Interview: TITANIQUE's Nicole Parker Has Found Her Niche Playing Celine Dion

MADtv star and veteran of the stage and screen, Nicole Parker, is re-boarding the ship of dreams! Parker, who starred in the Off-Broadway hit Titanique this past summer, will once again step into the role of Celine Dion from February 9 through March 31, 2024. 

This is the third time the comedian will playing the Celine Dion, having first done so in her Broadway debut in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. In this exclusive interview, Parker reveals how she prepares to play and sing Celine, how her impression has grown and changed over the years, what she is most looking forward to in returning to Titanique, and more. 

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How does it feel to be returning to the role of Celine Dion in Titanique?

It’s funny, I was thinking about this, it will be the third time that I’ll play Celine Dion on a New York stage, which, the best word I can come up with, is extremely niche [laughs]. I played Celine in my Broadway debut, which was in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, which was approximately 120 years ago. There was a song that featured me doing impressions, and I would not have imagined that I would return again to the New York stage to play Celine. So, I guess it’s full circle, or maybe it’s just a very lateral move [laughs], but I’m thrilled to do it.

I’ve been doing that impression ever since MADtv, and I am such a huge fan of hers. Not only does Titanique give me the feel of the Martin Short show in that it always has spontaneity, it combines everything that I love. It makes a misfit toy like me who does a lot of different things feel like I’m in the right place. I get to do some improv, I get to do some impressions, I get to sing, I get to play with a bunch of amazing performers. So, it’s rare that you get to do a project that encompasses all of those things. It’s really a pleasure.

You just said you’ve been doing this impression of Celine since MADtv, how do you find Celine Dion’s voice? How do you get into the spirit of Celine Dion?

I really love characters, especially ladies of a certain age who are just pure joy. They don’t judge themselves. Celine, if you watch her in an interview, she’s constantly breaking into song, she’s making connections, she’s free-associating constantly, because she’s just living in this place of joy, and celebrating life, and she’s not judging herself. And we rarely get women like that, especially if they’re famous, usually there is a self-conscious element, or you can just feel them- especially ladies- censoring themselves. And in that way, she’s just a free spirit who just lets herself live.

So, that’s kind of the way to play Celine, which is almost don’t make any choices. It’s like improv, if you train at Upright Citizens Brigade, one of the mottos is ‘don’t think.’ And it just means don’t get caught up in your head, just react honestly. And I think that Celine embodies the ‘yes, and’ of improv and also ‘don’t think.’ Certainly I’m interested in the mechanics of the comedy of this particular production, or any production, but when it comes to thinking, ‘Well, what should I do as Celine here?’ I always say, ‘Stop thinking, you’re thinking too hard,’ [laughs]. Because she wouldn’t think, she would just go out and let the spirit move her.

In terms of the impression, it’s changed over the years. When I started doing this impression we didn’t have something called YouTube, we didn’t have an entire DVD of her Cirque du Soleil show. So, if you had a VHS tape—Google it, children!—then you would just have that, or maybe you caught her singing on some special. And when I was doing her on MADtv, it was so long ago that there was a department called Research that would bring you some VHS tapes because someone had sat by the television and made sure to tape a couple of things so that I could watch Celine. Now, you have everything. So now I’m able to watch her do interviews, and I’m able to go back and see how she’s changed as a singer. There is so much material now to study, so I really hope that my impression has gotten better as technology has improved [laughs].

Her music is incredible, but also very vocally challenging, how do you prepare yourself for that?

I’ve hired a Cirque du Soleil troupe to follow me around the house, it’s very cost prohibitive, but I don’t really know how else to do it. So there’s a clown that follows me, he’s a sad clown, I have a lot of nonverbal exchanges with him in the morning, it really helps me get into—no. I mean, otherwise, how would you get into Celine?

