David Mirvish and Hannah Mirvish & the Segal Centre / Titanique, book by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue, directed by Tye Blue, CAA Theatre, closes Jan. 12. Tickets here.
This jukebox musical features a very talented cast appearing in one of the silliest shows ever.
The premise of Titanique is that Céline Dion (Véronique Claveau) interrupts a tour of Titanic artifacts to tell her version of the 1997 James Cameron blockbuster movie Titanic. The story may still be the same, but this is a parody, so things get turned on their ear. The songs are Dion’s hits.
Titanique is still going strong off-Broadway in New York, but this production is home grown featuring a Canadian cast, but a New York creative team, including original director and co-author, Tye Blue. The production played in Montreal before sojourning to Toronto.
In all fairness, I have to say that the crowd loved the show. I also have to confess that there were a lot of pop references that I missed. Nonetheless, I prefer my satire to be biting, clever and witty, and there is little of that in Titanique. If you’re looking for humour for sophisticated tastes, it is not to be found here.
The Cast
The musical is saved by performances that are simply terrific. Everyone canbelto on steroids, so listening to the songs softens the silliness. In truth, Titanique boasts a superb cast of singing actors.
All the characters from the Cameron movie are present as well as key plot points.
The centre piece is, of course, Jack (Seth Zosky) and Rose (Mariah Campos). Zosky plays Jack like a clueless idiot which does get laughs, while feisty Rose is Jack’s straight man, so to speak. In fact, Campos is an extremely talented performer, and I’d love to see more of her in town. Costume designer Alejo Vietti has cleverly dressed her in Kate Winslett’s famous burgundy dress from the movie and a wig that mirrors the actor’s long red hair. In contrast, as Jack points out, he’s in his skinny pants.
Rose’s evil mother Ruth (Constant Bernard) is a drag role, and Bernard plays it to the hilt, super gay, super bitchy, which is assured to tickle the funny bone. Rose’s vainglorious entitled fiancé Cal (Michael Torontow) is haughty and stupid, a real upper-class twit. Molly Brown (Erica Peck) has a Southern accent, although she was from the West. Her role is to mollify, sympathize, and give questionable advice.
The character of real-life actor Victor Garber (Mike Melino) stands in for the Titanic’s captain and officers — in the movie he played Thomas Andrews, the designer of Titanic. It’s a character that’s underwritten in comparison to the others, as is Melino’s other role — Luigi, Jack’s traveling companion. Luigi is there for no reason that I could determine.
The very amusing Christopher Ning comes close to stealing the show in his several roles. He’s the Seaman (representing the Titanic crew), the Iceberg Bitch (a clone of Tina Turner), and the Tour Guide. He also gets to be Peabo Bryson with Dion in the Beauty and the Beast duet. I will, however, hand it to the writers that personifying the fatal iceberg as Tina Turner is clever.
Andre Anthony, Queenie and Rose Messenger are the three formidable Background Vocalists, who fill in as other characters when needed.
Which brings us to Dion and Claveau.
I’m not that familiar with Dion but I am assuming Claveau does a bang-up job imitating the pop star in voice and mannerisms. She certainly can sing up a storm. I found her role disappointing, though. She acts as narrator, so she comes and goes throughout the show, joining in when the other characters are singing, and rarely getting a song on her own. Even the famous Oscar-winning My Heart Will Go On was only half sung.
I wanted to see more of Claveau because, in contrast to the other characters, she is sly and droll, although she was hard to understand at times because she spoke so quickly. In terms of the rest of the cast, her Dion is the only adult in the room.
The Production
The production values of Titanique are first rate, however.
Iron Bloom (Gabriel Hainer Evansohn & Grace Laubacher) created an attractive set of stairs that light up in different colours, with the excellent four-piece band on the top level. Of course, there are railings so Jack and Rose can do the bow of the ship routine. A rounded backdrop does give the illusion of a ship.
At one point Dion/Claveau quipped that the set looked like it was from Anything Goes, Cole Porter’s 1935 musical that takes place aboard a ship, which was one of the references I did get, along with evil mother Ruth’s tribute to Gypsy’s evil mother Rose.
Vietti’s terrific costumes cover the waterfront in terms of style, with only Rose mirroring the movie. They are character specific which is a lot of fun. Paige Seber runs wild with the lighting design transforming Titanique into a sound and light show. Choreographer Ellenore Scott did a masterful job creating movement for narrow stairs.
Final Thoughts
Director Blue says in his director’s notes that the musical was developed when a group of friends “with a passion for stagecraft” had fun playing with creation, and that is exactly what Titanique looks like — at worst, the puerile humour of a college show, or at best, a Saturday Night Live sketch.
Titanique is harmless entertainment.
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