musical comedies in years. It cruises into dock amid ocean-high waves of laughter. ★★★★☆
TITANÍQUE
St. James Theatre, Broadway
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes (with no intermission)
Tickets on sale through July 12 for $59 to $250