#1
Posted: 3/17/07 at 1:47am
Well, I am happy to report that the show is much better than when I saw the first preview last Tuesday, March 6th. It is comforting to know that the creative team really cares about this show and wants it to succeed. That being said, it is still not there yet. There are still many many flaws in this production, some of which can be fixed, some of which cannot be fixed given the limited amount of time left before opening night on April 5th. Let's start with the good:
The Good:
1. The Chorus. This ensemble of actors is fantastic. The way their voices blend together in "The Wedding," "Sail to the Stars," "The Christening," and the finale is powerful and gorgeous.
2. "I'll Be There." The one memorable song in the show. Hadley Fraser is given a few minutes to really shine with this incredible song. Definitely the best moment in the show for me.
3. Aine Ui Cheallaigh as Evleen. She is the most authentic actor on the stage and I think she deserves mention here. She has a few solo moments to shine and really show what she can do...and I'm glad she gets her own bow at the end. Excellent job.
4. The musical staging/the dancing. Thank you Graciela Daniele for working on this musical...and it shows. Even though the dance numbers seem to happen randomly without much tie-in to the storyline, they are excellent.
5. The lighting. I did not notice this the first time around, but the lighting is really wonderful. Especially sitting upstairs, I got a whole stage picture...the way the floor of the stage is lit at times is gorgeous and I like the use of spotlights and shadows.
6. The costumes. While I still think Queen Elizabeth's costumes are a bit over the top, they are still extremely well thought out and nice to look at. You can tell a lot of effort was put into them.
7. The changes since the first preview. They took out that part where Stephanie kind of flew from the top of stage right to the top of stage left...that part made no sense. They also took out the scene where she held up the baby...that scene was laughable. From what I could remember, some of the lyrics were changed, which was good. There is a definitive ending...thank goodness!
8. Stephanie J. Block. More to come on her...
The Bad:
1. The sets. In a big musical such as The Pirate Queen, I expected the sets to be a lot more. The stage was bare a lot of the time, which is probably why the lighting stood out for me tonight...there was practically nothing else on the stage. I wanted to see a huge ship or something. Yes, they used the extreme sides of the stage as masts with ladders, but I still think it could have been better.
2. The book. The first 30 or so minutes of the show are boring boring boring. There is little to no character development and there needs to be. We are told that Grace has a strong relationship with her father, Dubhdara, but what is there in the script that leads the audience to really believe that? Just because her mother died prematurely, she has to be close to her father? I did not feel any sort of connection between Dubhdara and Grace and that made his death scene unmemorable. They didn't even seem that close to begin with...Dubhdara seemed kind of cold towards his daughter...and Grace didn't even seem too upset over her father's death. Also, the way we are introduced to Grace and Tiernan's relationship is not well done. The curtain comes up on Grace steering the ship, then Tiernan comes out, they swordfight a bit and then start making out while against the steering wheel...without one bit of dialogue might I add. Are we supposed to realize that they love each other just by that? There needs to be more of a backstory so the audience really cares about them as a couple and really wants them to get back together in the end. The show doesn't really start to get exciting, in my opinion, until Grace decides to marry Donal for the good of her country so that they will stop feuding even though she will not be with her "true love" Tiernan. Also, the scenes with Queen Elizabeth really slow down the action of the plot. Are her scenes supposed to be the comic relief??? Whenever she enters the stage, the music suggests that. Isn't Queen Elizabeth supposed to be well respected? Not laughed at. If there was supposed to be some connection between the strength of Grace and Elizabeth, it was not apparent until Act 2. This is not a funny show, and should not try to be what it isn't.
3. The score/lyrics. Unfortunately, the majority of Boublil and Schonberg's score is forgettable. One of the reasons why this is such, in my opinion, is that many of the songs do not have definitive endings...they kind of trail off. Songs in a big musical such as this should have big, high-notes-held-really-long type endings. At times, the audience was confused as to whether or not to applaud, because they didn't know if the songs were over or not. The only "big" endings were to "Woman" and "I'll Be There." The rest of the score kind of blends in and all sounds the same after a while. I did, however, enjoy the duets between Grace and Elizabeth "She Who Has All" and "Woman to Woman." Oh, and "Boys'll Be Boys" still needs to be cut or rewritten. I'm sure they don't want to cut it since there is a fun dance sequence in the middle of that song...plus you hear that tune multiple times in the show after it is first heard...I cringed every time I heard it. They need to somehow work in a reprise "I'll Be There." That song is so great.
