Bloomberg's Newswire Service Review - The Pirate Queen
And the various wire-services are carrying the following reviews:
(From Bloomberg): http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=apArAq90WCU4&refer=muse#
`Pirate Queen' Becomes Latest Woman of 42nd Street: John Simon
By John Simon
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Pirates, whether of the Caribbean or Penzance variety, are enjoying a resurgent vogue these days. The latest entry in the seafaring sweepstakes is the new Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg musical, "The Pirate Queen," with piracy and feminism its dual trump cards.
It is the proclaimedly true story of Grace O'Malley, the 16th-century Irish pirate who marauded the English, was jailed by them, parleyed with Queen Elizabeth, became a clan's chieftain and had lovers and husbands galore. So female swashbuckling walks the Broadway planks -- in this case on 42nd Street, directly across from that other independent girl, Mary
Poppins.
No showbiz term is more abused than "true story," but if there is story enough, who cares about true? "The Pirate Queen," concocted by the duo that gave us "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon" and presented by the married team behind the "Riverdance" juggernaut, has some virtues, without exactly teeming with them.
We do get production values by the bucketful in the scenery by the old master, Eugene Lee, wizard of "Wicked," "Sweeney Todd" and much else. They are nautical almost ad nauseam, what with billowing sails, creaking masts, dangling rigging, precarious crows' nests and whatnot spilling out into the auditorium. They are manned and womanned by a huge and hearty cast and backed up by some painterly, tourist-trapping seascapes and landscapes.
Sophisticated Court
Yet where would sea and Emerald Isle be without Kenneth Posner's color-enhancing lighting? And whenever Irish wilds yield to the sophistication of Elizabeth's court, how Lee's scarlet drapery turns more rubicundly royal like a nonstop sunrise.
And what could be more radiant than Martin Pakledinaz's costuming? From the pirates' glad rags to the courtiers' regal riches, these costumes are nearly too good for a musical and belong in a museum. Elizabeth's gowns alone -- progressively more resplendent and sculptural -- could sell a common colleen to us, never mind a Grace or Grania.
Grania, you see, is Irish for Grace, and grainier lyrics than these -- from the original French of Boublil, Englished by Richard Maltby Jr. and John Dempsey -- you couldn't imagine. And
since it is a virtually sung-through score, there is, alas, a plethora of them. Take, for instance, this, sung by the unloving and unloved husband inflicted on Grace for political reasons:
I've had enough of this,
Woman, hold your whist!
"Woman," well not quite,
That's always been the joke;
What is the trouble here?
Basic'lly the gist
Is I can't go on being
Married to a bloke.
Deja Vu
You may particularly admire the period sense of that "bloke," but everything about the lyrics is basic'lly a joke.
What of the music? If you liked Boublil and Schonberg's previous shows -- or even if you didn't -- you'll find them unabashedly recycled here. Close your eyes and forget the lyrics (lots of luck!), and you can set sail for Saigon or Paris with ease. It is music from the team of meat grinder and cookie cutter, vaguely operatic and only barely operational.
Climbers
The cast of 42, under Frank Galati's shrewd direction, does enough foot-stamping to decimate a nest of cockroaches. This is Irish dancing by Carol Leavy Joyce, neatly Americanized by Graciela Daniele, no less choreographic than all that rope- and ladder-climbing to make the show swing.
Stephanie J. Block is a doughty Grace, deservedly given plenty of swagger time. Staunch support is provided by Hadley Fraser as her somewhat doughy but well-sung lover, Jeff McCarthy
as her loving pirate father, Marcus Chait as her scurvy husband, William Youmans as her English adversary and Linda Balgord as a lofty and crafty Elizabeth. There is even a duet for the two
women, "She Who Has All," that achieves fugitive grandeur.
If you crave another musical, you may, as Hamlet almost said, take into your arms this sea of troubles. If not, you may, by opposing, end them.
"The Pirate Queen" is running at the Hilton Theater, 213 W. 42nd St. in Manhattan. Information: +1-212-307-4100; http://www.thepiratequeen.com.
