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How best to explain Titanique, the off-Broadway musical that became a word-of-mouth hit on the streets of New York before setting sail for Sydney?
Ostensibly, the show is a musical retelling of James Cameron’s multiple Oscar-winning 1997 film Titanic, but with Celine Dion at the centre. It imagines a world where Dion claims to have survived the Titanic’s sinking and opts to narrate (and, of course, sing) her version of what really happened to Jack, Rose, and the other characters from the movie on the night the ship sank.
Georgina Hopson as Rose Dewitt Bukate (left), Marney McQueen as Celine Dion (centre) and Drew Weston as Jack Dawson (right) in the Australian production of cult hit musical, Titanique.Credit: Daniel Boud
And yet, Titanique is much more than its frankly bizarre synopsis. It is a comedy, parody and a love story. You might call it a camp cabaret, a jukebox musical, or a nostalgia hit for ’90s kids. Basically, it is many things all at once, but the one it definitely is not? Formulaic.
“From the moment we started writing Titanique, we did so believing that the old formula of Broadway is on its way out,” says director Tye Blue, who helms the Sydney production with a local cast. “We need to make theatre for new audiences; we need to find ways to make them engaged.”
Blue co-created Titanique alongside Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli, the trio seeking to bring fun and chaos back to an art form that they believed had gone stale.
“Broadway has become a bit predictable,” explains Rousouli. “You can spend $50 million, have all the lighting in the world, the best sets, impeccable costuming, and ultimately feel like you’re at a theme park. If there’s no heart and soul, there’s no story.”
Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli, the creators of Titanique.
As an industry, Broadway has recently faced the same risk-averse pressures as Hollywood. Over the past few years, productions such as The Notebook, The Great Gatsby, The Outsiders, Life of Pi, Beetlejuice, and, of course, Hamilton have been Broadway mainstays as producers look to guarantee a return on investment by sticking with tried-and-tested productions.
While the approach makes sense, it makes the trajectory of a wacky musical such as Titanique all the more impressive. “It’s a reminder that the audience does have an imagination, and if we trust them to come along for a wild ride, more often than not, they will,” says Blue.