Céline Dion may never understand just how big a role she played in bringing the most unhinged musical on Broadway to life.
“This is, first and foremost, a love letter to Céline Dion. We are such huge fans and grew up listening to her, and so this is a tribute and a legacy to her brand,” Titanique co-creator and, as of Tuesday, Tony-nominated actress Marla Mindelle told Obsessed: The Podcast.
Titanique, which premiered on Broadway in April, reimagines the Titanic’s fateful shipwreck as seen through the eyes of Dion, who performed the 1997 film’s ballad “My Heart Will Go On,” but who was definitely never on the ship. In the show, Dion hijacks a Titanic Museum tour to narrate what she believes actually happened to Jack and Rose.
“Our love for Céline Dion and her kooky, crazy storytelling abilities and her concerts ignited this idea of like, what if she was there and what if she got to retell what she thinks happened?” Ty Blue, the show’s co-creator and director, said.
“So she’s our hostess, she’s our emcee,” Blue continued. “And it is a crazy roller coaster of joy and hilarity of what really happened on the ship, using all of her songs to fully illustrate and bring these characters to life.”
The show, which stars The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons and one of the Canadian singer’s former backup singers, Deborah Cox, garnered four Tony nominations this week, including for Best New Musical.
Titanique‘s 10-year journey to Broadway included an extended stint in a dank basement theater below a Manhattan Gristedes grocery store during the COVID pandemic.
“The Gristides was condemned in the middle of summer, so all the rats from Gristides would come down to the basement,” Mindelle continued. “They’re crawling around while we’re packing the set into my dressing room. They’re pooping all over the set while I’m singing ‘My Heart Will Go On,’ and trash juice is also leaking onto my face.”
“But despite all of that, as we’re performing and people are starting to come, people are laughing harder than they’ve ever laughed before,” she said, adding that it was her “favorite incarnation” of the show. “It was like this glorious, dingy, gross, and grody underground show that became this huge word-of-mouth thing.”
The show quickly became championed by celebrities like Margot Robbie, RuPaul, SNL‘s Lorne Michaels, and even some of the Titanic’s survivors. One female survivor, whom the cast affectionately calls the real-life Rose, lauded the campy musical.
“She was like, ‘Listen. I hate Titanic, I hate Céline Dion, and I hate musicals, and I loved this show,’" Mindelle recalled of the encounter. “I was like, ‘Who kidnapped you and brought you into this theater?’”
“It’s actually such a great pull quote now, ’75-year-old woman who hates everything magically loved Titanique,’" she continued. “If we can do that, then we can do just about anything.”
While Dion, 58, has not seen the show herself, much of her team has.
“She has not seen it. She’s a very busy international diva icon,” Mindelle quipped, noting that many from her team, including her stylists, backup dancers, and even doctors, have attended performances.
“We can rest assured that even if she never sees it, at least everyone in her camp has seen it and they think that she would love it,” she concluded.
Titanique is currently on Broadway, with a limited engagement through September.
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