Titanique

HIGH EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Dramatic Premise

It’s 1912. The Titanique is leaving Southampton. Soon she will be steaming across the Atlantic towards her destiny with a (surprisingly camp, but charismatic) iceberg.

The passenger list is familiar to anybody born after 1997.

There’s Rose Dewit Bukater (Georgina Hopson) and her fiancé, Cal (Keane Sheppard-Fletcher). There’s Rose’s mother, Ruth (Stephen Anderson). There’s the unsinkable Molly Brown (Abigail Dixon). And there’s actor Victor Garber (Matt Lee), who seems to be an amalgam of Captain Smith and shipbuilder, Thomas Andrews.

And, of course, there’s the character male tweens want to be and female tweens want to date, Jack Dawson (Drew Weston).

But there’s another, somewhat unexpected, character onboard the Titanique who is synonymous with the seminal movie, but only for her voice.

Celine Dion (Marney McQueen) herself!

Titanique is a deliciously irreverent story about Ms Dion’s own experience of the famous disaster. Is she one of the first passengers into a lifeboat? Is there room for her on that floating door? Or does she snap in half and sink straight to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

Mockery At Its Best

I have a shameful secret I need to confess.

I was obsessed by the movie Titanic when it first hit the cinemas in 1997.

I lapped up the romance. I loved the adventure. And I cried for days after (27 year-old spoiler alert) Jack froze to death in the North Atlantic.

I’ve re-watched the movie dozens of times. I tried to read everything I could about the actual disaster.

And, if I’m honest, mocking a classic movie goes against everything I stand for. Creating a blockbuster is hard. Making fun of it is easy.

But Titanique is genius.

The parody is razor-sharp. The jokes are laser-like in their precision. And it’s just plain fun.  The dialogue between Jack and Rose brilliantly ridicules the absurdity of their holiday fling.

Every time Stephen Anderson entered the stage – as a hilariously bitchy rendition of Rose’s mother, Ruth – he had me convulsing with laughter.

Marney McQueen was a delight as Celine Dion.

I sniggered and snickered from optimistic start to tragic finish, with the odd belly laugh which was so loud I felt embarrassed. I chuckled quietly to myself all the way home.

Judging by the constant laughter throughout the show and the raucous applause at the curtain call, everybody else at the Grand Electric agreed with me.

What My Eyebrows Told Me

My eyebrows joined my mouth in a constant state of joyous amusement and never fell below a high arch.

For more information on Titanique:

Titanique • Now playing at The Grand Electric (titaniquemusical.com.au)