Unfortunately, the fact that "the book" and "the score/lyrics" is on my bad list is not a good sign. In order for a musical to work, the book, score and lyrics have to be good, so I hope the creative team uses these next 2.5 weeks wisely to do whatever they can to fix these aspects of the show.
The Actors:
1. William Youmans as Sir Richard Bingham. Not a very likeable character, and it is not well developed, so I don't really have much to say about him.
2. Jeff McCarthy as Dubhdara. He looked bored and wooden. I know Jeff is capable of much more, but even in the scene where he was on his death bed and he said that he was so happy to see Grace's face as the last thing he saw before he died, he didn't sound sincere. His song in Act 1 "My Grace" was also very boring (probably because the song is a bad song, not because of him). I'm sure the writers wanted us to be sad when he died...I wasn't.
3. Marcus Chait as Donal O'Flaherty was also very wooden. He has the bad luck of having to sing the worst song in the show ("Boys'll Be Boys") and he knows that the song is bad. We know he is the bad guy, but he doesn't seem like a bad guy. Maybe he is supposed to be portrayed as more of a softee (since his father said "maybe Grace will make a man out of you"), but he should act more negatively towards Grace. He should treat her more like an object, more like his property, so that the audience hates him even more.
4. Linda Balgord as Queen Elizabeth. Yes, she has some really eye-catching costumes. Yes, she has a good singing voice. Yes, she is a good actress. I think she has been misdirected in this production. As I mentioned earlier in my assessment of flaws in the show's book, Elizabeth's character seems like she is making fun of herself. Her character should not be the focus of comic relief, and as it stands now, given her costumes, her entrance music, her whole demeanor...it is laughable. While I think both of her scenes in Act 1 could be cut down a lot, I do love her two duets with Grace in Act 2. Also, her four maids that enter with her in her first entrance in Act 1 do not help set up her character as a serious ruler and leader of England. I blame the director on this one.
5. Hadley Fraser as Tiernan is excellent. He makes all the right character choices, has a fantastic voice, has great stage presence and the audience is always cheering for him. Too bad there isn't enough development of his love for Grace, or else Fraser would shine even more than he does. And of course, his rendition of "I'll Be There" is brilliant.
6. Stephanie J. Block as Grace O'Malley is excellent as well. I'm just sorry she doesn't have better material to work with. As most of you know, I am a huge fan of Ms. Block from seeing her in The Boy From Oz and Wicked. In Wicked, she had "The Wizard and I," "Defying Gravity" and "No Good Deed" to shine and show off her abilities. In The Boy From Oz, she had "I Love To Hear The Music," which was fabulous. In The Pirate Queen, she doesn't have one good song, which is so sad. "Woman" is the closest it gets for her to shine, and this is the second song in the show. Stephanie is a brilliant actress and singer and she needs a huge number in Act 1 and another huge number in Act 2 in order to display her full potential. Even though she is on stage practically the entire time, her songs and dialogue are so mediocre that I just kept getting frustrated. She does a respectable job with her songs, but I don't remember any of them at this moment. Her songs need bigger endings, as do most of the songs in the show. The stage in the Hilton is so huge that at times, I felt like she was being swallowed up whole...completely due to the material, not due to her acting abilities. She did have a subtle Irish accent, which was a bit inconsistent tonight, but that will improve as previews continue. Stephanie's acting was excellent. Even though there was no motivation in the script for her to love her father and Tiernan, she conveyed that she did love them. She goes through an emotional rollercoaster on that stage and takes the audience with her. She is putting in 100% out there and doing her best, but I think she realizes that the material is lacking. Still, congrats to Stephanie in her first leading role in a Broadway musical. She deservedly gets the last bow and the audience was on their feet for her cheering. I'm so glad she got such a great reception and I hope she gets this every night.
Overall Thoughts:
The Pirate Queen is a musical that has a great foundation to be a hit. In its current state, it is not. I only think two current Broadway musucals are worth paying full price for (Wicked, A Chorus Line) and I would probably only recommend The Pirate Queen to others at a disount code. With tweaking over the next 2.5 weeks and changes to the book and score, this will be a good musical. However, there is not enough time for it to be a GREAT musical. Maybe they would have benefitted from another tryout in another city. Maybe they should have made even more changes between Chicago and NYC. I definitely don't LOVE the show, but I certainly don't hate it either. I'm indifferent. In any case, I will probably see it again at least one more time in previews, since I am really pulling for this show to get its act together and really WOW me. So far, it hasn't but I'm still hopeful.
