Comic Gayfest of Sinking Tragedy
Rose “I don’t want to be engaged to Cal”
Ruth, her mother “Shut the fuck up!”
I couldn’t understand why there were so many men in the audience for a new musical. They of course had done their research which I hadn’t really. I thought I was seeing Céline Dion’s take on the filming of the movie Titanic using her back catalogue. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of levity in this story of a sinking.
We start as the tour of the museum about the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage in 1912 with the loss of 1,160 people. It is Layton Williams whom I first saw as the young Michael Jackson in an early staging of Thriller! as the museum guide. Now Layton is personality plus and can be relied on to camp up any show and all credit to him, he does it very well. What I wasn’t prepared for was everyone else in the cast also trying to be the campest actor in the show!
I think Kat Ronney as Rose was the most serious. As Jack, I love Rob Houchen ‘s voice and romantic personality but his uber tight trousers and camp posing were unexpected. But the worst offender was the man playing Rose’s mother Ruth (Stephen Guarino) followed by jokes about seamen, spitting and swallowing. There was huge laughter every time he used the F word and even more for the C word.
The night I saw Titanique, Céline Dion was played not by Lauren Drew but by Kristina Walz who is superb and has understudied the role in New York. The idea is for the show to be all about Céline so she will sidle in to come in between the two main characters in her silver sequinned figure hugging dress with its thigh split, scene stealing and sing her heart out while pulling faces.
There was advice for Rose from Charlotte Wakefield as the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Jordan Luke Gage plays Rose’s unpleasant fiancé Cal whom the mother Ruth is promoting but he surely can sing. The set is based on a ship, and Paige Seber’s lighting is exciting.
If you go, you will see gems like Rose being offered an aubergine dildo, on sale at the Merch stall. On the whole the choreography is limited but I liked the Irish dancing when Jack takes Rose down to steerage. I very much warmed to Layton Williams rendering Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” and dressed superbly as Tina Turner as the Iceberg, reminiscent of the Acid Queen.
Could Titanique not have been toned down? I would have been happy to see this production drown coming Eastwards across the Atlantic!
Editor of TheatreVibe.co.uk
See ABOUT US
Musical Numbers
I’m Alive
Taking Chances
Taking Chances (reprise)
Seduces Me
If You Asked Me To
Beauty and the Beast
I’m Alive (reprise)
You and I
Who Let the Dogs Out
I Drove All Night
Because You Loved Me
Where Does My Heart Beat Now
I Drove All Night (reprise)
River Deep, Mountain High
I Surrender / Seduces Me (reprise)
I Surrender (reprise)
All By Myself
The Prayer
All by Myself (reprise)
My Heart Will Go On
A New Day Has Come
My Heart Will Go On (reprise)
Production Notes
Titanique
Book by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue
Directed by Tye Blue
Creatives
Director: Tye Blue
Choreographer: Ellenore Scott
Set Designer: Gabrielle Hainer Evansohn
and Grace Laubacher for Iron Bloom
Costume Designer: Alejo Vietti
Musical Supervisor : Nicholas James Connell
Lighting Designer: Paige Seber
Sound Designer: Lawrence Schober
Musical Director: Adam Wachter
Information
Running Time: One hour 40 minutes without an interval
Booking until 30th March 2025
Theatre:
Criterion Theatre
218-223 Piccadilly
Piccadilly Circus
London W1V 9LB
Box Office: 033 33 202 895
Website: criterion-theatre.co.uk
Tube: Piccadilly Circus
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge at the
Criterion at the penultimate preview
on 7th January 2025
