My heart will go on for quirky shows that have their roots in the fringe but make it to a West End stage. Think The Play That Goes Wrong or Six. Now add Titanique to that roll call; apparently a joke between friends that played one night in Los Angeles, then an off-Broadway run in a 150 seat theatre and now in London, Canada and Australia. It has all the trappings of a proper cult hit.
Dripping with queer pop culture references, this 110 minute Celine Dion fever dream knows its audience
The poster for this show barely sells how fun it is, and you could be excused if you thought it was a tribute concert to Celine Dion, such is the pedestrian marketing. What’s actually going on here is a parody of the James Cameron epic film in which Celine Dion was not just the singer of the theme tune, but actually onboard all along. Our heroine, played with uncanny accuracy of Dion’s mannerisms by Lauren Drew, retells the plot of the doomed ship and the love story between Rose (Kat Ronney) and Jack (Rob Houchen); she can only tell it how she remembers it though, which provides an excuse for one hilarious scene in which Ronney and Houchen have to lip-sync along to Drew’s ad-libbed dialogue.
Rose’s mother, Ruth (Stephen Guarino), steals scenes as a messy drag queen obliterating the fourth wall as she tries to get her daughter married off to wealthy villain, Cal (Jordan Luke Gage) to restore the family fortune. There are beautiful self-knowing quips from Guarino at Ronney at her debut theatre performance not knowing which side is stage left and still “three more shows before the weekend” for the actress who’s only ever done telly before.
Although born in the US, this version of the show has been very much retooled for a British audience (Cal got The Heart Of The Ocean at Claire’s Accessories) and it’s much more like a panto than you’d imagine – they even make reference to the rather larger production up the road – “Jane MacDonald playing an ingénue?” It’s also sprinkled, unsurprisingly, with Dion’s hits; although Darren Bennet playing Victor Garber (yes, he plays the actor who played the Captain in the movie) singing I Drove All Night as the ship heads towards the iceberg gives the song a meaning I’ll never be able to shake from my head.
Dripping with queer pop culture references, this 110 minute Celine Dion fever dream knows its audience; and once the word gets out, you’ll have to slay for a ticket.
