REVIEW: TITANIQUE THE MUSICAL Is A Camp Celebration Of Celine Dion And James Cameron’s 1997 Blockbuster Movie

Wednesday 23rd October 2024, 7:30pm, The Grand Electric

Following on from a successful debut Off-Broadway, Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue’s (co writers, with Blue also Director) musical comedy tribute to Celine Dion and James Cameron’s cinema hit, TITANIQUE THE MUSICAL is delighting Sydney audiences. With an all Australian cast, history, and fiction, is re-written with lots of pop culture and musical theatre references for a fun filled night aboard the famous ill-fated ship.

The premise of TITANIQUE is that a tour of the artifacts from the shipwreck and the 1997 movie is interrupted by Celine Dion (Marney McQueen) who remembers the story a little differently even though, as challenged by the tour guide, she appeared to only provide the theme song, James Horner and Will Jennings MY HEART WILL GO ON.  In a show liberally peppered with Dion’s hits, the pop star shares her recollection with some characters remembered as they were, while the historic characters are remembered more as the Hollywood actors that portrayed them. Cameron’s fictional creations of Rose Dewitt-Bukater (Georgina Hopson), her mother Ruth Dewitt-Bukater (Stephen Anderson), her betrothed Cal Hockley (Tyran Stig) and her love interest, the Third-Class artist Jack Dawson (Matthew Predny) are not linked to the actors that originated the characters them. Matt Lee portrays Victor Garber who played Ship builder Thomas Andrews but has been expanded to be an amalgam of Andrews, Captain Edward John Smith and White Star Line’s managing director, the obnoxious man pushing for an early arrival into New York.  Abigail Dixon creates a version of Kathy Bates who portrayed “The Unsinkable” Molly Brown, the new money American Socialite that wanted to save survivors from the wreckage.  For TITANIQUE’s original characters, Abu Kebe represents the crew that support Garber’s role as Captain as well as delivering another pop icon as a personification of significant but silent “character” of the story and Jo-Anne Jackson, Trent Owers and Jenni Little provide backing vocals for the musical numbers.

On a stage, designed by Gabriel Hainer Evansohn and Grace Laubacher for Iron Bloom, that the performers acknowledge is reminiscent recent productions of Cole Porter’s ANYTHING GOES, the mad-cap retelling takes place with classic musical theatre choreography (Original:Ellenore Scott, Australian Associate Director/Choreographer: Cameron Mitchell), and cabaret style camp, comedy and improvisation.  Alejo Vietti keeps the costuming relatively consistent with easily recognisable costumes that draw from Deborah Lynn Scott’s Academy Award winning designs, albeit on a much tighter budget.  

With TITANIQUE being Dion’s recollection, the show anchors on Marney McQueen’s performance and McQueen, a Musical theatre and cabaret star, is a perfect fit for the French Canadian icon.  McQueen has the range and power to Dion’s hits justice while she captures Dion’s vocal nuances perfectly and her physicality balances the caricature with a reverence which matches Dion’s own well known humour. As the other pop icon, Abu Kebe’s representation of Tina Turner proved that if TINA THE MUSICAL’s producers wanted to do a gender blind casting he is ready and able to fill the stilettos with a strong vocal and the right moves.  

Georgina Hopson’s beautiful voice and brilliant cheeky comic timing paired with her ability to present as a sweet ingénue makes her a perfect fit for Rose.  For the night reviewed she is perfectly paired with Matthew Predny as Jack who has a wonderful physical comedy that captures the absurdity of Dion’s recollection.  As Rose’s overbearing mother Ruth, Stephen Anderson delivers a comic camp expression of a woman that away from scrutiny is really quite ruthless.  

At 90 minutes, TITANIQUE is a must see for fans of Celine Dion, the cinematic blockbuster and musical theatre.  It is the perfect escapism from reality, filled with great inventive humour, strong singing and classic musical theatre dance with lots of references to musical theatre and pop-culture.  

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