Congrats to the cast and crew and best wishes to all of you over the next 2.5 weeks!
The Good:
1. The Chorus. This ensemble of actors is fantastic. The way their voices blend together in "The Wedding," "Sail to the Stars," "The Christening," and the finale is powerful and gorgeous.
2. "I'll Be There." The one memorable song in the show. Hadley Fraser is given a few minutes to really shine with this incredible song. Definitely the best moment in the show for me.
3. Aine Ui Cheallaigh as Evleen. She is the most authentic actor on the stage and I think she deserves mention here. She has a few solo moments to shine and really show what she can do...and I'm glad she gets her own bow at the end. Excellent job.
4. The musical staging/the dancing. Thank you Graciela Daniele for working on this musical...and it shows. Even though the dance numbers seem to happen randomly without much tie-in to the storyline, they are excellent.
5. The lighting. I did not notice this the first time around, but the lighting is really wonderful. Especially sitting upstairs, I got a whole stage picture...the way the floor of the stage is lit at times is gorgeous and I like the use of spotlights and shadows.
6. The costumes. While I still think Queen Elizabeth's costumes are a bit over the top, they are still extremely well thought out and nice to look at. You can tell a lot of effort was put into them.
7. The changes since the first preview. They took out that part where Stephanie kind of flew from the top of stage right to the top of stage left...that part made no sense. They also took out the scene where she held up the baby...that scene was laughable. From what I could remember, some of the lyrics were changed, which was good. There is a definitive ending...thank goodness!
8. Stephanie J. Block. More to come on her...
The Bad:
1. The sets. In a big musical such as The Pirate Queen, I expected the sets to be a lot more. The stage was bare a lot of the time, which is probably why the lighting stood out for me tonight...there was practically nothing else on the stage. I wanted to see a huge ship or something. Yes, they used the extreme sides of the stage as masts with ladders, but I still think it could have been better.
2. The book. The first 30 or so minutes of the show are boring boring boring. There is little to no character development and there needs to be. We are told that Grace has a strong relationship with her father, Dubhdara, but what is there in the script that leads the audience to really believe that? Just because her mother died prematurely, she has to be close to her father? I did not feel any sort of connection between Dubhdara and Grace and that made his death scene unmemorable. They didn't even seem that close to begin with...Dubhdara seemed kind of cold towards his daughter...and Grace didn't even seem too upset over her father's death. Also, the way we are introduced to Grace and Tiernan's relationship is not well done. The curtain comes up on Grace steering the ship, then Tiernan comes out, they swordfight a bit and then start making out while against the steering wheel...without one bit of dialogue might I add. Are we supposed to realize that they love each other just by that? There needs to be more of a backstory so the audience really cares about them as a couple and really wants them to get back together in the end. The show doesn't really start to get exciting, in my opinion, until Grace decides to marry Donal for the good of her country so that they will stop feuding even though she will not be with her "true love" Tiernan. Also, the scenes with Queen Elizabeth really slow down the action of the plot. Are her scenes supposed to be the comic relief??? Whenever she enters the stage, the music suggests that. Isn't Queen Elizabeth supposed to be well respected? Not laughed at. If there was supposed to be some connection between the strength of Grace and Elizabeth, it was not apparent until Act 2. This is not a funny show, and should not try to be what it isn't.
3. The score/lyrics. Unfortunately, the majority of Boublil and Schonberg's score is forgettable. One of the reasons why this is such, in my opinion, is that many of the songs do not have definitive endings...they kind of trail off. Songs in a big musical such as this should have big, high-notes-held-really-long type endings. At times, the audience was confused as to whether or not to applaud, because they didn't know if the songs were over or not. The only "big" endings were to "Woman" and "I'll Be There." The rest of the score kind of blends in and all sounds the same after a while. I did, however, enjoy the duets between Grace and Elizabeth "She Who Has All" and "Woman to Woman." Oh, and "Boys'll Be Boys" still needs to be cut or rewritten. I'm sure they don't want to cut it since there is a fun dance sequence in the middle of that song...plus you hear that tune multiple times in the show after it is first heard...I cringed every time I heard it. They need to somehow work in a reprise "I'll Be There." That song is so great.
Unfortunately, the fact that "the book" and "the score/lyrics" is on my bad list is not a good sign. In order for a musical to work, the book, score and lyrics have to be good, so I hope the creative team uses these next 2.5 weeks wisely to do whatever they can to fix these aspects of the show.
