Vacation Notes 5b aka The Pirate Queen

Mar 20, 2007 21:02

I'm posting this review ahead of my day recap. My bad, my bad.


Let me offer the first series of disclaimers:

I've listened to the complete album of Miss Saigon once. I've written one US history paper on the Vietnam war - focusing on the My Lai incident. I've listened the complete album of Les Miserables more than once. I've read Hugo's book, and am familiar with that era of French history. I know that Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg are the major 'names' for The Pirate Queen and can only claim that I know their music on the vaguest basis.

I've never seen Miss Saigon OR Les Miserables on stage.

There are SPOILERS within. Don't read if you don't want to see spoilers (or read my pick-nitty-ness).

One of the key notes for my attending The Pirate Queen was: this viewing was of my own volition. I had been talking about seeing The Pirate Queen (and The Apple Tree) for months now. Possibly as soon as I'd come back from my September trip and heard 1) the scheduled preview dates for The Pirate Queen and 2) the run dates for The Apple Tree meant that I'd be wanting to try to catch both performances as soon as possible. I mean, hindsight (read: checking through my archive postings) saw that I was talking about seeing these two shows for months (at least two, if not more).

So, The Pirate Queen. I understand that it's had an extensive degree of revisions since the Chicago try-outs. As far as I can tell, the run time of the actual performance is sitting at roughly 2h15 with the longer first act. The Playbill called for fourteen scenes in Act 1, and 11 in Act 2.

Technical aspects - the proscenium juts out into the 'box' seating to the extreme sides - stage left for the sail 'rigging' that Grace climbs out to. Production notes: Eugene Lee and Edward Pierce did the scenic designs for both Wicked and The Pirate Queen. Kenneth Posner did the lighting designs for the same two shows. As did Paul Rubin do the aerial sequencing for both (more on this later).

Do I love watching Irish step dancing? Yes. I do. Do I love aspects of both Irish AND English history? Yes. I do. Can I suspend reality and watch a stage production without picking apart the historical values? Yes. I have. Was I able to do that with The Pirate Queen? No, not quite.

Out of the myriad of songs, I liked three: Here On This Night (the duet between Grace O'Malley and Tiernan), A Day Beyond Belclare (an ensemble song), and She Who Has All (the duet between Grace O'Malley and Elizabeth I).

I disliked Boys'll be Boys (and its reprise) simply because it was one send-up after another of Les Miserables Master of the House AND Lovely Ladies mashed together. Even the chord progressions remind me of those two songs and usually I can't match progressions like that. :| It's a horrifyingly sticky-audio song, but it's just about guaranteed to remind the listener about other Boublil and Schönberg productions.

Should I mention that there's heaps of simulated/allusions a-plenty to sex? Boys'll be Boys/Reprise and the Trouble at Rockfleet scenes were giant mallets of 'how raunchy the lives of the O'Flaherty clan (or the O'Flaherty heir) are' - that and re-iterating that women are there for several things - cooking, cleaning, and humping on stage purposes. EXCEPT for Grace O'Malley. Oy. This production, if I'm not mistaken, is trying to bring in the widest numbers of 'family' audiences possible - at least, by virtue of trying to attract audience members that are used to seeing a song-and-dance production. The last time I checked, step dancing might bring them in, but humping on stage might scare them away...

One of the difficulties that I kept 'hearing' (and seeing) on stage was the shifting back and forth between the 'English' and 'Irish' narratives - musically and visually, it wasn't smooth, and more importantly, it wasn't balanced. Knowing that the story of Grania ni Maille is being told from a Celtic/Irish perspective doesn't mean that suddenly a mocking of the English is going to be overlooked as part of the narrative. Making Sir Bingham the evil nemesis is fine and dandy, but making Queen Elizabeth I a caricature is not. The audience needs to believe that there's a meeting of equals between Grace and the Queen when she's presenting the plight of Ireland and you're not meeting an 'equal' or anyone near that level when for three quarters of the performance, we've been hearing a constant mockery of the English.

