'Titanique' review — a brilliant, bonkers musical parody

Read our review of Titanique, starring Layton Williams, Lauren Drew, Jordan Luke Gage, and Rob Houchen, now in performances at the Criterion Theatre to 30 March 2025.

Panto season may be over, but the laughs will go on in mile-a-minute musical parody Titanique, by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, and Tye Blue, which has set sail across the Atlantic following a successful Off-Broadway run, and docked at London’s Criterion Theatre.

There is nothing subtle about this jukebox musical, and that’s what makes it so glorious. Taking James Cameron’s three-hour-long film Titanic as the source material, the writers have sliced and diced the epic into a 100-minute, brilliant and bonkers retelling of that fateful voyage, all led by Céline Dion — a goofy, glittering Lauren Drew — as the hero and narrator of the “real” story.

A popular culture hit, and subject to countless memes, Titanic was ripe for a parody take — and the musical’s writers have left no stone unturned in bringing all of the film’s most iconic moments to the stage. The cast recreate scenes such as “Draw me like one of your French girls”, with Rose (played by Kat Ronney, a dead ringer for Kate Winslet) sticking up a middle finger and pulling lewd facial expressions while Jack (a foppish Rob Houchen, sporting Leonardo DiCaprio’s curtains) attempts to draw her with limited artistic skills.

Fans of the film will certainly be satisfied, but there is no doubt that Titanique is largely a show for pop-culture-loving, queer theatre kids. There are countless theatre references, from Sunset Boulevard and Grease, to Anything Goes, which shares a similar ocean-liner set design, though Gabriel Hainer Evansohn and Grace Laubacher have included light-up panels that invoke a camp disco LED dance floor. Wicked, of course, gets repeat mentions, and notably provides inspiration for Drew’s genius, improvised comic monologue between Jack and Rose on the night of this review. As the ship goes down, there’s even an unhinged “lip sync for your life” between Cal and Jack, overseen by Layton Williams as RuPaul, which includes that famed “Miss Vanjie” moment.

Williams gives one of the show’s stand-out performances, taking on a variety of roles from camp museum guide and a suggestive Seaman (plenty of double entendres here), to a Tina Turner-inspired “Iceberg B-tch”, who sets the stage alight during a rendition of “River Deep, Mountain High”. The Everybody’s Talking About Jamie star is all legs in a shimmering mini dress, and costume designer Alejo Vietti’s jacket, complete with ice shards for shoulder pads, is inspired.

Self-absorbed love rivals Cal (Jordan Luke Gage) and Jack bring plenty of brooding tension to their roles, with Gage taking Billy Zane’s dangerous outbursts from the film and turning them into petulant, bitchy tantrums. Ronney’s Rose more than proves her vocal chops in “Tell Him” alongside Charlotte Wakefield’s ‘Unsinkable’ Molly Brown, taking Dion’s heartfelt lyrics and giving them a bawdy twist with the help of a giant aubergine. Stephen Guarino is hilarious in light drag as Rose’s unstable mother Ruth.

But it is Drew as Dion who is a revelation, commanding the show with her cheeky asides to the audience, wacky facial expressions bordering on caricature, and buttery vocals, which bring down the house in a rendition of “My Heart Will Go On”. It genuinely feels like Dion is on the stage.

In a show stuffed with jokes — many of which have been updated to cater to a British audience — understandably some land better than others. But there is no doubting the beating heart of this little-show-that-could, which shines brighter than the wonderfully tacky, piñata-style Heart of the Ocean that hangs above the Criterion stage.

Book Titanique tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Rob Houchen, Lauren Drew, and Kat Ronney in Titanique. (Photo by Mark Senior)