Saw today's Matinee of The Pirate Queen- Page 3

[jordangirl]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 8:02am

I'm just sad I've had no money to go see it on Sunday or last night. Because by payday on Friday, I have to go to North Carolina for a stupid family reunion and won't get to see it.

(Actually I got a surprise check, but thanks to the stupid Metropolitan Opera going against their published word and seating new subscribers a month early, that all went into that and overdraft fees. UGH! Otherwise I could have cashed it last night and gone to see the show again.)

[Tom148502]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 8:30am

"now what IS fake is the sex in springs awakenings."

I have it on good authority that the masturbation scene is not fake.

[Esparzafan]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 8:43am

I was at yesterday's matinee. I went into it not expecting much. Free tickets came up so I gave it a chance and I was pleasantly surprised. No, it wasn't the best show I've seen but I've seen much, much worse. PQ had a certain charm. Unfortunately, I was in one of the last rows of the orchestra so I did feel removed from the action, but overall, I enjoyed the experience.

[amalou]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 9:28am

"I have it on good authority that the masturbation scene is not fake."

ew.

I've not really seen Pirate Queen fans take anything personally and I don't know why everyone assumes that Pirate Queen fans think they're best friends with the cast or whatever. I've only watched a few of the castcoms and only to see clips of the show or the dancing. Fans of any show will defend the show they like and some appear like they take it personally (even if they don't) it's not just Pirate Queen!

The impression I get from around here is that you say anything about Pirate Queen that isn't negative, it's like "you had the audacity to defend Pirate Queen when the marjority of people in the universe don't like it? You must be in denial or overly defensive or warped in the head enough to think the people you watch on the computer screen are your friends!" People DO take things personally when you accuse them of things, yeah.

Also, I just figured that if we were still taking shots at Lestat a year later...y'know. Like beating a dead horse.

[sondhead]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 11:18am

PS almost anything with taps is pre-recorded. Even 42nd Street. It just has to be done these days to get the sound that audiences today expect.

And no, I DON'T think singers should be mic-ed. I think microphones have led to a lot of weak and bad singing and also has made audiences not listen as well. Broadway existed for many years without any kind of amplification.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 11:29am

Sondhead, Amen!

[DirtyRottenMemberName]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 12:30pm

I did not even say i was friends with anyone in the show... where did you get that idea?

i like the show. it is good. tells a story, a story that i think is worth telling.

and also SJB is the feircest thing on BWAY right now, so it is very hard not to love the show. unless your feirce radar is broken. which it is.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 12:44pm

Of course the Taps are recorded, they were in Riverdance and they were in Lord of the Dance so why would this be any different.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 12:57pm

DirtyRotten,

I think the story deserves to be told too, but the music just plain sucks, and the story drags, and holds on to bad cliches.

What makes me so angry about PQ is that it's a great story hidden under a pile of crap, and because of it, it will be a long while before we see a show on bway that deals with those issues again, mark my words.

Yes, I still think the taps are recorded, Im a musician, I work with live bands and orchestras all the time, as well as tap dancers and other dancers, It's recorded.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 2:44pm

and also SJB is the feircest thing on BWAY right now, so it is very hard not to love the show. unless your feirce radar is broken. which it is.

She may be "feirce" but is she fierce?

[kec]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 4:51pm

"She may be "feirce" but is she fierce? "

Absolutely!

[jacco]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 5:04pm

I just thought the story was AWFUL. In Les Miz and miss Saigon I felt the authors really WANTED to tell the story. Here they were filling in the cartoon-like plot. Really dull music (and that coming from a real B+S fan....)

[mortgageguy79]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 4:50pm

"She may be "feirce" but is she fierce?"

:) HYSTERICAL! :)

[kelzama]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 6:19pm

When you hear uninformed statements like, "of course the taps are recorded," it gives you a better base from which to judge all future comments by that particular poster.

In Riverdance and Pirate Queen, the dancers' shoes and stage are amplified, not prerecorded. The dancers who are amplified have the wires to the mics running down the backs of their legs, designed to look like a seam in a pair of tights.

[amalou]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 6:26pm

^ Thank you. If the people who teched Pirate Queen came on here and said "it's not pre-recorded. It's amplified" people would still prefer to think their assumptions are more accurate than reality.

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 8:53pm

well i guess i was at the same matinee as everyone else. I enjoyed myself but I was mostly laughing at the show, and not with the show. The performers all did the best with what they had to work with for the most part and some of the melodes were catchy.

As I was watching, I could easily play 'spot the stolen scene/song/set' - different elements had me thinking of:
Jesus Christ Superstar---- all the clan begging grace for guidance, reminded me of all the beggars asking for jesus to heal them
Jekyll & Hyde---- grace and the queen's duet reminded me of lucy and emma
Wicked----the first scene with Grace at the wheel was like elphaba melting
Les Miz---- the constant walking in circles

I guess most of my gripes have to do with the Queen. She hit some lovely notes but I couldn't understand a word she sang. And as for her plot, how was it she knew Grace was the chieftan of the O'Malley's befor Grace's father had even died? Was she seeing into the future or was this scene just moved without rewriting it at some point in previews?

While the costumes were pretty, they were a good 30-40 yrs off the mark... Elizabethean styles came AFTER the Queen started the fashion, not at her corrination, and her ladies in waiting would have never worn such things as they did in their first number. Her council too, were dressed all like bishops for some reason?

Other things whether or not they were historically accurate just dont work well for a modern audience... the ships crew all watching Grace give birth and marriage being a 3 yr trial basis, and a random woman taking a jacket off a dead man to put it on Grace...

Some things just seemed to be without logic... like Grace standing IN a fire effect, instead of behind it like everyone else. Or how the English have invaded the ship so even tho the number of people on the ship have doubled, youre only gonna see one or two people fighting at a time, in a very ballet like way.

[queenbee2]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 10:16pm

Spouzic-

Whatever your feelings of the show were, you couldn't be more incorrect about Queen Elizabeth's costumes. They are completely accurate to the time period and some are actually almost replicas of her actual dresses.

I do agree with you though, that the Queen's sections of the show were probably the most misguided, theatrically speaking.

-QB

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 10:42pm

the styles they wore in the show were not accurate, they may have been replicas of something she wore but she wouldnt have worn it then. the show is set too early in her reign for them to be wearing those outfits. im not saying she didnt wear styles like that, im saying at her corrination her maids would not have been wearing an outfit she brought to the forefront 20 yrs later. You cant attribute an outfit she wore when was she painted in 1575 to her corronation 1558.
Updated On: 6/15/07 at 10:42 PM