The Actors:
1. William Youmans as Sir Richard Bingham. Not a very likeable character, and it is not well developed, so I don't really have much to say about him.
2. Jeff McCarthy as Dubhdara. He looked bored and wooden. I know Jeff is capable of much more, but even in the scene where he was on his death bed and he said that he was so happy to see Grace's face as the last thing he saw before he died, he didn't sound sincere. His song in Act 1 "My Grace" was also very boring (probably because the song is a bad song, not because of him). I'm sure the writers wanted us to be sad when he died...I wasn't.
3. Marcus Chait as Donal O'Flaherty was also very wooden. He has the bad luck of having to sing the worst song in the show ("Boys'll Be Boys") and he knows that the song is bad. We know he is the bad guy, but he doesn't seem like a bad guy. Maybe he is supposed to be portrayed as more of a softee (since his father said "maybe Grace will make a man out of you"), but he should act more negatively towards Grace. He should treat her more like an object, more like his property, so that the audience hates him even more.
4. Linda Balgord as Queen Elizabeth. Yes, she has some really eye-catching costumes. Yes, she has a good singing voice. Yes, she is a good actress. I think she has been misdirected in this production. As I mentioned earlier in my assessment of flaws in the show's book, Elizabeth's character seems like she is making fun of herself. Her character should not be the focus of comic relief, and as it stands now, given her costumes, her entrance music, her whole demeanor...it is laughable. While I think both of her scenes in Act 1 could be cut down a lot, I do love her two duets with Grace in Act 2. Also, her four maids that enter with her in her first entrance in Act 1 do not help set up her character as a serious ruler and leader of England. I blame the director on this one.
5. Hadley Fraser as Tiernan is excellent. He makes all the right character choices, has a fantastic voice, has great stage presence and the audience is always cheering for him. Too bad there isn't enough development of his love for Grace, or else Fraser would shine even more than he does. And of course, his rendition of "I'll Be There" is brilliant.
6. Stephanie J. Block as Grace O'Malley is excellent as well. I'm just sorry she doesn't have better material to work with. As most of you know, I am a huge fan of Ms. Block from seeing her in The Boy From Oz and Wicked. In Wicked, she had "The Wizard and I," "Defying Gravity" and "No Good Deed" to shine and show off her abilities. In The Boy From Oz, she had "I Love To Hear The Music," which was fabulous. In The Pirate Queen, she doesn't have one good song, which is so sad. "Woman" is the closest it gets for her to shine, and this is the second song in the show. Stephanie is a brilliant actress and singer and she needs a huge number in Act 1 and another huge number in Act 2 in order to display her full potential. Even though she is on stage practically the entire time, her songs and dialogue are so mediocre that I just kept getting frustrated. She does a respectable job with her songs, but I don't remember any of them at this moment. Her songs need bigger endings, as do most of the songs in the show. The stage in the Hilton is so huge that at times, I felt like she was being swallowed up whole...completely due to the material, not due to her acting abilities. She did have a subtle Irish accent, which was a bit inconsistent tonight, but that will improve as previews continue. Stephanie's acting was excellent. Even though there was no motivation in the script for her to love her father and Tiernan, she conveyed that she did love them. She goes through an emotional rollercoaster on that stage and takes the audience with her. She is putting in 100% out there and doing her best, but I think she realizes that the material is lacking. Still, congrats to Stephanie in her first leading role in a Broadway musical. She deservedly gets the last bow and the audience was on their feet for her cheering. I'm so glad she got such a great reception and I hope she gets this every night.
Overall Thoughts:
The Pirate Queen is a musical that has a great foundation to be a hit. In its current state, it is not. I only think two current Broadway musucals are worth paying full price for (Wicked, A Chorus Line) and I would probably only recommend The Pirate Queen to others at a disount code. With tweaking over the next 2.5 weeks and changes to the book and score, this will be a good musical. However, there is not enough time for it to be a GREAT musical. Maybe they would have benefitted from another tryout in another city. Maybe they should have made even more changes between Chicago and NYC. I definitely don't LOVE the show, but I certainly don't hate it either. I'm indifferent. In any case, I will probably see it again at least one more time in previews, since I am really pulling for this show to get its act together and really WOW me. So far, it hasn't but I'm still hopeful.
Congrats to the cast and crew and best wishes to all of you over the next 2.5 weeks!
