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[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff & Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between. In today's episode, we're discussing the 2026 Broadway production of Titaníque, playing at the St. James Theatre. Whether you cannot catch the show in person, or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you. And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers, so if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us. I'm Jeff.

[0:24] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your hosts for this episode, but before we start the conversation about Titaníque, here are a few words from our advertisers.

[0:32] Jeff Malone: Welcome, everyone, to a new episode of Half Hour with Jeff & Richie. Today, we're discussing Titaníque. Jack and Rose's story isn't done. It's Dion. From a basement off-Broadway to an international phenomenon, Titaníque sails onto Broadway for its grandest voyage yet. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, this global splash hit reimagines Jack and Rose's timeless love story aboard the ship of dreams through the French-Canadian eyes of someone who was totally there, Celine Dion. Not the real Celine, but she would approve. The superstar singer remembers the doomed romance with more shocking twists, mega-diva antics, and face-melting vocals, belting her favorite hit songs, and not even an iceberg can stop her.

[1:13] Richie Grasso: All right, so let's get into the overall story, plot, concept, theme, music, everything. I mean, this is our... How many times have we seen Titaníque now?

[1:22] Jeff Malone: For me, it's three, and I think for you, it's two.

[1:24] Richie Grasso: Two, yes.

[1:24] Jeff Malone: So I saw it in the downtown grocery store basement, original cast. I saw it there, and then I saw it at the Daryl Roth at the Bigger Theatre, and now we're on Broadway, so we've seen the trajectory of this. This is clearly a hit. It's clearly working. Everybody and their mother and their dog has seen this show at this point. I feel like everyone ran to see it off-Broadway. It's now on Broadway, and so has everything elevated just about. Orchestra, set, lighting, costumes, everything has really elevated this experience. It's international. It's playing all over. Everybody's loving it. I had a feeling it was going to go to Broadway at some point. The concept is hilarious. It's so smart. We've interviewed Ty Blue, who's one of the creators and the director.

If you want to go to the Broadway Podcast Network site and see our interview with him, that's a separate episode we've done. You can even listen back to our thoughts when we saw this off-Broadway a couple years back.

[2:16] Richie Grasso: Yeah, and we can see if they've changed at all. Overall, we've seen different casts do this. This is a lot of the original cast, but some new stars joining them as well.

[2:24] Jeff Malone: Because I did not see it with the original cast when it was off-Broadway. I saw it a little bit later. I saw Jackie Burns in the role of Celine, and Frankie Grande wasn't in it when I saw it. Constantine wasn't in it anymore when I saw it, so I got to see more of the original cast now, which was great. I do want to touch a little bit on the plot and concept here first, because we have such an underdog story with a musical like this. The fact that this has even gotten this far is, I think, really notable to talk to this creative team in that way. I'm pretty sure they never in their minds would have thought a musical like this would have made it to the Broadway stage, right?

[3:04] Richie Grasso: Totally, and when we talked to Ty in our interview with him, he talked a lot about how this process was and how it was an idea that came to them, and they kept growing on it. There's also rights with using certain Celine Dion songs, and which songs you can and can't use. As it's grown, I'm sure they've had to have a lot of people involved and say, hey, are we allowed to do this? Can we take this international? What does Celine Dion think of this? What do the people who made the movie think of this? Lots of people involved here to take part. To see that this comes into the Tony season of Broadway in the spring, it is a limited run. It's only playing until the summer, but I think this was their opportunity to elevate it, and then maybe kick it off before it goes on tour, or maybe they're going to release the rights for this, right?

So this was the smart next step for them, and I think that this whole idea just seems to land. So many people know this famous movie. Obviously, it's based on a tragedy from a long time ago, but the movie is what so many people know specific things of, and this seems to spoof a lot of the characters in that movie, the added plot lines that the movie added, and things like that. You put the whole thing over this live orchestration of these Celine Dion hits, and it just works. The vocals are there. The talent is there. It's a fun time in the theater, and I think that's really impressive.

[4:15] Richie Grasso: And I want to get your feelings on parody on the Broadway stage, because it is very slim for seeing parody happening on the Broadway stage, right?

[4:24] Jeff Malone: Usually, it's off-Broadway.

[4:27] Richie Grasso: Right. Off-Broadway, we hear things all the time. There's a heated rivalry parody happening right now. There's the Golden Girls parody. There's so many different things that are happening off-Broadway. So for this to kind of be this musical that now has made it all the way to the Broadway stage, and we have things like Schmigadoon that's parody that's also in this season, but I'm talking about this. This is, I think, in a true parody way that it's making it to the Broadway stage that I don't feel like always happens, and why do you kind of feel like that is?

