The Pirate Queen Reviews — Page 8

I still like to believe Barnes has some taste left in his old soul.

"In this age of the modern musical, in which if a new show isn't cutting edge there are critics who will dismiss it in less than a heartbeat, let's stop a moment before tearing down a major attempt at entertainment. Yes, The Pirate Queen is deeply flawed and there will be no dearth of people who will be delighted to describe those flaws to you in detail. We'll tell you what's wrong with the show, too, but we won't take pleasure in it. We'd like to start, though, by describing why audiences will rightfully enjoy certain aspects of this show ...

The enthusiastic and muscular choreography that has made Riverdance so successful is in full bloom in The Pirate Queen. Sharply performed, blood-racing in its tightly syncopated style (oftentimes with wooden oars that also suggest a touch of Stomp), in this show you'll find the core in choreography.

The set, costume and lighting design all leave no doubt that a great deal of money has been spent on this production. Sometimes big budget shows open on Broadway and you wonder where the money went; not here. You want visual stimulation? You'll get plenty of it here.

The cast is the ultimate prize on the Hilton Theatre stage. In a better show, Stephanie J. Block's heroic performance in the title role would be star-making, if not career-making. Be that as it may, when she belts she makes a mediocre score sound like a million bucks. Hadley Fraser as Block's love interest in the show, has a soaring tenor voice that will knock you out. Jeff McCarthy as Block's father cuts quite a memorable swath through the first act. Women of a certain age were swooning all over the place. Linda Balgord as Queen Elizabeth I brings a genuine vigor and bite to her delicious soprano vocals.

Briefly, because you'll have plenty of other folks who will tell you what's wrong with the show, we'll concede that the score is derivative, the music is mediocre and the lyrics are too often banal rather than anthemic. Worse, the book, the story of real-life female Irish pirate Grace O'Malley, is badly structured, draining in it of its drama. A swashbuckling story that builds not to a climatic singing/dancing/action finale but to a private talk seen in silhouette between the Pirate Queen and the English Queen is nothing if not unsatisfying.

Yes, there is a lot wrong with The Pirate Queen, but one hopes that audiences will get the chance to make up their own minds about this troubled yet impressive work."


Siegel Column

Yes, but if most critics are saying the same thing along with a lot of people here on the boards, it's not a matter of salt. It's not a good show. Period. We'll just have to see how long it lasts.

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Ouch all around. It's rough when the best review of Block is calling her a screechy version of Celine Dione. Brantley is rough.

And naturally Brantley has an obsession with Queen Elizabeth. Because he, like she, is the virgin queen with way too much power.

It is dissapointing that when things had started looking up for this show after Chicago, it gets completely massacred. Given its obvious flaws (hell, give me a show without any at all, if you can) I was intrigued by the work in Chicago and hope it at least sticks around for the summer tourist season so I can catch a glimpse of the progress made. Maybe it won't run 23492349832478932 years like Les Mis, but perhaps it could still do a respectable run... Anybody have info on what the reviews for Les Mis and Miss Saigon were when they first opened? (It wouldn't be hard to be better than these.) But it is frustrating to see so many fantastic performers in a show together and not leave some kind of a mark, despite the other issues surrounding the show.

I was at opening night and overheard the couple next to me say "I hope these kids have backup jobs cause this show ain't gonne be here for long"

It was trully dreadful. It's like watching a horrible multi-million dollar film and thinking to yourself- "someone actually invested millions into this thinking it was good?"

Well, it's not. I litereally laughed at loud when the "butch" pirates are all brooding then suddenly turn into dancing queens, literally.. the chorus boys are SO GAY. Hysterical.

Next.

Updated On: 4/6/07 at 04:28 PM

After just watching the recent castcom vids i am so glad they are having a good time. this cast overall seems like such a tight family and it is a shame that it ended this way. i guess we will have to see what happens now.

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'The Pirate Queen,' on the other hand, is a gift that keeps on giving: It starts out dumb, then gets dumber, and at no time does anything other than preposterous ever take place on stage or in the orchestra pit. If it were somewhat shorter, it might actually be worth seeing, but at 2½ hours, I can't recommend it in good faith to anyone who isn't (A) a full-fledged hit-me-again masochist and/or (B) deaf."

Has there ever really been a musical so bad that it was funny? (I mean an actual show, not “Springtime for Hitler.”) “Taboo” and “In My Life” both began promisingly, but my sense of humor was swamped by their sheer awfulness well before intermission. “The Pirate Queen,” on the other hand, is a gift that keeps on giving: It starts out dumb, then gets dumber, and at no time does anything other than preposterous ever take place on stage or in the orchestra pit. If it were somewhat shorter, it might actually be worth seeing, but at 2½ hours, I can't recommend it in good faith to anyone who isn't (A) a full-fledged hit-me-again masochist and/or (B) deaf.

“The Pirate Queen” is the latest effort from Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, the “Les Miz” boys. It sounds very much like that fatuous faux-opera, only with fiddle, harp and the maudlin squeal of Uilleann pipes thrown in so you’ll know it’s set in Ireland. (The crummy-sounding synthesized string section was presumably thrown in so you’ll know that you’re on Broadway.) Mr. Schonberg’s yappy score runs more or less continuously throughout the show, meaning that you get to hear the undistinguished cast sing thousands of leaden couplets and quatrains in between the heavy-footed step dances: “Here I stand/No crown, no land/And yet prepared to tender/My unconditional surrender.” That’s as good as it gets.

As for the plot, it’s a semi-rehash of “The Sea Hawk” with Maureen O’Hara replacing Errol Flynn. ‘Tis an honest-to-God true story of 16th-century Irish feminism that I’ll be tellin’ you, me fine lads and lassies: Grace O’Malley (Stephanie J. Block) dresses up as a boy, stows away on her father’s pirate ship, proves that she’s tougher than any six men and prettier to boot, pals around with Queen Elizabeth I (Linda Balgord) and saved the Emerald Isle from ruin singlehandedly. If politically correct blarney set to unmemorable music is your thing, be my guest.

“The Pirate Queen” was blitzed by every reputable drama critic in Chicago when it opened there last fall. Since then, it’s been subjected to extensive and expensive show-doctoring that reportedly cost the production up to $16 million. (Yes, Eugene Lee’s sets are gorgeous.) This makes me wonder: Might it actually have been worse before it got to Broadway? I tremble at the thought. - Terry Teachout

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The WSJ guy, hated Les Mis, so he doesn't like this either, big suprise... But think of the reviews Les Mis got upon is London Opening: "Victor Hugo on the Garbage Dump" "The music by Claude-Michel Schonberg is adequate if conventional and unmemorable. the lyrics uninspiering and at times bathetic."
Maybe, this to will become a success... I am by no means a fan-girl, but a lot of work and sweat and tears went into this show, I really like the music, and I am eager for it to succeed...

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So what if a lot of effort went into the show? That doesn't make it any better, it's still a terrible production.
With that mentality, any high school or community theatre show would be on Broadway, the effort is still there.

And if the cast is so extremely gifted, then wish for them to move on to better things, instead of being stuck in this mess with their mega talents.

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Thanks you for the WSJ review. Yep, pretty much the worst of the lot.

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OK, sorry, I guess i'm biased because I love Boublil and Schonberg...

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