SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — The primary time I noticed “Titanique” in 2022 on twenty sixth Road, star Marla Mindelle ended the present by saying, “Thank you so much for coming to see ‘Titanique’… in the basement of a shut-down Gristedes.”
It was a killer joke a couple of beyond-scrappy musical, whose ticket gross sales began out delicate at a downtown comedy membership earlier than growing a cult following and shifting to a a lot greater home in Union Sq..
I used to be smitten early on. However little did I do know that hardly three years later, I’d additionally attend its 1,000th efficiency on the Daryl Roth Theatre, its West Finish bow in London and its debut down underneath in Sydney. I’ve so a lot of their signature sailor hats, I may begin a navy.
“Titanique,” a hilarious parody of James Cameron’s Oscar-winning film ‘Titanic’ utilizing the songbook (and quirky French Canadian persona) of Celine Dion, has turn into one in every of New York’s hottest theatrical exports of the last decade.
When it opens its fifth manufacturing in Chicago in Might, it’ll have as many concurrent runs as “Hamilton,” a present that’s by no means performed a single grocery retailer cellar.
“When we first started doing little pop-up readings and everyone was responding in an unprecedented way, I hoped we’d be successful in New York,” Mindelle, who brilliantly originated the position of Celine and co-wrote the present with director Tye Blue and Constantine Rousouli, advised The Publish.
“But I never dreamed we would cross international borders and quite literally bamboozle the world. If you told me a 10-foot image of my face would be plastered over the Criterion Theatre in London, I would’ve laughed in your face. But the joke’s on me because I look like Celine Dion as Jesus Christ!”
It’s onerous to consider one other off-Broadway entity since “Blue Man Group” in 1991 that’s had such cross-cultural success. And, being a comedy, the feat is all of the extra spectacular. Individuals, Brits and Aussies all have proudly distinctive senses of humor. Boffo comedies from the US usually tank abroad.
But the deranged “Titanique,” which imagines that Celine Dion was truly onboard the Titanic and is 150 years previous, performs like gangbusters wherever it sails.
Over the previous month, I’ve seen the present on three continents — in winter coats and linen shorts. And I’ve been shocked and delighted to find that it kills in every single place.
On Saturday on the Grand Electrical in Sydney, a sold-out viewers of 380 at what’s usually a boozy cabaret venue in Surry Hills went berserk for the Jack-and-Rose antics of the sensational forged, together with Marney McQueen as an particularly unhinged Celine and Georgina Hopson and Drew Weston as the 2 doe-eyed lovebirds.
A sprinkle of jokes have been modified or added for native tastes. A gag concerning the jewellery retailer Jared’s in NYC is reworked to Prouds right here. And Stephen Anderson’s driftwood brittle, nasty, riotously humorous Ruth makes a Jetstar airways crack.
However, at its core, this is identical hysterical present that New York crowds are watching eight instances per week 10,000 miles away, solely with a welcome Aussie wink. And, miraculously, much more camp than traditional.
The Sydney venue is a world away from “Titanique”’s 588-seat dwelling in London — the Criterion Theatre, a cultured, 150-year-old constructing in Piccadilly Circus.
Lauren Drew’s Celine, with Welsh wackiness, and the elegant Rob Houchen and Kat Ronney’s Jack and Rose really feel like they’ve damaged into the theater after hours to make filthy jokes with an eggplant and sing “My Heart Will Go On.”
Even being in one in every of London’s most iconic locales hasn’t brought about “Titanique” to lose an oz. — sorry, gram — of scrappiness. It’s lovable and demented as ever. All of the productions are directed with a consistent-but-culturally-flexible hand by Blue.
The uproarious staging, which acquired a 5-star overview from the Instances of London on Friday, can be bachelorette celebration central. The women’ cups runneth over with rosé. I believe its cruise gained’t disembark for years.
Oh, and the jeweler joke throughout the pond is “Claire’s.”
You don’t have hop on a aircraft, although. “Titanique”‘s voyage continues in New York — where it’s run longer than most Broadway musicals handle — with Dee Roscioli as Celine alongside Max Jenkins, Carrie St. Louis and Callum Francis.
To my thoughts, the present’s worldwide triumph is owed to a few intelligent associates developing with a successful thought after which making one another chuckle with their irrepressible goofiness. The spunky vitality of a ardour venture in a dingy basement has radiated off each manufacturing since.
However Mindelle — too humble! — chalks up her present’s worldwide recognition to one of many biggest vocalists of all time.
“It’s a testament to the power of ‘Titanique,’” she mentioned. “And to my queen, Celine Dion.”
