Titanique at the Criterion Theatre review: get on board with this outrageous Celine Dion parody God knows we all need cheering up right now: and this archly camp spoof of James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic, repeatedly interrupted by the songs and the presence of an air-punching, faux-modest Celine Dion, might be the show to do it.
Titanique started life in 2017 in LA as a one-off concert created by writers Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli, orchestrator and arranger Nicholas James Connell and director Tye Blue, and became a hit off and on Broadway.
Today, Blue’s production still has the air of a cabaret performance, with the cast, band and backing singers occupying a stepped set only lightly suggestive of nautical architecture.
Each of the film’s tentpole moments – the couple “flying” on the prow and Irish-dancing in steerage; the “paint me like one of your French girls” sex scene; the sinking and the floating-door denouement – is recreated with wry, lo-fi wit.
It comes from the American school of wilfully schlocky, sloppy gay parody, packed with pop culture references, always seemingly on the brink of hysteria and collapse.
