ajhlovestheatre

TITANIQUE 

co-authored by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue

directed by Tye Blue

Criterion Theatre, London – booking to 8 June 2025

running time: 1 hour 50 minutes no interval

https://london.titaniquemusical.com

Musical theatre doesn’t get much crazier than this. Titanique, the off-Broadway sleeper hit that marries the Céline Dion songbook to a jawdroppingly irreverent replay of the James Cameron blockbuster movie about the infamous passenger ship disaster, has docked in the West End amid much hilarity and mayhem. Tye Blue (who also directs), Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli (who respectively played Céline and Jack originally but sadly don’t repeat their performing work for London) have created a caffeinated campfest loaded with pop culture references, anachronisms, visual jokes and banging tunes. It doesn’t take itself remotely seriously and anybody turning up thinking this is a revival of the classy Maury Yeston-Peter Stone tuner Titanic is in for one hell of a shock. 

The show’s premise is that the divine Dion, interrupting a tour of the Titanic museum while dressed as a bag lady, was actually ON the ill-fated ocean liner and is keen to share her recollections, all while screlting in sequins of course. Blue, Mindelle and Rousouli adopt an attitude to the original story and their reinterpretation of it that might most accurately be described as scattershot. One of the ships mates is dressed as one of the Mario Brothers and named Luigi because, well, that’s what he looks like, a power-belting Molly Brown (Charlotte Wakefield, fabulous if a trifle youthful) is repeatedly referred to as Kathy Bates because that’s who played her in the film, and one of the movie’s other stars Victor Garber (gleeful Darren Bennett) is similarly commemorated. Meanwhile heroine Rose’s villainous fiancé Cal (Jordan Luke Gage, all hilarious snarls and pouts, with a roof-scraping vocal belt) has a face full of make up and a Grindr profile, and her scheming Mum is played by a man in an alice band with pigeons stuck to it (gorgeously scenery-chewing Stephen Guarino, imported from the American production) ….and wait til you see how they do the iceberg.

There’s audience interaction, lip synching à la Drag Race, a couple of improvisation sequences that don’t land as well here as they did in the New York original, a life size cardboard cutout of Patti LuPone gets bandied about for no very intelligible reason, and some ‘British-isms’ have been inserted (including references to The Traitors and Eastenders) for London. It’s tremendous fun, revelling simultaneously in its own ridiculousness and in the portentous seriousness of the film, even if Blue’s rumbustious staging still feels better suited to the basement comedy venue in Manhattan’s Chelsea district where it originated, than to a grand proscenium arch theatre. In that more modest setting, it was slightly less obvious that there are a couple of sections where the humour gets self-indulgent to the point of temporarily losing its audience or that the central romantic couple have one or two too many jokey duets.

These are comparatively small quibbles though in a piece of joyful theatrical frippery that knows exactly what it is and who it’s aimed at. Perhaps surprisingly for a show aimed so squarely at the funny bone, the musical aspect is stunning. Nicholas James Connell’s orchestrations and arrangements are fresh and vital, and played by a band that’s tighter than the sailors uniforms in those homoerotic Jean-Paul Gaultier perfume TV ads. The vocals are uniformly wonderful, and there are frequent moments where the company is singing en masse that take the breath away. Ellenore Scott’s choreography finds the sweet spot between slickness and the scrappy, off-the-wall quality that distinguishes Titanique from more conventional musicals.

A charismatic Lauren Drew sings up a storm and captures Céline’s unique combination of diva bravado and childlike enthusiasm but hasn’t, as yet, found the warmth, authority or sheer lunacy that made Mindelle’s original creation so memorable. The performance of the night comes from newcomer Kat Ronney as the much maligned Rose: a brilliant physical comedienne with a sensational, versatile voice, she unerringly locates the middle ground between sincerity and bonkers that drives this outlandish show, and she even looks a bit like Kate Winslet in the film. Opposite her, Rob Houchen isn’t perhaps a natural clown but has charming, athletic presence and terrific vocals. Layton Williams plays a couple of roles as, er, Layton Williams mostly but is great value. 

Ultimately, this is an almost aggressively feel-good night out. Yes, it’s a little baggy and messy, and worked better in a less glossy iteration and an unconventional performance space, but it’s more exhilarating than exhausting (just), the affection for La Dion is unmistakable and the camp joy generated is enough to power a dozen cruise ships. “My heart will go on” proclaim the lyrics of Titanic’s signature tune, a major hit for Céline Dion and here given the inevitable audience singalong treatment, and so, I suspect, will Titanique.