Inside Titanique’s Broadway Transfer: Bigger, Bolder and Still Deliciously Camp
Creators and cast—including Jim Parsons and Marla Mindelle—tease the expanded St. James Theatre production
(Photo provided by Vivacity Media Group)
What to Know
- Titanique begins Broadway performances March 26 at the St. James Theatre, transferring from its off-Broadway run and following an Olivier-winning West End engagement and international productions
- Jim Parsons joins the Broadway cast as Ruth DeWitt Bukater, alongside Melissa Barrera (Rose), Deborah Cox (Molly Brown), Frankie Grande and original creators Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli in the Céline Dion–inspired Titanic parody
- The cult-favorite Céline Dion jukebox musical expands for Broadway with a larger budget and full-scale staging, promising bigger choreography, camp comedy and Dion’s iconic song catalog
Titanique docks on Broadway this spring, with what co-author Constantine Rousouli joked in his rehearsal tour is an upgraded budget of $50, as opposed to the $4 it had while running off-Broadway. While the passengers pack to board the Ship of Dreams at the St. James Theatre, the ship's crew discussed the Broadway-sized renovations at a recent press event.
“We've heard a lot of like, ‘Well, it was off-Broadway. It was small. I don't know how it'll translate when it's big.’ Oh, it translates,” assures choreographer Ellenore Scott. “Get into it because we are filling that space.” Scott returns as choreographer from the off-Broadway production, along with co-author Tye Blue as director, Nicholas Connell as music supervisor, Paige Seber as lighting designer, co-author Marla Mindelle as Céline Dion, John Riddle as Cal Hockley, Rousouli as Jack Dawson and understudies Brad Greer and Tess Marshall.
And who, you may be asking, is new to the party? Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jim Parsons joins the cast as Ruth DeWitt Bukater, Deborah Cox as the Unsinkable Molly Brown, Melissa Barrera as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Frankie Grande as Victor Garber/Luigi. Layton Williams reprises his Olivier-winning performance as The Iceberg.
Parsons shares the deeper connection he has to playing women: “They have a picture of me up when I was 20 years old in drag for this Charles Busch play. And it was a really important moment for me—I was a closeted gay kid studying acting and doing that role—because I wasn't afraid of hiding who I was. There was no need to pretend I wasn't effeminate because I was playing a woman. It completely changed my view of what acting was for me or who I could be as an actor. It really unlocked me. But I haven't gotten to do it since then. It's been 30 years. And I've been wanting to for a long time.”
With an Olivier-winning run in London’s West End, as well as productions across the globe in Australia, Canada, Chicago and Paris, “Broadway feels like a victory lap,” says Mindelle. “We've always wanted, in the back of our minds, to take this baby to Broadway,” Rousouli agrees. “So the fact that that has happened 10 years later is crazy.”
Audiences can expect not only a show which Frankie Grande describes as “funny, stupid, campy, kooky and full of heart,” but one that features the songbook of Céline Dion. “The songs are classics,” says Deborah Cox—a former background singer for Dion herself! “This catalog will stand the test of time. So to be able to revisit them in a new, exciting way; it's really invigorating, thrilling and fun.”
Titanique begins performances on March 26 at the St. James Theatre.
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