Review: TITANÍQUE, Criterion Theatre

What started as one-night showing in Los Angeles, after docking on Broadway, in Canada and Australia, Titaníque has now sailed into London. Based on the idea that global pop icon Céline Dion was actually the hero of the 1997 James Cameron film, Titanic, the absurdity of this dazzlingly camp and frankly ridiculous show only grows from there.

Featuring seventeen of Dion's hits, the show is both a satire of a jukebox musical and a parody of the film. Lampooning everything from the Wicked film to TK Maxx, the show is the very definition of tongue-in-cheek silliness that sometimes plumbs the depths of poor taste.

BroadwayWorld Award-winner Lauren Drew seems to be having the time of her life as songstress Dion. Mimicking her Québécois accent, penchant for air guitar and wide-legged stance, anyone who is familiar with her performances, or has seen the recent (very moving) documentary on Dion, will recognise Drew’s take. She is also incredibly funny. A five minute improvised section (apparently different in every show) led by Drew is sharp and biting.

Kat Ronney is a forthright and independent Rose, never particularly entranced with Rob Houchen's Jack, a character so anodyne he cannot come to dinner as he is doing intermittent fasting.

Jordan Luke Gage is very funny as an effete Cal, viciously narcissistic, constantly on Grindr and effectively making Rose his beard. 

Stephen Guarino is ferociously brutal as Rose's ambitious and incredibly rude mother Ruth. His mid-show expressive dance solo is a bizarre highlight. The ship's architect, played in the film by Victor Garber, is played as Victor Garber by an energetic Darren Bennett.

Appearing as The Seaman (you can imagine the quips about that title) Layton Williams shines in his campest glory as The Iceberg, who also happens to be Tina Turner. Do try and keep up.

Everything may well be a joke, but the quality of the singing is serious, with some excellent harmonies from the whole cast. Drew shows off some suitably impressive vocals, but there are no weak links here, with a particular nod to Charlotte Wakefield's steadfast Molly Brown who delivers some belting vocals.

It is more than evident that Tye Blue, director and one of the show's writers, worked on several series of Ru Paul's Drag Race. The show is directly referenced a few too many times and Jack and Cal actually have a Drag Race dance/sing-off competition. There are some fun creative decisions; the famous steamed-up car scene uses a carved-up plastic toy car and Rose's nude posing for Jack's drawing sees her in a pixelated flesh-coloured bra.

The script has been adapted to encorporate some British references. The giant "Heart of the Ocean" necklace (encased in silver tinsel) is bought by Cal from tween accessory shop Claire's and a very catty quip at the West End production of The Devil Wears Prada brings in both giggles and gasps.

Not all of these work. References to the film Scream and a twenty year-old argument on Eastenders feel very dated.

Adam Wachter’s four-piece band sit on two platforms either side of a very 1920s-looking ship's staircase. Drew quips that the show is Titanic on the set of Anything Goes, but overall the simplicity of the set adds little to the show. 

As inclusive as it is, Titaníque will not be for everyone. Anyone who is not familiar with the film or is not up to date with niche pop culture will miss a lot of the pastiche and parody here. Some jokes, such as the use of a plastic aubergine as a sex toy, fall into the distinctly poor taste category.

Fun, frothy and outrageous, it may be just too silly for some, often feeling like going on some sort of psychedelic trip into the chaotically fevered mind of delirious panto dame. If that's your thing, you will adore it.

Read our interview with director and co-author Tye Blue here.

Titaníque is at the Criterion Theatre until 30 March

Photo Credits: Mark Senior