{"id":580967,"date":"2026-04-13T04:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T04:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/580967\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T04:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T04:25:10","slug":"titanique-broadway-review-an-uproarious-musical-parody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/580967\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Titan\u00edque’ Broadway Review: An Uproarious Musical Parody"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAh, another Broadway<\/a> musical that positions Tina Turner as a lethal iceberg, a leading man who quotes 20 year old YouTube memes and a time-traveling C\u00e9line Dion<\/a> whose surreal version of a historical tragedy is so much better than the real thing. Dime a dozen, right?<\/p>\n

\n\tWrong. Titan\u00edque<\/a>, the outrageously campy musical that puts Dion on the Titanic and in the museum that holds its artifacts, isn\u2019t exactly unprecedented in its blend of movie-loving homage and knowing parody (I\u2019m thinking of that shouldn\u2019t-be-forgotten \u201990s Off Broadway cult favorite take-off on Valley of the Dolls, and just about anything from the late, great Everett Quinton), but Titan\u00edque is such a gloriously entertaining concoction that it feels in a class by itself. First class, steerage, whatever it wants.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe brainchild of Constantine Rousouli \u2013 who plays his unique version of Leo\u2019s king of the world Jack Dawson \u2013 and co-writers Tye Blue (who directs) and Marla Mindelle<\/a> (reprising her award-winning gem of a performance as a surreally wise and wacky C\u00e9line Dion), Titan\u00edque is, on its basic level, a parody of James Cameron\u2019s 1997 blockbuster Titanic, the sort of mock-the-thing-you-love take-off whose ancestry dates back at least to the old Carol Burnett show.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Rousouli, Mandelle and Blue know their reach has to exceed that one film (and that one theme song) no matter how wildly popular it remains. Titan\u00edque, with generations of gay humor in its wake, uses the bubbly adventures of Jack and Rose to encompass a seemingly infinite cache of cultural references. Remember that early viral news-blooper video in which a newswoman describes a mountain climber as gay before correcting herself (\u201cI mean, he\u2019s blind\u201d)? It\u2019s in Titan\u00edque. Matthew Morrison taking over for Jonathan Groff in Broadway\u2019s Just In Time? That\u2019s here too, in an insanely clever bit that builds to an insidery joke about Lea Michele\u2019s literacy that had the Broadway audience howling.<\/p>\n

\n\t(Indeed, Titan\u00edque also owes a hat tip to that long-running Off Broadway hit Forbidden Broadway \u2013 you might as well stop counting the Broadway references after jokes about Chicago, Beauty and the Beast and Patti LuPone\u2019s Equity status.)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJim Parsons and Melissa Barrera <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEvan Zimmerman<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving arrived at the St. James Theatre, where it opens tonight just two days shy of the 114th anniversary of the real thing and following a nearly decade-long route that includes stagings in Los Angeles, Off Broadway, London, Paris, Chicago and others, Titan\u00edque, with considerable improvised content that allows for those up-to-the-moment Matthew Morrison jokes, plays by its own kooky rules. The premise: C\u00e9line Dion, who of course sang Titanic\u2018s theme \u201cMy Heart Will Go On,\u201d is actually a survivor of the shipwreck (along with Peabo Bryson, Victor Garber, and an unsinkable Molly Brown who seems to be fully aware of Kathy Bates\u2019 ouvr\u00e9).<\/p>\n

\n\tEmploying a long list of Dion\u2019s hit songs \u2013 both originals and cover tunes, the latter to work in \u201cAll By Myself,\u201d \u201cWho Let The Dogs Out\u201d and a Tina Turner bit, or is it a Tina! The Musical bit, with \u201cRiver Deep, Mountain High\u201d \u2013 Titan\u00edque hits all of the movie\u2019s high points (the king of the world scene, the backseat romp, the Heart of the Ocean blue diamond here presented as a purse-size ball and chain necklace) while stuffing the tale full of anachronisms, fact-and-fiction blurs and cultural winks that stream by so quickly you\u2019ve barely had time to register one before the next one lands.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd land they do, or at least an improbably high percentage. The cast \u2013 in addition to Mindelle and Rousouli, there\u2019s Melissa Barrera as Rose, John Riddle as Cal, Franki Grande as an out-and-proud Fire Island-bound Victor Garber, Debora Cox as Molly Brown, Layton Williams as a randy Seaman and Tina Turner-esque Iceberg and scene-stealer Jim Parsons as Rose\u2019s uber-nasty mom Ruth \u2013 rides these chaotic seas without so much as an errant gasp for breath.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLayton Williams as The Iceberg and cast <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEvan Zimmerman<\/p>\n

\n\tParsons, in particular, is a welcome addition to the ensemble (many of the cast members are reprising roles they created or performed in previous productions). By now the former Big Bang Theory star (and yes, there is at least one crowd-pleasing reference to the sitcom) is pretty firmly entrenched on Broadway, but his recent, critically lauded appearances (Our Town, Mother Play, The Boys in the Band) have been on the dramatic side. Titan\u00edque lets his inner clown soar, in drag yet, and with garish make-up just this side of Baby Jane Hudson and a mouth as foul as any David Mamet character. (Alejo Vietti\u2019s costumes, from Jack\u2019s hand-me-down Newsies look to Victor Garber\u2019s dime store sailor get-up, are punchlines in themselves.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe large cast has no weak links \u2013 Rousouli has honed the clueless, gleeful Jack-as-\u201caging twink\u201d to a shine that blue diamond might envy, right up to and including his shivery resentment at Rose not making room on that floating hunk of wood \u2013 but Mindelle is the real key to keeping this whole shebang afloat. Too mean and we\u2019d never go along with the joke, given Dion\u2019s recent struggles, and too nice and we\u2019d never laugh at them. Mindelle, with her sweet, ever-so-slightly garbled French Canadian accent and Dion-speak (\u201clove\u201d is \u201clurve\u201d) has us on her side from entrance to big, splashy finale on a set that, she jokes, looks like something from The Voice.<\/p>\n

\n\tCampier than the campy Cats: The Jellicle Ball <\/a>but no less generous in its embrace of queer heritage\u2019s seismic impact on American culture, Titan\u00edque on Broadway is bigger than a mere hoot. It\u2019s a riotous, high-cresting celebration just when we need it most.<\/p>\n

\n\tTitle: Titan\u00edque
Venue: Broadway\u2019s St. James Theatre
Director: Tye Blue
Book: Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli
Music: The hits of C\u00e9line Dion
Cast: Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, Jim Parsons, Melissa Barrera, Deborah Cox, Frankie Grande, John Riddle, Layton Williams
Running time: 1 hr 40 min (no intermission)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ah, another Broadway musical that positions Tina Turner as a lethal iceberg, a leading man who quotes 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[21540,110469,181087,88,254754,175055,254755],"class_list":{"0":"post-580967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-broadway","9":"tag-broadway-review","10":"tag-cu00e9line-dion","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-marla-mindelle","13":"tag-titanique","14":"tag-titanu00edque"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}