Oh, I forgot: The Pirate Queen is sinking.
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that there were two shows that I’d been looking forward to that were flailing and not doing too well. While I went on and on about The Times They Are A-Changin’, I didn’t mention the other one.
The writers of Miss Saigon and Les Miserables had teamed up to produce a very eagerly anticipated epic called “the Pirate Queen”. Visions of “Pirates-of-the-Caribbean meets Riverdance” were floating around, and the luscious billboards going up around Chicago almost made you hear the uilean pipes as you floundered through yet another confusing interchange…
Apparently, not so much. Reviews are lukewarm at best, and the main complaint seems to be that the story itself is confusing. Again, the subject of dance and performance in context comes up. The producers have said that they assumed too much knowledge in their audiences, and some things that British and Irish know as a matter of course needed to be explained to the U.S. audiences.
I’m a little sad about what this says about the historical awareness of our country, but it’s not really anything new (isn’t it sad when an English comic gets to taunt us about our ignorance of Gen. LaFayette?). On the other hand, there is a point at which it really should become moot–even if we aren’t aware of the English-Irish conflict, shouldn’t we be able to figure out the story line based on the work itself?
Word is it’s got very wealthy backers, so perhaps they’ll put out the $100K that a fixer would cost. It would be nice; Irish history is my history, and I want some music to sing along to in my iPod…
Tags: pirate queen, dance, musical theatre
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