[5:00] Jeff Malone: I think when you parody something, you need to really know that the masses of people will understand what you're parodying. So with O'Meary, when you're parodying a famous president and his life of Abraham Lincoln and his wife, most people read about that story, know about him. He's a historical figure. With Titanic, you're parodying Titanic, which is one of the biggest movies of all time. Just about everybody has seen that movie. So you're taking this, and then there was this just so happened to have the hit song from that show be a Celine Dion song, and it's a wild idea that's just taken off, and I think it works when most people know Jack and Rose and Celine Dion and the music, and you're taking that late 90s, early 2000s vibe, and you're putting it out there for the masses.

It works when the masses of people can understand it. And now that we've seen this a few times, one thing that I kind of wanted to look at a bit more was I'm looking at this from the book as well as the music that was selected for this. So from the book standpoint, I actually think it has a pretty strong book. I find the book to be funny, and I see this on the Broadway stage, and I say, I kind of maybe liked it slightly a bit more in the smaller space of the Daryl Roth. I think the audience kind of really eats it up a bit more because everyone's fully laughing. You're getting real roars of laughter happening in that smaller stage. And I did get that still now on Broadway, but maybe not as much.

I think that there were more people that probably did not see this off-Broadway. It's definitely more in the tourist trappy kind of world where people might be seeing this and they don't get all of the jokes, which is fine. I think you could also laugh along with people if you think it's funny. But overall, the concept around this book is funny to me. I think when you really sit down and look at this and I say, oh, and I watched it from that standpoint that we're going to this Titanic museum and then we're doing the retelling of the film, this made-up story. So I think that's what people forget too. The Titanic film is a made-up story. Most of those characters are all made up.

[7:09] Richie Grasso: Right. Like, yes, the Titanic was real, but that in itself is kind of like a parody.

[7:16] Jeff Malone: Right. And that's why I think it's so funny when they reference like, oh, Victor Garber's here, Victor Garber. They're talking about the actor who played the captain, not even saying the captain's name. Like they're just kind of playing off the movie vibe. Right. And Jack and Rose are not real people. So it's like, I think everyone forgets that. Like the Titanic was not a documentary. I understand what you're saying that the musical Titanic is spoofing the movie. It's not necessarily spoofing anything else. And I understand that.

[7:38] Richie Grasso: Right. For sure. I think that there are specific jokes that maybe not everyone gets, but in general, I think it does appeal to the masses. It's working internationally. It's working on Broadway. It is a limited run. So I don't know if they intend for this to run very long. Right. I think the point of this coming was kind of, hey, let's see if this was to get any Tony nominations. And I think that that'll be a conversation we have a little later in the episode, but I think it's definitely working. I thought it was a fun time. Right. And when you have a spoof on the film, if you have not seen the film, where do you think this sits for someone?

[8:11] Jeff Malone: Oh, you have to, I think, see the film before seeing this. I think if you didn't see the film, you wouldn't really get it. Right. So I think there are probably people that might go and see this and they have never seen the film and then that would totally go over their head. Right. I mean, like that's a big deal for you to kind of see something, which is why I'm like kind of harping a little bit on this as this is a spoof on the Titanic film. But all right, let's get into this production now and talk about how it's elevated around the direction, design, and cast.

[8:41] Richie Grasso: Okay, and we're back. So let's get into this overall production now. So like, let's talk about Elevation No. 1. And we still have Ty Blu directing this musical, which he directed all of the other versions of this.

[8:54] Jeff Malone: Yes. And so do I feel like the majority of this plot and the songs have stayed from off-road? Yes. There seems like a couple jokes might have changed a little bit here and there, but the whole flow of it stayed. But then the Beauty and the Beast moment and the Iceberg moment and these moments got elevated with the costumes and the lighting and the scenery. The set is this big, grandiose set now. The orchestra's right up there. Everything is just larger and more and more budget and probably what they would have dreamed about when they did it in that basement of that, you know, wherever, because they felt like they always wanted it to maybe grow to something like this.

[9:31] Richie Grasso: Yeah. To see all those instrumentalists up there playing the Celine Dion music and they're belting live and there's all this vocal. It's just a big, big, impactful show in that way. Yeah. I thought it was really cool to do, like, we have the curtain up, pull that down, reveal the set. It's on the set of The Voice. Ha ha. But for that, I look at and I say, yes, they really did elevate it because I said, wow, this could be really hard to move something like this to that piece. And we have the band on the stage and it's great. We have all the actors coming out on the stage. And I think it just really worked in that way. We have this concert style lighting now that I loved. And it was just fun to kind of see this in this full house. Right.

[10:14] Jeff Malone: Right. And it's a big theater and it's a lot of people there to fill it, which was really important.