I’m getting back into a couple of voice lessons, I’m singing the score, and hopefully my voice will just sort of lock back into it. The interesting thing about the structure of Titanique, is that you’re never really singing a full solo, you’re sort of singing snippets here and there. And it’s a shorter show, it’s 90 minutes, and I just think when people ask me about this, the only answer I can come up with is, nothing is as hard as Elphaba [laughs]. And when you have to sing ‘The Wizard and I’ right out the gate, which is a 32-minute song—I don’t know if you know that— at least for me, I have not come up against something that is as hard as that.

It also makes a difference- and I found this doing shows that were comedies that were a tough sing- if there was an element of comedy it sort of lightens the burden. Titanique is such a roller coaster ride, in that it starts and it stops, you’re just on it for the ride. And it’s so fun that you get caught up in that fun, and I think that also helps with not making it feel so daunting.

Do you have a favorite number in the show?

I really love ‘Because You Loved Me’ just because it’s kind of a nice, chill song to sing, but also there is some physical humor nonsense that I get to do while Rose is being painted. The famous portrait that Jack draws of her, Celine tries to insert herself into that moment, as she does throughout the show, and I really love getting to do that bit with my dear friend Lindsay Heather Pearce, another former Elphaba! But I love ‘Surrender’, it’s super fun. And of course, ‘My Heart Will Go On’. Those are my top three!

What are you most looking forward to in your return to the show?

I happen to be a human who had a baby and then went right into the pandemic. So I have to say that after the last few years it almost feels like being on a different planet to step on a stage in New York and do this thing that I love again, it feels like a real privilege. Something that just didn’t seem possible a few years ago in my pajamas in Anaheim, California holding a baby and not seeing anybody. So, first of all, I’m just looking forward to the fact that I can come back to a city that I love, where so many of my best friends are. And I think just the privilege of getting to get on stage and perform just has a different weight to it now, and I think it always will. I’m really grateful for it.

But also, I do just love live performance, and I do love this cast of people, there will be some people who were there when I did it in the summer. They’re all the most talented, and they’re all, like, 20 years younger than me, they’re incredible, I don’t even understand what factory built them, I couldn’t sing like that when I was their age. They are all amazing, and fun, and the crew is incredible. So I’m really looking forward to being back with all of them, with my buddies, and making new friends, because a lot of people are new, and they bring their own energy to the show, and to the characters. I’m all about that, I just love that. So, I’m really looking forward to what a privilege it is to perform on stage and to be in New York, which I love, my second home, and also to be with the people.

What is it like having audiences members be so passionate about this show?

It’s wild! Again, I come from an improv background. I’ve also done theater in LA, which, if you haven’t experienced it, it’s pretty dark [laughs], it’s a pretty dark experience! I’ve done shows for five people in a 100-seat theater, I’ve done shows at theaters in LA where most of the people just come to take a nap! There is one theater that gets so cold that they actually hand out blankets, which, I don’t think that’s a good idea, because that just encourages you to get even more comfy and to fall asleep. And so, all the kinds of performance experiences that I have, it’s quite a gift to be able to come out onstage and already have an audience that is singing along with you, that you get to interact with, that is here for the party. And I have to say, I’ve never seen audience members looking so happy, they are just living their lives.

But that’s what I love about it, it’s a lovefest. People always say live theater is an exchange between the audience and the performers. For Celine, the audience sort of is my character that I interact with the most. Celine doesn’t really talk to anybody in the show or have any scenes, really, because she’s in her own little world and she’s the narrator. So, the audience is sort of the character that I interact with the most. That is the element in the show that I depend on the most. That’s what I think is so great about the show and why it’s hit a chord, because it is so ridiculously silly.

But also, every singer is so incredible, you are getting a very high quality show, although a very a silly parody. I think my friends Marla [Mindelle], and Tye [Blue], and Constantine [Rousouli], who wrote this show, it is such a testament to them that it is running so long, and that individual performers can come in and bring their own original self to it, and their personality to it, and that the show works no matter what because the bones of it are so good. They created a show for everyone to shine, that lifts up every performer, and they’ve also done real fan service in a lot of different ways, but especially to Celine. It is so clearly a loving tribute to her. They just really got the whole entire combination right. And so, I think it really gives people what they want, and it also gives people when they never knew they needed.

Photo credit: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade