Pirate Queen, few thoughts Part II

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 10/9/06 at 10:39pm

I could not stop thinking of George Mitchell, the former Senator, who brokered the Good Friday peace deal that in essence wiped the IRA/British conflict off the radar screen. Would The Pirate Queen be viable if the IRA’s tactics were still drawing press?

I am not an historian and have no basis to judge the accuracy of the depiction of Elizabeth I and this character called Grania, but I did believe the finality of these two characters. I am an optimist - the world could use a “Woman to Woman” meeting as depicted in PQ.

This show is big! My god, how many more actors, costumes, sets and layers of music can you put together in 2:45?

This show is too long!

This show has NO HUMOR!

Stephanie Block is a powerhouse. She controls this story and stage. From her first entrance to the very trite tableau as the show ends, Stephanie is in charge.

Linda Balgord will win all awards for Best Costume. This alone is worth the ticket price.

Fraser, Chair, McCarthy and Youmans give outstanding performances.

The insertion of the Irish Dancers as a social commentary on Irish culture is well played.

I saw the show during the first week.

I was at the bar 312 after the performance and one of the production assistants on her phone said that Frank was coming in for the “re-writes.”

Mr. Galati, listen carefully, I take my family and clients to the theater and I am your market:

This show needs a Thenardier or an Engineer. That will take a lot of re-writes. There must be some comic relief. The show is TOO LONG – whether in time or plot – you decide.

But, I love it and I cannot wait to come back in late October!



Updated On: 11/26/06 at 10:39 PM

[Popular]

Posted: 10/9/06 at 11:09pm

With all the varied opinions about this show, it seems as if Stephanie and the whole cast remain the constant strengths of the show. This makes me very happy :) Hopefully I can see it one day to judge the other stuff on my own... I can't wait to hear about the changes that will no doubt take place to make the show tighter.

Part I, eh? Should we be expecting a part II soon?

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 12:07am

Not for a few weeks, I will have better seats and will have clients with me and will include their comments! And, my wife also!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 12:11am

A show that is "too long" and has "no humor"...a very bad combination in my book.

But you said you "loved" it, Brd! So it must have many redeeming qualities, no?

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 12:19am

MP, there is so much talent on that stage with gorgeous music and a ton of money with the set and cotumes - I loved it!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 12:21am

Talent, music, costumes and sets...sounds like there is some promise! They do have 6 months before opening on Broadway. Can't wait to read your comments after you see it at the end of the month!

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 12:25am

I didn't miss having no humour...I was too involved with the story, and hte amazing performances...


I don't understand how people are saying its too long...I believe it is shorter than Wicked or Hairspray..and I didn't get bored once...as a matter o fact I was dying for more at teh end....

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 12:32am

SS, you and I are not the common denominator, this show must have a little comic relief!
Updated On: 10/10/06 at 12:32 AM

[Katisha]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 2:29am

Hi - long-time lurker, first time poster...

I saw the opening night of this show - travelled a *very* long way to see it.

I'm sorry to report that I thought it was truly awful. Most of the individual performances were as good as the horrible libretto allowed, though Tiernan forgot a few words and ER was a tad pitchy, those are just opening night glitches that are easily fixed. Grania was excellent, so was her father. But often the cast had so many syllables to cram into a line they were flat out finding a place to breathe, and the lack of metre robbed a lot of the potential emotion from the words.

Mind you, the words themselves were often pedestrian in a way rarely experienced outside of schoolgirl poetry - there was a lot of stuff like "We shall succeed we shall not fail/As on the briny sea we do sail" sort of crap. I cannot get OVER how bad the libretto was. Seriously, it would not pass muster in a high school play and I can't believe anyone thinks it's fit for Broadway.

The music is not despicable, but it's boring. I've been known to buy a cast album on the strength of a single gorgeous or witty phrase of music, and I couldn't find one here. Dull, dull, dull; nothing to lift the spirits or even just to make you wander out humming.

For a show about pirates, I'd have thought the producers would appreciate the need for a hook or two...

The story is badly crammed up at first, with a quick song for every stage of Grania's development, until it slows down to an absolute crawl. There's no chance to get to know or love Grania or Tiernan or really understand what drives any of the characters. And as has already been said, there's not an amusing line let alone a joke in the whole sorry effort.

Costumes and sets are OK, but not inspired, though I liked the Elizabethan stuff. The lighting, however, was brilliant, some of the best I've ever seen. That's pretty faint praise though for something that was supposed to be as extravagant as this.

And that's without starting on the horrible post-post-feminist message. There's even a song where ER mourns that although she's an empress she really has nothing compared to Grania, who has a child and a man. And the whole theme that Grania could fight just as well as one of those men (bad men! untrustworthy and not supportive of wimmin!), but wasn't a real woman until advent of said man and child. Sickening.

This needs really serious re-writing before it can begin to hope to dream about competing with staying home and reading the book on which it's based.

Posted: 10/10/06 at 10:26am

"This show is too long!

This show has NO HUMOR!"

