TITANIQUE'S DOWNTOWN UPS & DOWNS
A buzzy production hit rough waters.
EXCLUSIVE: Before the Broadway-bound musical comedy Titanique arrived in Australia, Canada, Chicago and London’s West End — where it won two Olivier Awards, including for an actor playing an iceberg — it made a splash Off-Broadway.
For three years, the Titanic-slash-Celine Dion parody was a downtown destination for theatergoers — first at the Asylum NYC comedy club in Chelsea and then at the Daryl Roth Theatre near Union Square. After a slow start, the show earned enough in its first year and a half Off-Broadway to return about 60 percent of its roughly $1 million capitalization to investors, according to records filed with New York state. It was on track to become the hit the media had anointed it.
The momentum came to a halt in 2024. That year, expenses increased while grosses stagnated. The show was in the red in 51 out of 52 weeks, posting a net loss of $2.3 million, according to financial papers filed with the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Instead of sailing into profitability, it ran aground, closing at the Daryl Roth in June 2025.
“The economics of Broadway and touring are fundamentally different from Off-Broadway, and we are very optimistic about Titanique’s prospects in both arenas,” Eva Price, the show’s lead producer, wrote in an email to Broadway Journal. “Our experience has shown that when Titanique is re-mounted in a larger theater and produced on a grander scale— it succeeds.”
Titanique’s losses raise questions about the vaunted comeback of commercial theater Off-Broadway, given the show’s leading role in the narrative. The results also speak to the challenges at Broadway’s St. James Theatre, where the campy jukebox musical is scheduled to begin previews on March 26. Even when excluding balcony tickets, which aren’t for sale for Titanique, the St. James has more than four times the seating capacity of the Daryl Roth.
Price called the Broadway production “a widely beloved show being mounted with creative ambition and economic discipline — at less than half the capitalization of most new Broadway musicals today.” Its capitalization is indeed modest for Broadway — a maximum of $9.5 million, vs. $25 million for The Lost Boys, another new musical, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Yet Titanique’s running costs are closer to the daunting industry standard. It needs to gross about $900,000 a week to cover its operating expenses, according to a production estimate distributed to investors and obtained by Broadway Journal. Based on grosses reported by the Broadway League — which include fees not retained by the production — the show must sell about $993,000 of tickets each week to break even.
Price declined to discuss financial details, including why she didn’t close the show Off-Broadway earlier. At year-end 2024, the production owed $2.1 million to Price as well as $600,000 in unpaid royalties, according to one of the filings with the state. (The Attorney General’s office hasn’t released 2025 financials.) Price noted in her email to Broadway Journal that the Off-Broadway engagement “navigated economic uncertainties throughout each playing year,” including the unionization of its production workers.
It’s unclear how much the union organizing aggravated the losses. Although Titanique’s six production workers voted in February 2024 to be represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the contract IATSE signed with the production didn’t go into effect until Oct. 21, 2024. Most of the year’s losses predated the agreement.
Nederlander Organization CEO James L. Nederlander, a co-producer of Titanique downtown, didn’t return a call for comment.
Price said that by transferring the show to Broadway, “we can offer more accessible pricing across a broader range of seats, expanding audience reach while driving higher grosses and stronger overall financial viability.” The West End production, Price said, “which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary and continues to sell strongly, is a powerful example of that trajectory” — the show succeeding in a larger theater.
The Criterion Theatre, where Titanique’s playing in London, has roughly 590 seats, vs. 1,345 for sale at the St. James. Price declined to disclose the Broadway advance sale, which, like other new musicals opening this spring, appears to be modest, given the number of seats available.
Blumenthal Arts, which manages five venues in Charlotte, North Carolina, co-produced Titanique at the Daryl Roth and is investing in the Broadway production. “People are hungry for things that are just plain fun, especially fun with your friends,” Blumenthal Arts CEO Tom Gabbard told Broadway Journal. “I’m bullish about this show reconceived in a larger setting. I would love to see it play in Charlotte.”
Co-author Marla Mindelle originated the role of “Celine Dion,” who winds up on the Titanic even though she was born 56 years after the ship sank. When Mindelle and co-author Constantine Rousouli exited the cast on June 4, 2023, a month after she won a Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding lead performer, grosses tumbled 30 percent.
Mindelle and Rousouli are reprising their roles at the St. James. They’re joined by Deborah Cox, a Canadian singer-songwriter; Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory), in his first Broadway musical; and Frankie Grande. The rest of the cast was announced on Friday: Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), John Riddle (Frozen) and Layton Williams, who won the aforementioned Olivier playing a seaman and the iceberg.
Tony Award nominations are due three weeks after Titanique opens. With just six new musicals announced for 2025-26 — and one of them, The Queen of Versailles, already shuttered — the odds of getting theatergoers’ attention and winning Best Musical are more favorable than in years past. Were it to win that accolade, Titanique has a good chance of becoming the “Splash Hit Musical” it’s referred to in the production’s pitch deck for investors.
To privately comment about this story or anything else, feel free to email Philip Boroff at pboroff@bwayjournal.com.
