Titanique: Spoof Titanic musical is a ‘love letter to Celine Dion’

It’s Celine Dion’s world and we’re all just living in it.

The Canadian chanteuse made her triumphant return to the stage in the closing moments of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

Standing on the platform on the Eiffel Tower, she belted out Edith Piaf’s Hymne a l’armour to millions and millions of people watching at home. She was luminous and note-perfect. It was her first live performance since 2019.

It was a special moment she probably thought would never happen after her diagnosis with the extremely rare neurological disorder stiff-person syndrome rendered her unable to do the thing she loved the most.

One person watching Dion with awe was Marney McQueen, an Australian actor who will soon play a fictionalised version of Dion in the stage musical Titanique.

“I think the whole world was just bawling their eyes out at the strength and power and tenacity of her comeback from such a massive setback. To have such a triumphant return,” McQueen told The Nightly.

“She has given so many people so much inspiration, and she just proved herself to be even more of an icon than she was.”

The timing for Titanique could not be better. The Broadway jukebox musical that playfully spoofs James Cameron’s Titanic film using the music of Dion, will open at The Grand Electric in Sydney on September 12 with McQueen in the lead as Dion.

Hang on a sec, Celine Dion wasn’t in the movie, you might say.

Titanique is not a straight retelling. It’s a self-aware, referential and, by all accounts, supremely fun way to experience the love of Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson, as told by a contemporary Dion who hijacks a Titanic museum tour. Some things may have changed in the re-framing of the story.

The casting was announced this morning in Sydney as McQueen sailed into Sydney Harbour against the backdrop of the Opera House, stationed at the bow with her arms outstretched while My Heart Will Go On played. It was very extra but it was very Titanique.

She was joined onboard by her castmates including Georgina Hopson (Rose), Drew Weston (Jack), Matt Lee (Victor Garber/Captain) and Abu Kebe (The Iceberg).

Australia is the first international staging of the production. Tye Blue serves as director. The book was written by Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli.

What McQueen took from the real-life Dion to imbue into the highly fictionalised version is a sense of fun. “Celine is very loving, giving and accepting,” she said. “And there’s a big theme of acceptance throughout the show.

“Celine has a great sense of humour and general terrific sense of fun which is infused through this whole show. It’s just wild.

“At the same time, it’s a love letter to Celine Dion.”

There’s no denying that Dion is well and truly back in the cultural conversation. Her Olympics performance came one month after the release of her documentary, I Am: Celine Dion, which gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at how the singer has been coping with her life-changing diagnosis.

It was an emotional watch that took in everything such as the mundanity of the day-to-day of raising kids, the sublime of her reminiscences of her incredible career and the harrowing as the cameras captured her in the middle of a SPS episode, her body convulsing as she loses control of her muscles.

But there was also that fun and cheek. In one scene as Dion took viewers through the warehouse that stores her archival costumes and possessions, she talked about how she can make any shoe sized between a six and a 10 fit, as long as she loved it enough.

McQueen, though, said her embodiment of Dion doesn’t stretch that far — “I’m wearing my shoe size and that’s it!”

Between the documentary, the Olympics and Titanique, it’s really Dion’s moment.

“Everybody is celebrating Celine Dion now,” McQueen said. “So anything with any mention of Celine Dion is met with such joy and inspiration.”

Titanique opens at The Grand Electric in Sydney on September 12