Review Roundup: Did TITANÍQUE Sink or Swim in the West End?

Broadway sensation Titaníque has now dropped anchor in the West End.

When the music of Céline Dion makes sweet Canadian love with the eleven-time Oscar®-winning film Titanic, you get Titaníque, New York’s most award-winning splash hit that turns one of the greatest love stories of all time into a hysterical musical fantasia.

Featuring powerhouse voices and show-stopping numbers such as "My Heart Will Go On", "All by Myself" and "To Love You More" – backed by a full live band – Titaníque is a one-of-a-kind theatrical voyage bursting with nostalgia, heart and campy chaos.

What did the critics think?

Photo Credit: Mark Senior

Aliya Al-Hassan, BroadwayWorld: As inclusive as it is, Titaníque will not be for everyone. Anyone who is not familiar with the film or is not up to date with niche pop culture will miss a lot of the pastiche and parody here. Some jokes, such as the use of a plastic aubergine as a sex toy, fall into the distinctly poor taste category. Fun, frothy and outrageous, it may be just too silly for some, often feeling like going on some sort of psychedelic trip into the chaotically fevered mind of delirious panto dame. If that's your thing, you will adore it.

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage: Written by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and director Tye Blue, it is quite frankly, riotously absurd. But it’s also endearing. And although neither quite as clever or hilarious as it sets out to be, it is so strongly sung and energetically performed under the direction of Blue and the musical direction of Adam Wachter, that it is impossible not to have a good time.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: There are exuberant twists on character and plot: Rose is bullied by her uber-camp mother and the ship’s captain takes ecstasy and is looking forward to clubbing on the LGBTQ+ friendly Fire Island. There are also wonderful renditions of All By Myself and I Drove All Night. Ronney is an especially strong singer and Drew’s Dion is full of comic harmonising and mischief, calling the audience her “best friends in the whole world”.

Nick Curtis, The Standard: The most prominent insertion though is Drew’s hilarious Dion. Dressed in a sparkling, slash-thighed frock and matching pants, she hunkers down to a succession of the singer’s power ballads like a prop entering a scrum. Her expert pastiche of the singer’s lung-busting stylings and yodelling arpeggios are laced with whoops, squawks and mock-sincere, glutinously-accented asides about how much she “lurves” us.

Clive Davis, The Times: Cameron’s yarn, full of briny bombast, may be an easy target, but the in-jokes are exquisitely delivered. So too are the songs, driven by a trim band led by the musical director Adam Wachter. Drew is a quite astonishing mixture of OTT vocalising and girl-next-door folksiness. Without wishing to give away too many plot twists, I’ll add that Layton Williams makes the transition from playing a louche sailor to a stunningly convincing facsimile of a raging Tina Turner.

Paul Vale, The Stage: Kat Ronney as Rose and Rob Houchen as Jack negotiate the broad, ridiculous romance with slick comedy timing. They are out-camped by Jordan Luke Gage’s sulking rich boy Cal and a hysterically deranged Ruth, Rose’s mother, played with psychotic precision by Stephen Guarino. As the Seaman, it briefly looks as though Layton Williams will be underused, but when he eventually manifests as a rip-roaring River Deep, Mountain High Iceberg, his casting and performance prove sublime.

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: Archness is the order of the day, the brisk, interval-free affair (with book by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue, the latter directing) trading on the best-known tropes and scenes, avid for cheap, camp shots. If you have genuine tears to shed for the victims of the disaster, it’s best to leave them at the door. That said, although it’s a case of anachronisms-a-go-go (in this irony-laden 1912, there are gags about texting, aubergine emojis, Grindr and the like), there’s a surprisingly decent fit between the storyline and Dion’s ballads.

Olivia Rook, London Theatre: 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.

Average Rating: 77.5%