Constantine Rousouli Returns on Titanique Broadway With Own Terms
Constantine Rousouli is back on titanique broadway, co-creating and starring in Titanique at the St. James Theatre through Sept. 20. For an actor who says he spent nearly a decade away from the Broadway track, the return is built around a show he helped shape instead of one he simply joined.
Rousouli says the move was deliberate: "I left the industry 10 years ago and told myself, 'The only way I'm going to come back to New York City is if it's on my own terms,'" He is playing Jack in the Céline Dion-infused musical, which began as a small Los Angeles dinner theater show and grew into an award-winning sensation.
Hairspray to Titanique
Rousouli made his Broadway debut as Link Larkin in Hairspray at 17 years old, then later appeared as Fiyero in Wicked and in Ghost: The Musical. After stepping away from Broadway, he moved to Los Angeles and booked roles on Charmed, 9-1-1, The Other Two and an episode of AJ and the Queen, the credit that led to viral fame for him.
That path matters because Titanique is not a simple return to a familiar lane. He co-wrote the show with Tye Blue and Marla Mindelle, which let him come back as both a performer and one of the people responsible for the material onstage.
Typecasting And Control
Rousouli has been blunt about why he left. He said he felt boxed into a narrow view of what openly gay actors could play, adding, "I couldn't be anything like myself. I was always put up for the Danny Zucco-types or the Jets or the teenage jock, where I had to play it all very straight,"
He also said, "My agents would be like, ‘Hey, we're going to need you to butch it up a little bit for this audition.' I had to watch my Ps and Qs. I couldn't be too flamboyant." That makes Titanique more than a comeback vehicle; it is the rare Broadway return that gives its lead a writing credit and a performance lane that he says he had to fight to find.
St. James Theatre Through Sept. 20
"I wanted to show everyone what I could really do," Rousouli said, and that is exactly what this limited engagement is built to test. Broadway audiences get the version of him he says industry gatekeepers missed, while the show gets a built-in narrative of reinvention that sits on top of its award-winning profile.
For readers deciding whether to catch it, the practical answer is straightforward: Titanique is at the St. James Theatre through Sept. 20, and this run doubles as a check on whether a performer can turn a long absence into a sharper, more personal second act.
