Titanical: The Musical is Spotlight Cabaret’s latest hilarious spoof.

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As the spotlight cabaret crowd was finishing their salads, Jeff Hallaby and Amy Baudouin appeared at the front of the room.

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Dressed in Edwardian clothing for the show Titanical: The Musical, the duo roamed around the table, occasionally throwing liberal witticisms and whispering information to customers for the enjoyment of all involved. I encourage you gently. where are they from what are they doing here? The gaiety doubled in the room when Vermillion and Sherwood Park were mentioned during a Titanic parody, dropped just in time to break the fourth wall.

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“That’s my favorite part of the show,” Hallaby says. “What it does is let the audience know what they’re going to do that night. It always gets the crowd pumping. ”

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It’s not just Halaby and Beaudoin’s personalized and cheeky audience callbacks that attract customers. Music sequences and choreography, including songs like Styx’s Come Sail Away and Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby, are tightly woven into the scene, all pushing the middle-aged nostalgic button. As Tyler moves between his four actors, including Pinset and Jamie Hudson, among his nearly a dozen characters, references to Pop’s culture fly by at breakneck speed as costumes change.

They pull it off with energy and fuss, even on small stages and often ridiculous props. It’s helpful to have seen the James Cameron-directed movie they impersonate, but I can assure you that you don’t have to actually get most of the rough gags. It’s a little edgier and a little shaggy in parts, but Halaby quickly says he’s making the performance as accessible to as many people as possible.

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“Our game plan was to try to do something very well known,” Hallaby says. “When people read the title of a play, they know what they’re going to see. I was planning to come up with a play based on The Great Gatsby next, but do you want the audience to see it, or do you want to see it with Dartie Dancing?” When I asked if they wanted to see what was called, they immediately went to Dartier Dancing. Next.”

Dinner is served between performances while the actors take a short break. Four options are available. One is vegetarian, the other his is a seafood dish on the tip of the captain’s hat that follows the theme of the show. We opted for Deckhand His Chicken, which the menu describes as ‘Macadamia crusted chicken breast, pan-fried local vegetables, garlic couscous, sweet chili, jungle his coconut curry’. I’m here. It’s very tasty, and the Callebaut Chocolate Coffee Toffee Rifle is a great follow-up.

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“It’s not just about the show,” Hallaby says. “We have such a lovely room, so we wanted to offer a little more beautiful food as well, to improve the guest experience as much as possible.”

Titanical will run every weekend through January, and the number of sold-out shows littering the schedule over the next month is a testament to the hard work they put into making it. But Halaby and Beaudoin soon have to start thinking about Dirtier Dancing. This is still not out of conception, much less the first draft, given their intense schedule. But Hallaby doesn’t mind it.

“It’s good to have pressure,” he laughs. “That said, I think if you do too much up front, you’re going to lose something. Soon, we’ll be in my kitchen at her table and her kitchen at her table where she’ll be sitting on the show for two weeks.” We write, we joke and laugh. That’s who we are, that’s who we are.”

yegarts@postmedia.com

Titanical: The Musical

when Thursday – Saturday 6pm, Sunday 5pm – December 31

Where Spotlight Cabaret, 8217 104 St.

tickets $74.99 with dinner, available from spotlightcabaret.ca