There's a small hope during these previews where I'm expecting the story arc to be tightened, but I'm not holding my breath for it either. When I previewed LotR and then watched what was frozen (several days before closing) the weaker aspects of the production had not gone away...

Back to some of the production notes -- the immense fondness for the barricade sides of the ship, time and again, may emphasize the fact that so much of the story is about sailing/ships/pirating etc, but again, it hearkens back (too much) to Les Miserables. Also - the rotating stage/roundtable? Les Miserables. I don't want to think of The Pirate Queen as Les Miserables in Ireland. Yet so many things consistently remind the audience of "that other show."

I mentioned the scenic design, lighting, and aerial sequencing because this production is featuring a former Elphaba (Block), a former Goat (Youmans), and various other Wicked cast members (Bortz) and by marriage (Marcus Chait, husband of Melissa Bell Chait (a Glinda understudy of the Original Broadway Cast) and some of the creative team behind this show also did Wicked (and won Tony's and other awards for their designs).

Wicked had ... a cherry picker and a giant pendulum for the principals, The Pirate Queen had the climbing about the mast, and then climbing hand over hand across the mainsail for its principal. In many ways, the set design for The Pirate Queen is much sparser - the use of the stage center for the 'below-deck' area, the pyre, the prison stones, as well as the 'pit' where Donal disappears belie a simplicity of design that most sets (and stories) are resistant to.

I'm expecting the final production to have better set design in terms of what can be seen by the audience - especially from the greater orchestra areas. The Tudor sets are set upon rolling scaffolding, but it's jarring to be able to see the galvanized shine of the scaffolding when they opened doors and the singing court ensemble exits - powder-coating black yo!

The costuming - cloaks! *G* But what on earth was going on with the English costuming efforts? Elizabeth I needed to appear regal and 'above' the fray so to speak, yet between her songs, the behaviour of her Ladies-in-Waiting, and the occasional spurts of laughter from the audience, I couldn't decide whether it was a deliberate effort mocking the Tudor court, or was it an implied effort...

Finally, an overall discussion on the story. ;p

The musical is titled The Pirate Queen. Yet, for so much of the first act, we're hearing about what women are good for - in essence, to stay at home, have babies, clean, and not complain about when the men go out to carouse, pirate, and basically enjoy themselves silly. Every reference to Grace O'Malley implies that she's (basically) an unnatural woman - possessing of balls and such... so much more than her husband (the future O'Flaherty who's hoping to become the O'Malley as well). How are we supposed to be rooting for Grace O'Malley when we're hearing the litany of complaints flow through? If we wonder why we're cheering at the dismissal of Donal O'Flaherty in Act 2 and his eventual dispatch, well, certainly Act 1 has given us no reason to sympathize with him. He's constantly overshadowed by the idea of Grace even when she's not doing anything. O+O Where is the balance???! You can't root for the heroine and you can't really love the heroine when there's nothing (really) to root for and to love.

The second act opening needs to be ... severely adjusted. As much as we'd like to be able to speak of sensible sensibilities, having Grace O'Malley give 'birth' on the side of the stage to establish her credibility as both a 'mother' who's willing to sacrifice things (and relationships) for her son as well as being a 'pirate queen' who's in defense of Ireland is probably... too much.

In the end, this production has potential. It has so much potential to become a musical that introduces the world to an exciting period of Irish history. Yet, I came out of it unsatisfied and mildly disillusioned that it's 'pandering' to the stereotypes of what is 'known' of Irish culture. It may win the hearts (and tickets) of many by bringing Irish song and dance into the American mainstream culture, but it doesn't capture my heart or my mind for a future performance. Maybe it'll succeed by virtue of being a Boublil and Schönberg production, but that's a sad excuse for sloppiness.

I believe that each of the performers on stage has given their all in characterization, but it's no fault to them that the characters were weakly written and no amount of 'strength' in performance is going to save a shallow story and poorly structured songs.

jeff mccarthy, stephanie j. block, broadway, live recordings, music, the pirate queen

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