David Mirvish and Hannah Mirvish & the Segal Centre / Titanique, e book by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue, directed by Tye Blue, CAA Theatre, closes Jan. 12. Tickets right here.
This jukebox musical includes a very gifted solid showing in one of many silliest exhibits ever.
The premise of Titanique is that Céline Dion (Véronique Claveau) interrupts a tour of Titanic artifacts to inform her model of the 1997 James Cameron blockbuster film Titanic. The story should be the identical, however this can be a parody, so issues get turned on their ear. The songs are Dion’s hits.
Titanique continues to be going sturdy off-Broadway in New York, however this manufacturing is residence grown that includes a Canadian solid, however a New York artistic group, together with authentic director and co-author, Tye Blue. The manufacturing performed in Montreal earlier than sojourning to Toronto.
In all equity, I’ve to say that the group beloved the present. I additionally must confess that there have been a number of pop references that I missed. Nonetheless, I choose my satire to be biting, intelligent and witty, and there may be little of that in Titanique. In case you’re in search of humour for classy tastes, it isn’t to be discovered right here.
The Solid
The musical is saved by performances which might be merely terrific. Everybody canbelto on steroids, so listening to the songs softens the silliness. In reality, Titanique boasts an excellent solid of singing actors.
All of the characters from the Cameron film are current in addition to key plot factors.
The centre piece is, after all, Jack (Seth Zosky) and Rose (Mariah Campos). Zosky performs Jack like a clueless fool which does get laughs, whereas feisty Rose is Jack’s straight man, so to talk. The truth is, Campos is a particularly gifted performer, and I’d like to see extra of her on the town. Costume designer Alejo Vietti has cleverly dressed her in Kate Winslett’s well-known burgundy gown from the film and a wig that mirrors the actor’s lengthy pink hair. In distinction, as Jack factors out, he’s in his skinny pants.
Rose’s evil mom Ruth (Fixed Bernard) is a drag function, and Bernard performs it to the hilt, tremendous homosexual, tremendous bitchy, which is assured to tickle the humorous bone. Rose’s vainglorious entitled fiancé Cal (Michael Torontow) is haughty and silly, an actual upper-class twit. Molly Brown (Erica Peck) has a Southern accent, though she was from the West. Her function is to mollify, sympathize, and provides questionable recommendation.
The character of real-life actor Victor Garber (Mike Melino) stands in for the Titanic’s captain and officers — within the film he performed Thomas Andrews, the designer of Titanic. It’s a personality that’s underwritten compared to the others, as is Melino’s different function — Luigi, Jack’s touring companion. Luigi is there for no purpose that I may decide.
The very amusing Christopher Ning comes near stealing the present in his a number of roles. He’s the Seaman (representing the Titanic crew), the Iceberg Bitch (a clone of Tina Turner), and the Tour Information. He additionally will get to be Peabo Bryson with Dion within the Magnificence and the Beast duet. I’ll, nonetheless, hand it to the writers that personifying the deadly iceberg as Tina Turner is intelligent.
Andre Anthony, Queenie and Rose Messenger are the three formidable Background Vocalists, who fill in as different characters when wanted.
Which brings us to Dion and Claveau.
I’m not that conversant in Dion however I’m assuming Claveau does a bang-up job imitating the pop star in voice and mannerisms. She actually can sing up a storm. I discovered her function disappointing, although. She acts as narrator, so she comes and goes all through the present, becoming a member of in when the opposite characters are singing, and barely getting a track on her personal. Even the well-known Oscar-winning My Coronary heart Will Go On was solely half sung.
I wished to see extra of Claveau as a result of, in distinction to the opposite characters, she is sly and droll, though she was exhausting to know at instances as a result of she spoke so rapidly. When it comes to the remainder of the solid, her Dion is the one grownup within the room.
The Manufacturing
The manufacturing values of Titanique are first price, nonetheless.
Iron Bloom (Gabriel Hainer Evansohn & Grace Laubacher) created a gorgeous set of stairs that gentle up in several colors, with the superb four-piece band on the highest stage. In fact, there are railings so Jack and Rose can do the bow of the ship routine. A rounded backdrop does give the phantasm of a ship.
At one level Dion/Claveau quipped that the set regarded prefer it was from Something Goes, Cole Porter’s 1935 musical that takes place aboard a ship, which was one of many references I did get, together with evil mom Ruth’s tribute to Gypsy’s evil mom Rose.
Vietti’s terrific costumes cowl the waterfront by way of model, with solely Rose mirroring the film. They’re character particular which is a number of enjoyable. Paige Seber runs wild with the lighting design reworking Titanique right into a sound and light-weight present. Choreographer Ellenore Scott did a masterful job creating motion for slim stairs.
Remaining Ideas
Director Blue says in his director’s notes that the musical was developed when a gaggle of pals “with a ardour for stagecraft” had enjoyable taking part in with creation, and that’s precisely what Titanique seems like — at worst, the puerile humour of a school present, or at finest, a Saturday Evening Dwell sketch.
Titanique is innocent leisure.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, significantly on the function of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson College for the Arts.