Mar
27th
The Pirate Queen on Broadway!
By Luke Tudball
Ok, I'm a little confused. I'll admit it. This is supposed to be a new show right? That's what it says on the posters...A "spectacular new musical from the Tony Award-winning authors of 'Les Misérables' and 'Miss Saigon'...an epic musical adventure". Hmmm - what am I missing?
'The Pirate Queen', based on
the real-life story of the "legendary" (Eh? I've never heard of
her) Irish Chieftain Grace O'Malley, is Claude-Michel Schönberg
and Alain Boublil's latest offering to the Great White Way and
has all the elements that you would expect in a Broadway show and
yet somehow is lacking something. It's not actors, oh no, there
are forty or so of them, and it's not dancing, there's lots
of Riverdance-style foot-twirling going on (the
producers of the show Moya Doherty and John McColgan also
produced 'Riverdance'), and not music - this show
runs at just under three hours. This pairing of Schönberg and
Boublil has produced before and they have the awards to prove it,
as does the director, Frank Galati. So what is it? Ah
yes......plot and singable tunes. Simple really.
A very great director friend of mine once told me that all
you needed to make a great musical was a great plot and
easily-singable tunes, although a good-looking leading lady
always helps. Stephanie Block, this shows leading lady, is very
good but has little interesting to do except change costume
between every scene, but is well-complemented by Hadley Fraser
(he's been a pirate before in 'The Pirates of
Penzance') as her love interest Tiernan. Together they sing
some powerful duets, but none that stick in your mind such as
some of Boublil and Schönberg's previous showstoppers. The music
on the whole seems a little lacklustre and very repetitive. It’s
a shame, Block and Fraser both are certainly very accomplished
for their years and to my mind deserve much better roles than
these. Linda Balgord, as Queen Elizabeth, is excellent, but lost
in a sea of boring scenes which tell us next to nothing about the
conflict between England and Ireland -
theoretically, the basis of the story! (I only know that because
of the synopsis in the program). And this, I think, is somewhat
of a theme throughout the performance. A lot of effort has gone
into making the show look great. Rumours say $20 million of
effort. The actors are all excellent, and well-cast. The set is
simple to look at, yet extremely effective in its hidden
complexities. The costumes are lavish. And the lighting......WOW.
Kenneth Posner's lighting for me is probably the most beautiful I
have seen for a long time (and I’ve
seen ‘Wicked’ four times), certainly the most
interesting thing to look at in this show. Although I was
certainly amused at the costumes of Queen Elizabeth which seemed
to get more and more outrageous scene by scene.
Maybe I'm being too critical. A lot of people loved
the show. Lots of people bought souvenir t-shirts. Next to me a
family from Alabama said it was the first and best
thing they had seen on Broadway. People clapped, smiled, laughed,
and even cried during the epic two acts - possibly due to
massively loud canon fire at the beginning of act two loosing
dust from the building. I don't know. I think maybe I just
expected a lot. I love 'Les Misérables', but more
than that, I love musical theatre. I love going to see something
that can only happen then and there in front of you that amazes,
confuses, excites, and enraptures you all at the same time. But
sadly, this only frustrates me. I want it to be good, and it has
so much potential to be. As one reviewer puts it
“You end up dazzled, exhausted, impressed and
exalted — but rarely moved.” You just have to
cross your fingers, tap your heels together three times and say,
there’s no place like home…oh wait…darn, that’s a whole other
show…
‘The Pirate Queen’ is currently running
on Broadway at the Hilton Theatre, just off Times Square.
For more information, please visit www.thepiratequeen.com
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