But look at how long Les Miz ran!

"I'm sorry to report that I thought it was truly awful. Most of the individual performances were as good as the horrible libretto allowed"

Schonberg and Boubil are better than that!

[Katisha]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 12:33pm

I agree, if what you mean is that we should expect a lot more from Schonberg & Boublil than this dour offering. If I didn't admire their work, I wouldn't have travelled from another continent to come and see "the Pirate Queen". But "Martin Guerre" showed that they are at least as capable of flops as any other team, and this is one of them.

Hell, even Cole Porter had flops; a string of them. The work is not the artist.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 2:25pm

How will Linda Balgord win awards for Best Costume? She's not the costume designer -- she's only the actress wearing those costumes.

Oy!

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 2:38pm

Really, I thought the actor received the award!

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 2:58pm

you guys make me sad...I love this show...

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 4:33pm

"But look at how long Les Miz ran!"

Les Miz had the Thenardiers.

[kaycee]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 4:55pm

I saw the show this weekend, and was nervous after reading some of the reviews here, but wow, was I surprised. It was a thousand times better than I thought it was going to be. The orchestration alone is worth the price of the ticket, and then you've got the strong performances. If I lived closer to Chicago, I would make sure I saw it a couple more times before it's move to Broadway.

[LondonSean]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 4:57pm

Ex-US Senator Mitchell certainly did chair the all party talks that led to the Belfast Agreement (Good Friday Agreement), and his personal involvement was important (as was the involvement of people like President Clinton). But I do take exception to the idea that he (or any foreign intervention) somehow solved the problem. The people of Northern Ireland (who initially pressured their representatives into making concessions and eventually voted for the agreement), the British Government (Tony Blair and Mo Mowlam in particular), the Irish Government (Bertie Ahern in particular) and indeed the NI politicians themselves came to the agreement.

I can also tell you that the Northern Irish situation has not been wiped off the radar screens here in the UK, it is still an important issue (indeed it was reported this week that the provisional IRA has officially become a non terrorist organisation, but others remain). There are still plenty of problems ahead, be they renegade republican terrorists (who planted the Omagh bomb which killed 29 people) or Unionist who are objecting to devolved government being restored, or indeed the people who have voted for both extremes of the political spectrum.

Sorry for the rant, but I do feel some people don’t really understand the depth of the situation (especially considering that it was Americans who significantly bankrolled the IRA)

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 10/10/06 at 10:23pm

But I do take exception to the idea that he (or any foreign intervention) somehow solved the problem.

Sean, please read my sentence re: Mitchell's involvement carefully. I am not an expert on those issues and commented about my thoughts during the show.

I sincerely appreciate your rant.

[PaintWordPictures]

Posted: 10/11/06 at 12:03am

kaycee - I agree.

I expected the show to just be a "milestone" in theatre that I'd be glad to have been there, but completely disappointed in what the show offered. It was not so at all.

Yes there were a few moments that bothered me (pretty much all the Queen Elizabeth stuff until the last couple of scenes), and I can see where the second act needs more movement and development but I enjoyed it very much for what it was. I was left with a few of the songs in my head, and thoroughly impressed with the leads (especially Block, whom I was not a huuuuge fan of, but the role of Grania suits her well and, in my opinion, shows off her voice SOOOOOO much better!). The visual appeals were really stunning as well. They did some ingenious things in creating a boat with just men holding oars, and the movement on the ship was fantastic as well. There were some developmental issues in relationships and so forth but it was nowhere near as bad as I had prepared myself for.

Think back to what Wicked looked like in San Fransisco - compare it to now. There's so much evolution that can happen! It's quite exciting really, to think what they can come up with to fix some things. Of course, theres also the possibilty that they mess with the wrong things - but you never know what will happen!

It's theatre!!!

[kaycee]

Posted: 10/11/06 at 12:11am

I am so excited to see how the show will evolve. This is why I am really enjoying the castcom. I love seeing behind the scenes stuff.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 10/11/06 at 12:12am

I expect the show on Broadway will be fixed and a block buster. I also cannot wait to see it again here!

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 10/11/06 at 1:14am

I just booked another ticket...wednesday the 18th, front row center again! haha...I'm sooo poor now.


and I'm seeing Altar Boyz that night 2nd row center....

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 10/11/06 at 1:24am

P.s. My stage door pics...

Updated On: 10/11/06 at 01:24 AM

[Popular]

Posted: 10/11/06 at 2:37am

Steph - Maybe put your pictures in the fan pics if you can't figure out how to post them in the thread. I wanna see! :)

[commasplice]

Posted: 10/11/06 at 2:47am

All the discussion and dissent on this show (which I've been reading with a lot of interest since the first preview) has prompted me to get off the fence and buy a ticket for the Saturday matinee so I can see it for myself (that, and how could I pass up the front row ticket that came up on Ticketmaster?). I hope it's worth the ruin you're all causing to my bank account I'm looking forward to it.

(edited because I lack grammatical skills at 2am.)

Updated On: 10/11/06 at 02:47 AM