The Pirate Queen — Page 2

If they go ahead with a European tour, I hope they listen to Maltby more. To hire him just to write some new lyrics was an insult. (because the biggest structural change, the new opening with the new "I Want" song, had already been written in Chicago, they just didn't feel they could tech it and add it into the show there).

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I'm sorry that I have already forgotten who originally brought up the point about the subject matter of the show being one of its downfalls, but I really do agree. I think it was a subject with characters and a story that were/are fascinating once you hear or study it/them as it/they originally are. The true story of Grace O'Malley is really complex with some key situations that would make a wonderful stage piece, but WAY too many to fit into a 2 hour 30 minute Broadway musical. One of my favorites from the original story is when Grace is partying it up one night with her men ( she was infamous for drinking, cursing, and wild sex) and she fell in love with a sailor from another ship. One day the British attacked his ship and killed the sailor sending her into a wild tirade against the men who murdered him.

The original story is brilliant on its own, but way too complex with too many characters. You'd have to treat it as a "Coast of Utopia" project if you want to do it any sort of justice. The creative team dumbed the story up too much, creating characters that never existed, and changing real people into simple comic reliefs. (And hurting the original Grace O'Malley, as someone else mentioned before) I adored the score and love listening to it, (huge fan of the sweeping melodies of B&S) but it was a huge show based around a story that didn't do the orignal story justice and then just became silly.

I wish that this show had been better. I think that it WAS the right story (I didn't buy a ticket to see something that wasn't interesting!), but was presented really poorly. The story got watered down into a generic presentation of a Disney musical. The melodies were boring, the book was boring, the lyrics were boring. That's why it failed. I wish that someone else had done the book and the music/lyrics because it COULD HAVE BEEN so good. It's really quite depressing that it was such a mess.

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