An Open Letter to Mr. Richard Maltby Jr.

Spoilers included. Feel free to add on to my letter with any CONSTRUCTIVE ideas you may have.
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Dear Mr. Maltby (You never know? He might read it! lol):

As someone who believes the Pirate Queen has the potential to be a truly great musical, I can't tell you how excited I was to hear you and Ms. Daniele have joined the creative team. As of now, I think PQ is a show full of unrealized potential, and I assume you must feel the same way if you've signed on to "come aboard".

I've been bored and depressed with the state of Broadway musicals over the past few years, and was so excited to see an original, dramatic musical on it's way to NYC. So, since I am hoping Pirate Queen can be that show to revitalize the genre, I thought I'd throw out a few requests. Feel free to take them or leave them. I ask for no credit should you choose to use any of these ideas.

PLEASE help us care about Grace more. We need to fall in love with her right off the bat in order to invest in her 2 1/2 hour journey. I've heard rumors of a new song for her in the beginning of the show. Great idea. If we care about her as a person, I think we'll be more willing to emotionally invest in her life story.

Speaking of the beginning of the show, can you find a way to pump up the opening number. I am all for handsome/shirtless pirates singing and looking fantastic. But musically I don't think this number does the show justice. It's close, but doesn't blow us away the way I think we need it to. I want to be so excited about the journey to come after that opening, and it just doesn't happen yet.

PLEASE help out the characters and their relationships. For me, the most interesting part of the show was the POTENTIAL for truly dynamic scenes between Grace, Tiernan and Donal, but it is the least developed story line of the piece. I think we need to know more about all three of these people and understand where they're coming from. How long have Grace and Tiernan been in love? What is Tiernan's place on the ship? Why does Donal agree to marry Grace? Because the two male characters in Grace's life are so one dimensional from the top (and by no fault of the actors playing them!), we almost know what's going to happen. Tiernan is SO GOOD, and Donal is SO BAD. Why would we think for a moment that Grace and Donal will work out? Make us think for a second that Donal isn't so bad and Grace might actually be okay with him. Then when we learn later that he's a drunk and a womanizer, we FEEL for Grace's loss much more. And PLEASE, ask Mr. Schoenberg to write a song for Tiernan and Donal. Rather than just see them fight, I'd love to hear them passionately sing about their rightful place by Grace's side. It doesn't hurt that you have Hadley and Marcus who could sing it for us!

PLEASE address the style of the English Lords. Why when people become British must they become feminine all of the sudden? These are supposed to be dangerous people who are killing off an entire line of people. At the moment they are just characatures. Ask the men to play against the fact that they are wearing dresses, and make us (and the Irish) FEAR these men. At the moment they come off as a bunch of sissies and we wonder why the Irish don't just overtake them.

Can we still lower Queen Elizabeth's keys? I've heard rumors that they have been lowered some already, but still it is a lot of work to understand what she is saying/singing. And I am all for putting in some work as an audience member when I'm at the theater, but I've seen this show twice already and got maybe half of what was being said. I love the idea of this character and WANT to know what she's singing.

It's been discussed on this board that perhaps you could delay the killing of Donal at the Christening until later in the play. Great idea. If you can find a way to place the fight between Tiernan and Donal closer to the end of the piece, that storyline and the tension it creates will hold us through to the end of the play and make the final scenes much more powerful. As it stands, I felt the air fell out of the play completely after the Christening/killing scene, and kept waiting for something exciting to happen as a climax. It never did.

Can you make us CARE more about the Irish? We keep hearing about them being persecuted and pillaged, but we never see it. I think it would be very powerful if we could WATCH them get their land taken away and watch their women be abused etc. These are the people we are supposed to root for, and at the moment, we only HEAR about the bad things that are happening to them. Can we SEE a bit?

Can you make the reunion between Grace and Tiernan more exciting? At the moment, it seems a little easy. And how come Grace ages throughout the play but Tiernan doesn't? I'd love at the end of the play to see them both virtually destroyed, and when they see each other, both free to finally be together, it should overwhelm them and us as an audience.

Overall, I want to weep when I see the Pirate Queen. Right now it is an interesting piece with worlds of potential. Can you help it realize that potential? Please. As a fan of Broadway, I really would love to see this show be great. Not just alright. Believe me, I'm happy to go lust after handsome pirates, but I'd love for this show to be a moving theatrical experience. I think it's in there. Can you and Ms. Daniele please help?

Much appreciated-

QB

Just because it's sung through doesn't mean it has no book.

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Is Tiernan fictional Tech?

>Is Tiernan fictional Tech?

I don't know. My only insight into the story of Grace O'Malley comes from reading the novel "Grania, She King of the Irish Seas", which is what "The Pirate Queen" was supposedly based on. This book is considered to be a work of historical fiction. I hope to read more about the actual history of O'Malley in the future.

In the novel there's a character named Tigernan (there is no "Tiernan".) He serves in Grania's crews, and watches jealously for years as she goes through various affairs and marriages. He finally works up some courage and reveals his feelings, and they end up together.

In the novel Donal isn't a drunken womanizer, but is obsessed with warfare and fighting other clans. Grania thinks him a fool, but later realizes that there is a need to be a warrior at times.

I hope someone gave Richard Maltby Jr. a copy.

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I agree with everything said here, and although it's already been pointed out that a sung-through show still has a book, I just wanted to reiterate that these guys won a Tony award for Best Book in a musical with Les Misérables.


Tech, do you think "Sea of Life" itself is boring or its placement is boring? I looked at the song list and it is the fourth in a line of slow, ballad-like songs. The music and psuedo-poetic lyrics might be servicable somewhere else (I could see it being used in the finale, and just fading out like "The Land of the Fathers" in Martin Guerre, but that also might be a weak ending now that I ponder it), in my opinion.

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Queenbee- please add something about the ending. I'm all for happy endings- really I am- but I think this show needs to end as a tragedy... or at least, somewhat of a tragedy. It's way too superficial and cartoony at the moment (and unfortunately, too much of a Wicked ending.) If you look into Grace's life, you'll see that she really didn't have so happy of an ending... maybe somehow, they could make it more true to life.

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I know full well that a sung-thru show has a plot and someone who guides it.
And that was my question, I have never worked from scratch on a show like this.
Is there really a second "book" other than the lyrics that is actually written out?

I agree about Evleen, (the terific Aine Ui Cheallaigh), I feel she should perhaps be Gracie's "right hand Woman" and Nanny to her son, (replacing that role)

They need a male lead who can dash, or women will vote with their feet.

Eh, woman pirate, great, feminist, fine. Where's the dashing male swinging from the ship's ropes?

oh wow. really though?

I just want more upbeat songs.