[10:18] Richie Grasso: Yeah. And to think this time last year, we were sitting there watching Sunset Boulevard and there was nothing on the stage but the actors. And then we moved to Cuita Versailles, which was completely full. I actually thought it would have been funny if they did this on the set of Cuita Versailles as like a joke that they always make. And we're doing this on the set of anything goes. And now to say like where they're doing it on the set of The Voice, I think is so funny.

[10:42] Jeff Malone: Yeah. There was actually some really, really cool lighting that I have not seen on a Broadway stage before because we have these trusses that are happening on the stage that have different LED screens. They have LED moving lights, like so many different things that are happening there that they're, you know, pumping the smoke out onto the stage and it's just moving. And it gives it that full Broadway effect.

[11:05] Richie Grasso: Totally. Definitely a high elevation of budget and time put into it. And when you think of some of these performances, I was going to say, what are you? There's a lot of performances to talk about. So what are some standouts for you?

[11:18] Jeff Malone: Well, I think we should talk about Marla first. I think she was a great Celine Dion for me for the first time because I did not see her do this performance. And obviously she's a creator here with Constantine and Ty. And to see them performing in this, not Ty because he directed, but Constantine and Marla both, it's like you get their connection that really knows that this is their baby. And to see this, it's like you almost are just like so proud and watching them and hearing them and vocally they're both giving it their all.

[11:50] Richie Grasso: Totally. Constantine and Marla are standouts. They're really holding this down. They are very strong performers. It's clear they care about it. They've been with it since day one in and out of the show for many, many years. And I think to do a Broadway production of this, of course it makes sense to put them in it. Right. And I think they've done Broadway before and Marla is very comfortable there and she's singing some of the hardest pop songs I think ever written. I think it's some of the Celine Dion songs are really hard to belt and sing and she's doing a great job.

[12:18] Jeff Malone: Yes. And I have a big hot take for this Titanic cast because there are two people that are blowing it out of the water, no pun intended, but Deborah Cox and Leighton Williams, Deborah Cox playing Molly Brown and Leighton Williams playing the seaman slash the iceberg, I'm sorry, is like the biggest scene stealing moment that I have seen on Broadway in a long time.

[12:41] Richie Grasso: I would totally agree. It's great to see Deborah Cox in that role and Leighton Williams in that role. They're both so strong. Their vocals are incredible.

[12:51] Jeff Malone: Yes. I think Deborah Cox is brilliant at singing all by myself. She sounds so good. She's funny throughout the whole piece as well. I think your eye goes to Leighton Williams. He's all over that stage pulling focus in the best way. He is just drawing your attention. He's got great one-liners. He's all over as the Tina Turner iceberg moment, hilarious. The whole lip-sync for your life boats moment, the whole thing was just so great.

[13:28] Jeff Malone: Welcome back to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie. Today, we’re diving into the world of Titaníque on Broadway, a show that has made quite the splash at the St. James Theatre.

[13:44] Richie Grasso: Absolutely, Jeff. This production is a parody fueled by the music of Céline Dion, and it’s fascinating to see how it transitioned from a cult favorite Off-Broadway to a full-fledged Broadway production.

[14:02] Jeff Malone: Right, and the journey has definitely impacted the storytelling and humor. The larger venue brings a different energy, and I think it’s important to discuss how that affects the overall experience.

[14:18] Richie Grasso: For sure. The creative team has done a remarkable job scaling up the production values, from set design to choreography. It’ll be interesting to see if they can maintain that scrappy spirit that defined its Off-Broadway run.

[14:34] Jeff Malone: And let’s not forget the incredible cast. Marla Mindelle as Céline Dion is a standout, and we also have talents like Melissa Barrera, Deborah Cox, and Frankie Grande. Their performances really shape the tone of the show.

[14:54] Richie Grasso: Exactly. Each of them brings something unique to the table, and it’s a testament to how well the ensemble works together. I think that chemistry is crucial for a show like this.

[15:10] Jeff Malone: Speaking of chemistry, the use of Dion’s catalog throughout the show adds another layer of fun. It’s a clever way to engage the audience while paying homage to the iconic music.

[15:28] Richie Grasso: Definitely. But we also have to consider the legal and artistic hurdles they faced in building a parody around such well-known characters and songs. That’s no small feat.

[15:44] Jeff Malone: Right, and it’s a balancing act. They need to stay true to the essence of the original while also bringing their own comedic twist. It’ll be interesting to see how audiences respond to that.

[16:02] Richie Grasso: And with the Tony Awards coming up, I’m curious to see if Titaníque will garner any nominations. It’s certainly making waves in the Broadway community.

[16:18] Jeff Malone: It’s a strong contender, especially in the realm of contemporary Broadway comedy and parody musicals. There’s a lot to unpack here, and I’m excited to see how it all unfolds.

[16:34] Richie Grasso: Me too, Jeff. Let’s keep an eye on this production as it continues its run. It’s shaping up to be a memorable addition to the Broadway landscape.