Titanic gets “kooky crazy” rewrite

A parody musical with Celine Dion at the helm: "Shall we go for it?"

“It’s been 84 years, and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.” This quote is familiar to many fans of the 1997 film Titanic. Well, what if I told you that this quote was not spoken by the iconic Rose DeWitt Bukater, but by the just-as-iconic Canadian pop icon Celine Dion? James Cameron’s Oscar-winning masterpiece has been reimagined for the stage in a smash hit parody musical, Titanique. Not only is this show a hilarious twist on the story everyone thinks they know, but it highlights the music and personality of Dion, despite her having no real historical connection to the Titanic itself. 

Titanique has encountered much success across its various productions around the world. Conceived by Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle, and Constantine Rousouli, the musical was born out of the trio’s series of parody productions based on various films. Stemming from a 2017 one-night-only staging in Los Angeles, the show has gone on to triumph Off-Broadway, and (as of just last year) in Sydney and on London’s West End. Where I think Titanique has been most relevant, however, has been here in Canada, particularly in Dion’s birthplace Quebec. I was fortunate to be able to see the show during its run at Montreal’s Segal Centre last November. 

Jacob Farrell – Argosy Co-Editor-in-Chief

The production of Titanique currently running in Canada does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere within the theatre. The dazzling blue curtain is accented with the iconic “heart of the ocean,” which in this production is a gaudy, tinsel-framed, ridiculously large Christmas ornament. The pre-show playlist consists entirely of what I would refer to as “pop divas,” complimenting Dion’s hits with songs like “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” by Selena, “Express Yourself” by Madonna, and “Conga” by Gloria Estefan. Let’s just say, you know exactly what you signed up for as soon as you sit in your seat. My seat, luckily, was in the very front row of the intimate house which resembled a similar capacity to Mt. A’s Motyer-Fancy Theatre. The intimate size of the Segal Centre’s Sylvan Adams Theatre also allowed for an unprecedented level of connection between the audience and the actors. I, for one, was extremely excited when Celine, played by the incredible Veronique Claveau, made her grand entrance right next to me. 

The premise of Titanique is very simple. We are at the Titanic Museum, and our tour is suddenly hijacked by Celine Dion, who claims to have been there when the ship sank in 1912. When asked how she could possibly still be living if she was there on that fateful day, she responds with her hit song “I’m Alive.” What follows is a chaotic re-telling of the movie version of Titanic, complete with all of your favourites from Dion’s back catalogue. I have to admit, since seeing Titanique, I have not been able to listen to these songs as I did before. I think of the ship embarking to “Taking Chances,” Rose singing “If You Asked Me To” to Jack, and the iconic “car scene” from the movie accented with “Because You Loved Me.” The musical also brilliantly blends the story of the film with some more contemporary pop culture references. My personal favourites were Rose’s fiancé Cal telling her he purchased the Heart of the Ocean at Costco, and Jack being forced to “Lip Sync For His Life(boat).” We all know how well that ends for him.

I think Titanique speaks a lot to the absolute brilliance of supposed low-brow entertainment. Did I gain any major insight or philosophical understanding after seeing it? Probably not. Did it give me 90 minutes of pure joy that I think back on when life gets a little hard? Definitely! I can confidently say that Titanique—and the spectacular experience I had seeing it—will be safe in my heart and will go on and on for quite some time.

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