Deborah Cox’s return to Broadway honors a connection that dates back to the beginning of her career
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The Canadian songstress is back on Broadway for the first time since portraying Glinda the Good Witch for “The Wiz” and this time she’s having even more fun.
Deborah Cox has long found ways to pay it forward in her career. With her latest stint on Broadway, she’s honoring a connection that dates back more than 30 years.
Cox is set to star in “Titanique,” a musical comedy that serves as a parody of the 1997 hit film “Titanic” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Rose McGowan. The film went on to win a record 11 Academy Awards in 1998, including Best Picture and Best Original Song for “My Heart Will Go On.”
The singer of said song? Céline Dion, who Cox credits for helping launch her career as she sang background for her in the early ’90s.
“I toured with her for a year,” Cox told PEOPLE. “I was discovering what my musical voice was going to be,” Cox tells PEOPLE. “And in the interim, we would go to all these different functions and television shows and award shows and stuff. And I think it was about a year in is when I decided to leave the tour because I wanted to take a chance on myself and see if I could land a record deal.”
She added, “So I feel like this show in some ways is not only a love letter to Céline because of the story and everything, but a real full circle moment for me just as an artist and a performer. She was somebody that was one to watch as far as her discipline in the way that she took care of her voice, took care of her, the way she had such stamina throughout the tour. She was just a really kind boss.”
Cox’s time on tour eventually led her to spread her wings. After exiting, she would score a chance meeting with music executive Clive Davis, the man behind powerhouses such as Whitney Houston. Not long after the meeting, Cox was signed to Arista Records in 1994. Despite releasing her debut album in 1995, Cox would have to wait three years before she broke through for R&B and pop audiences with “Nobody’s Supposed To Be Here.” The single peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and eventually helped her sophomore album, 1998’s “One Wish,” achieve platinum status.
The irony of “My Heart Will Go On” as it pertains to both “Titanic” and “Titanique” is that, even though it is widely considered Dion’s most recognizable song, neither the Canadian songstress nor her contemporary had ever seen the musical parodying the movie.
Cox has carved out a bit of a career on Broadway. In 2004, she starred in “Aida” as a replacement, though it would be another nine years before she would get the stage bug again. She performed as Lucy Harris in an adaptation of “Jekyll & Hyde” in 2013, and then in 2024, she starred as Glinda the Good Witch in an adaptation of “The Wiz.”
What keeps her motivated and passionate to pay it forward? Finding new challenges.
“I wanted to come back to Broadway doing something very different,” she said. “That to me is what keeps me on my toes, keeps me intrigued and happy about new projects to take on. And comedy, I mean, I love sketch comedy. I love Whoopi Goldberg and Goldie Hawn and Carol Burnett. Those were the women that I grew up watching.”
“Titanique” has a 16-week limited engagement at the St. James Theatre in New York. Opening night is Sunday, April 12 and features Melissa Barrera in her Broadway debut alongside Cox, Frankie Grande and Jim Parsons.