Weather 
Today, exactly 114 years after RMS Titanic sank to to the bottom of the North Atlantic, Titanique arrives in New York City at last. The splash-hit musical comedy inspired by the 1997 film Titanic and powered by the songs of Céline Dion, officially opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre.
The Broadway cast includes Marla Mindelle as Céline Dion, Jim Parsons as Ruth DeWitt Bukater, Melissa Barrera as Rose DeWitt Bukater, Deborah Cox as Molly Brown, Frankie Grande as Victor Garber, Constantine Rousouli as Jack Dawson, John Riddle as Cal Hockley, and Layton Williams as The Iceberg. Sara Gallo, Polanco Jones, and Kristina Leopold appear as background vocalists, with Tess Marshall, Brad Greer, and Kyle Ramar Freeman serving as understudies.
Written by Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle, and Constantine Rousouli, TITANIQUE reimagines the events of Titanic through the perspective of Dion, weaving the pop star’s songs into a comedic retelling of the story of Jack and Rose. Musical numbers include “My Heart Will Go On,” “All By Myself,” and “To Love You More,” performed with a live band.
Check out what the critcis are saying about the production…
Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times: Fortunately the romantic couple does a lot of cleanup work. Barrera, whose extensive screen credits include Vanessa in the movie version of “In the Heights,” makes an assured Broadway debut, filling with ease the difficult niche this Rose occupies: the funny ingénue. She has terrific scene partners in John Riddle as Rose’s smarmy fiancé, Cal, and in Rousouli, whose goofball Jack is mostly defined by wide-eyed enthusiasm and form-fitting pants. If anybody thought this kind of fare wasn’t ready for Broadway, well, “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” is playing across the street and “Oh, Mary!” is a couple of blocks away. “Titaníque” may be uneven, but at least it fits right in.
Matt Windman, amNY: The move to Broadway works against the show. What once felt scrappy and self-aware in a smaller setting now looks oddly exposed on a larger stage, its thin material fully laid bare. The trajectory recalls “Dames at Sea,” the affectionate parody of 1930s Busby Berkeley musicals that began at Caffè Cino in 1966 and later made its way to Broadway in 2015 — with similarly mixed results when scaled up beyond its intimate origins.
Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: 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.
Gillian Russo, New York Theatre Guide: Acclaimed though Titanique was for more than just silliness, the show’s expansiveness perhaps wasn’t as apparent in its smaller homes. Now, director Tye Blue’s production has a venue big enough to unfold to its full wingspan. Like Rose “flying” on the ship’s bow, it seems it’s been waiting to do that all along.
Kobi Kassal, Theatrely : Each star gets their moment to shine, but Layton Williams as the Iceberg not only steals the show, I have never witnessed audience members jump to their feet so quickly in any performance I’ve witnessed in a Broadway house. It’s a performance for the history books. If you are still here, it should be pretty clear Titaníque is big gay fun. If you’ve never seen it or been countless times, do yourself a favor and board that ship of dreams while it’s docked on 44th Street, you won’t regret it.
Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: “Titanique” is probably not meant to inspire reflection about the world we live in. But I was struck by how much the show dips into nostalgia for the 1990s: The blockbuster movie was released in 1997; that was the decade in which Céline Dion reached the peak of her popularity. The musical also has throwaway jokey references involving the 90’s TV series Full House, the movie franchise “Scream,” which began in 1996, the “Super Mario Kart video game, first released in 1992. The 1990s had less inflation, lower prices, less polarization; Americans were far more satisfied with the direction of the country, Can that help explain why so many theatergoers have wanted to escape into “Titanique”?
Randall David Cook, The Recs: Lastly, it’s worth noting that the show’s move to Broadway comes with the de rigueur boatload of producers, but among many of the usual suspects are such unexpected names as Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, Joey Fatone, and JC Chasez. It takes a unified village to make such a splash, and this entire crew certainly has. And like the ubiquitous “My Heart Will Go On,” the beloved song that Cameron almost cut from his film, so too will this wonderful show.
David Finkle, New York Stage Review: 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.
Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review: Whether Titanique proves to be too casual as an entertainment to attract a goodly Broadway crowd to the 1,339-seat St. James Theatre over the next 13 weeks is a prediction thankfully beyond my expertise. Speaking of which, let me assure readers who may fear I don’t know beans about Schmigadoon and The Rocky Horror Show (which I will review next week) that I am versed in Golden Age musicals and I can dance “The Time Warp” better than most.
Brian Scott Lipton , Cititour: Admittedly, some jokes land and other jokes sink (and many may go over the heads of some audience members, especially if you’re not up-to-the-minute on pop culture news ). Regardless, there’s the joy of hearing such top-tier pop earworms as “Taking Chances,” “Tell Him,” “Because You Loved Me,” “I Drove All Night,” “The Prayer,” and “To Love You More.” And if you love these songs, it doesn’t really matter where they end up – just that they’re superbly sung! So come aboard “Titanique”! It is definitely a different kind of “Love Boat,” but they’re expecting you!
Kristy Puchko, Mashable: From there, the reveal of the stage is bigger and bolder, recalling the metal and flashing lights design of reality TV competition shows like The Voice. There’s a cheerful campiness to the design, and this glow-up doesn’t detach Titanique from its ludicrousness or lewdness. Instead, it allows Mindelle to bloom, and her co-stars too. Together, they create a musical, magical epic, sure to please, but likely to make you want to shout, “I’m alive!”
Frank Rizzo, Variety: Advertised as a strictly limited run, the show’s established and Millennial-friendly fan base should be coming back for seconds and the Broadway gig will give cachet to future cruises. Overall, while the musical is not quite a night to remember, let’s just say the show is, well, fantastíque.
Dave Quinn, People: Titanique doesn’t just survive the jump to Broadway. It thrives on it. It’s a reminder of how exciting musical comedy can be when it’s fearless, specific and just a little bit off-the-rails. And more importantly, it’s a reminder of how good it feels to laugh this hard in a theater.
Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post: I can’t say the humongous St. James Theatre, which suits hardly any show, is my favorite port of call. Nobody can argue that its distancing size is an asset to a musical that thrives on a dirty-little-secret energy. And actors dashing 10 feet to the wings doesn’t suit a staging packed with rapid-fire gags. Its new set of metal platforms and beams is more concert tour than comedy hour.
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: But as intellectual property goes, never count out our endless fascination with the Titanic, which was the origin story of this show, set in a Titanic museum, presumably the real one in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where I once dipped my fingers in a tank demonstrating the frigidity of the water that night in the North Atlantic. Nothing chilly for the digits here. Not with Mindelle fending off the ghosts with “I’m Alive!,” clearly a plea for Dion’s immortality.
Shania Russell, Entertainment Weekly: Titanique offers a theatrical experience not unlike that of The Rocky Horror Show or even Cats: The Jellicle Ball, where screaming your support is welcome and a collective euphoria echoes throughout the theater. Despite the 1700-seat room, a Broadway budget and the big, brassy talent that the show now wields, Titanique maintains the scrappy seat-of-your-pants energy that helped it set sail in the first place. It has the heart of an ambitious school production, staying true to its origins: a show put together with spit, glue, and love, for the sole purpose of making people laugh. The size of the audience is a lot bigger, but the work remains the same. Grade: B+
Adrian Horton, The Guardian: Ironically enough, the show’s other standing-ovation highlight comes in the form of another showbiz diva, played by the terrific Williams in drag as that damn iceberg, treating audiences to an athletic vocal feat befitting Broadway that I will not spoil. Both moments come in the show’s superior second half, when it largely dispenses with the movie and instead indulges why we’re all here: to watch fabulous singers power through Dion’s dementedly dramatic catalog with extreme unseriousness and a dash of show-tune pizazz. If there is one thing the real Dion believes, it is in the power of singing as passionately as possible, as much as possible. Once Titaníque embraces that, it’s full steam ahead toward a triumphant finish: dick joke mileage may vary, but the Dion highs, like a good bit, go on and on.
Greg Evans, Deadline: Campier than the campy Cats: The Jellicle Ball but no less generous in its embrace of queer heritage’s seismic impact on American culture, Titaníque on Broadway is bigger than a mere hoot. It’s a riotous, high-cresting celebration just when we need it most.
Average Rating:
74.4%
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