Titanique Reviews
The Critics' Verdict
The West End critics agreed Titanique is funny and disagreed about whether it stays funny. Ratings ran from three stars to five. There are no negative reviews to report: nobody went below three, which for a show this deliberately silly is a warmer reception than it might have expected.
The Times and the Daily Mail both went to five. The Financial Times, the Standard, the Daily Express and WhatsOnStage settled on four. The Guardian, the Telegraph, The Stage, the i Paper and Time Out all gave three, and none of them were dismissive about it.
What the Reviews Praised
The central performance, without exception. Every review built itself around Lauren Drew, who played Céline Dion at press night. Time Out called making Dion the main character the show's "undoubted masterstroke". The Stage called that performance "the powerhouse that drives the show". The Times described "a quite astonishing mixture of OTT vocalising and girl-next-door folksiness".
The Iceberg. The reinvention of the iceberg as a Tina Turner figure stopped the show for several critics. The Daily Express said the part "virtually stops the show"; the Times called it "a stunningly convincing facsimile of a raging Tina Turner". Layton Williams won the 2025 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for it, and later took the part to Broadway.
The singing and the band, which nobody argued about. The Financial Times praised "a cast so sharply on their game and possessed of such blazing voices". The Daily Express, while calling the set rubbish, still made a point of praising the band.
The sheer pace of it once it settles. The Times was won over having expected not to be: "For the first ten minutes of this Hollywood spoof I thought we might be heading down the same blind alley. But then, something remarkable happened." The verdict that followed was "It's Airplane! with a musical theatre twist."
The Daily Mail was the most confident of the lot, calling it "cast-iron, ocean-going hysteria on the high Cs" and predicting "the mass appeal to run for months, even years." It has since run for years.
Where Reviews Were Mixed
One question divided them: can a single joke can carry a whole evening?
The Guardian admired the "fantastically brash, devil-may-care spirit and sparkling performances" and still concluded it "comes to feel like an overstretched joke." The Stage said it "plays out like an extended Saturday Night Live sketch, and occasionally threatens to outstay its welcome." The Daily Express, at four stars, allowed that "it does seem to go on and on."
The Telegraph's objection was different and more interesting: that the gap between the comedy and the real disaster never quite closes. "My enthusiasm sank as the disconnect between mirth and tragedy became inescapable." Its parting shot is the best backhanded compliment in the set, suggesting the evening "almost leaves you wanting to see a straightforward musical simply utilising Dion's discography."
WhatsOnStage was the most disarming: "It's a hot mess of a show but it's January and I am feeling generous with my star rating. It wasn't totally a night to remember, but it's not one to forget either."
Two things about all of the above. These reviews were written at press night in January 2025, when the show played straight through in around 100 minutes. It now runs 2 hours 10 minutes with an interval, so the commonest criticism was made of a shorter evening than the one you would see.
And the company has changed completely since. The performances the critics singled out were given by actors who have moved on, several of them to the Broadway production.
Is Titanique Right for You?
The critical spread is unusually useful here, because the three-star reviews and the five-star reviews are describing the same show accurately and simply disagreeing about whether they wanted it.
If a two-hour parody built on Céline Dion songs and a cardboard iceberg sounds like a good night out, the enthusiasts are your guide and you will have one. If it sounds like hard work, the three-star reviews are telling you something true and you should believe them.
It won the 2025 Olivier Award for Best New Entertainment or Comedy Play.
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For the seating plan and where the pillars are, see our Criterion Theatre guide.
Sources
Reviews by Clive Davis (The Times), Patrick Marmion (Daily Mail), Nick Curtis (The Standard), Neil Norman (Daily Express), Sarah Hemming (Financial Times), Sarah Crompton (WhatsOnStage), Arifa Akbar (The Guardian), Dominic Cavendish (The Telegraph), Paul Vale (The Stage), Fiona Mountford (The i Paper) and Andrzej Lukowski (Time Out), January 2025.