Jim Parsons joins Titaníque Broadway run as Rose’s mother

Jim Parsons stepped into Titaníque as Ruth DeWitt Bukater, adding a major name to a show that turned Céline Dion fandom, Titanic nostalgia and queer camp into a Broadway-selling formula. The musical began performances at the St. James Theatre on March 26, with opening night set for April 12 and a limited 16-week engagement.

Parsons said he accepted the role immediately when it was offered, and he tied the part to an earlier stage period in which he played female characters in Charles Busch productions. Those roles, he has said, helped him come to terms with his homosexuality and his inner femme, making Ruth a particularly personal fit for a show with a strong LGBTQ+ following.

Titaníque is built on a comic rewrite of the 1997 film through Céline Dion’s voice and catalog, with Dion cast as a fictional museum-tour guide who explains what really happened between Jack and Rose. The score leans on her signature songs, including My Heart Will Go On, All By Myself and To Love You More, and the production turns those pop ballads into the engine of a send-up that has already outgrown its cult origins.

That growth is the real business story. Titaníque started as a one-night Los Angeles concert in 2017, moved to New York’s Green Room 42, then broke out as a fully staged Off-Broadway hit in 2022. It ran for three years Off-Broadway, picked up Lucille Lortel and Obie honors, and later earned the 2025 Olivier Award for Best Comedy in London, before moving through the West End, Australia, Canada, Chicago and Paris.

The Broadway transfer signals how star casting now helps niche live theater stay visible in a crowded entertainment market. The Broadway company also includes Marla Mindelle as Celine Dion, Melissa Barrera as Rose, Deborah Cox as Molly Brown, Frankie Grande as Victor Garber, Constantine Rousouli as Jack Dawson, John Riddle as Cal Hockley and Layton Williams as The Iceberg. Creators Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Rousouli have described the Broadway staging as a larger-scale version with expanded choreography and sets, a jump from the Off-Broadway production’s famously tiny budget to a more conventional Broadway investment. For a musical that thrives on nostalgia and irony, Parsons’ arrival shows how camp can be monetized at scale without losing the audience that made it a hit in the first place.