(John Simon is the New York drama critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
(From Bloomberg): http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=apArAq90WCU4&refer=muse#
`Pirate Queen' Becomes Latest Woman of 42nd Street: John Simon
By John Simon
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Pirates, whether of the Caribbean or Penzance variety, are enjoying a resurgent vogue these days. The latest entry in the seafaring sweepstakes is the new Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg musical, "The Pirate Queen," with piracy and feminism its dual trump cards.
It is the proclaimedly true story of Grace O'Malley, the 16th-century Irish pirate who marauded the English, was jailed by them, parleyed with Queen Elizabeth, became a clan's chieftain and had lovers and husbands galore. So female swashbuckling walks the Broadway planks -- in this case on 42nd Street, directly across from that other independent girl, Mary
Poppins.
No showbiz term is more abused than "true story," but if there is story enough, who cares about true? "The Pirate Queen," concocted by the duo that gave us "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon" and presented by the married team behind the "Riverdance" juggernaut, has some virtues, without exactly teeming with them.
We do get production values by the bucketful in the scenery by the old master, Eugene Lee, wizard of "Wicked," "Sweeney Todd" and much else. They are nautical almost ad nauseam, what with billowing sails, creaking masts, dangling rigging, precarious crows' nests and whatnot spilling out into the auditorium. They are manned and womanned by a huge and hearty cast and backed up by some painterly, tourist-trapping seascapes and landscapes.
Sophisticated Court
Yet where would sea and Emerald Isle be without Kenneth Posner's color-enhancing lighting? And whenever Irish wilds yield to the sophistication of Elizabeth's court, how Lee's scarlet drapery turns more rubicundly royal like a nonstop sunrise.
And what could be more radiant than Martin Pakledinaz's costuming? From the pirates' glad rags to the courtiers' regal riches, these costumes are nearly too good for a musical and belong in a museum. Elizabeth's gowns alone -- progressively more resplendent and sculptural -- could sell a common colleen to us, never mind a Grace or Grania.
Grania, you see, is Irish for Grace, and grainier lyrics than these -- from the original French of Boublil, Englished by Richard Maltby Jr. and John Dempsey -- you couldn't imagine. And
since it is a virtually sung-through score, there is, alas, a plethora of them. Take, for instance, this, sung by the unloving and unloved husband inflicted on Grace for political reasons:
I've had enough of this,
Woman, hold your whist!
"Woman," well not quite,
That's always been the joke;
What is the trouble here?
Basic'lly the gist
Is I can't go on being
Married to a bloke.
Deja Vu
You may particularly admire the period sense of that "bloke," but everything about the lyrics is basic'lly a joke.
What of the music? If you liked Boublil and Schonberg's previous shows -- or even if you didn't -- you'll find them unabashedly recycled here. Close your eyes and forget the lyrics (lots of luck!), and you can set sail for Saigon or Paris with ease. It is music from the team of meat grinder and cookie cutter, vaguely operatic and only barely operational.
Climbers
The cast of 42, under Frank Galati's shrewd direction, does enough foot-stamping to decimate a nest of cockroaches. This is Irish dancing by Carol Leavy Joyce, neatly Americanized by Graciela Daniele, no less choreographic than all that rope- and ladder-climbing to make the show swing.
Stephanie J. Block is a doughty Grace, deservedly given plenty of swagger time. Staunch support is provided by Hadley Fraser as her somewhat doughy but well-sung lover, Jeff McCarthy
as her loving pirate father, Marcus Chait as her scurvy husband, William Youmans as her English adversary and Linda Balgord as a lofty and crafty Elizabeth. There is even a duet for the two
women, "She Who Has All," that achieves fugitive grandeur.
If you crave another musical, you may, as Hamlet almost said, take into your arms this sea of troubles. If not, you may, by opposing, end them.
"The Pirate Queen" is running at the Hilton Theater, 213 W. 42nd St. in Manhattan. Information: +1-212-307-4100; http://www.thepiratequeen.com.
(John Simon is the New York drama critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)