Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Opening Night: April 24, 2025
Theater: American Airlines
Website: www.roundabouttheatre.org
Gilbert & Sullivan’s pirate ship docks in New Orleans in this jazzy-bluesy vision of the crowd-pleasing classic, in an outrageously clever romp sizzling with Caribbean rhythms and French Quarter flair. With the tongue-twisting Major General, the rabble-rousing Pirate King, newly-imagined young lovers, daring daughters, footloose pirates and fleet-footed police, there’s a shipload of musical comedy delights on board to dazzle first-timers and G&S aficionados alike.
BUY TICKETSREAD THE REVIEWS:
April 24, 2025
Except for the central performance by David Hyde Pierce, marvelously underplaying the tongue-twisting Major-General, the production has a sweaty quality, bordering on frenzy, that’s hopelessly at odds with the cool wit of the original.
READ THE REVIEW
April 25, 2025
This “Pirates!” (mind the punctuation) isn’t particularly modern (adapter Rupert Holmes doesn’t take it that far), but it is a major Broadway staging — and oh so general.
READ THE REVIEW
April 24, 2025
More than that—it is Pirates staged with wonderfully energetic aplomb by director Scott Ellis, wittily choreographed by Warren Carlyle and expertly performed by a dream ensemble. In keeping Gilbert & Sullivan’s shrewdly crafted text, this Pirates! is very serious about being seriously ridiculous, and a joyful trip to musical theater heaven is the result.
READ THE REVIEW
April 24, 2025
Rather than a slave of duty, Pirates! is the servant of too many masters: Gilbert & Sullivan, Dixieland jazz, milquetoast liberalism, and the tourism lobby New Orleans & Company, which “kindly sponsored” this production. The recipe is for a jambalaya of disparate flavors that come together in delicious harmony. The finished product is operetta as political compromise, in which everyone gets a little taste of what they want, but never enough to be truly satisfied.
READ THE REVIEW
April 24, 2025
If the cast seems instructed to play just a tad broadly, and hit the jokes a touch to hard, and the second act runs a bit too long, well, the overzealousness does little to dampen the overall joyous vibe. And just when things might start to lag, Pierce arrives, nailing every pun, every aside to the audience, every double-take and every droll observation. He’s a treasure.
READ THE REVIEW
April 24, 2025
There might be a few bumpy waves in this piratical adaptation, but the booty is well-worth the effort. Even though it is unlikely to spur a trend of Gilbert and Sullivan revivals, this production wholly justifies itself, providing a hearty dose of musical comedy fun and absolutely earning the exclamation point of its title.
READ THE REVIEW
April 24, 2025
The continental leap dusts off the 145-year-old operetta and gives it an energetic oomph of swing and ragtime music, and the stage is brightened up by hot-sauce pops of purple, yellow and fiery red. Director Scott Ellis’ boisterous romp is not groundbreaking in the way the Joseph Papp-produced 1980 revival was, but it has the same irreverent spirit — and perpetually ridiculous tale.
READ THE REVIEW
April 24, 2025
Until Pirates!, “Dear Bill” from Operation Mincemeat was my standout sung performance of the Broadway season; but Hyde Pierce’s rendition of “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” now shares those honors for his standing-still, eyes dead-ahead, surprising-himself, surprising-us navigation through its nutty lyrics.
READ THE REVIEW
April 24, 2025
The delightful foam on the grog here is his being backed up by Scott Ellis’ outrageous direction of a flag-waving chorus that carries out Warren Carlyle’s foot-stomping choreography to military perfection. The riotous pandemonium builds and builds, and then Hyde Pierce repeats himself with even greater success.
READ THE REVIEW
April 24, 2025
The modern world is full of stress, so go and have a party, brah, And shake it like a necklace made of gaudy beads at Mardi Gras. Enjoy this Broadway hybrid that is tuneful and poetical: A most delightful model of a modern operettical.
READ THE REVIEWApril 24, 2025
Pirates! The Penzance Musical comes with a stacked cast and a nearly 150-year history of Broadway adaptations. With such an iconic piece of theatre, any change is bound to stir the pot. But perhaps what makes this version such a smash is that at its core, it’s exactly what Gilbert and Sullivan created the original to be: a fun, silly, nonsensical laugh with the lightest plot and a great big happy ending to wrap it all up.
READ THE REVIEWApril 24, 2025
The most thrilling performance for me is actually the one that Nicholas Barasch gives as Frederic, the juvenile/romantic lead, a character who sets off the deliberately silly (and mostly unchanged) plot. Having reached the age of 21, Frederic is ready to venture out into the world, leaving behind the band of tenderhearted, orphaned pirates to whom he was apprenticed as a child by mistake; his nurse Ruth misheard her master’s instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot. Barasch thoroughly fulfills his early promise from the 2016 Broadway production of “She Loves Me” when at age 17, he portrayed the shop’s bike messenger who dreams of being a clerk. Here he is dashing and comic in equal and appropriate measure, with a swoon-worthy voice. He counts as a discovery, but one we could have seen as inevitable.
READ THE REVIEWApril 24, 2025
The only significant trouble with this giddy Pirates! is that it’s really too much of a good thing and might be better were it one show-stopper fewer or perhaps ten minutes less. Still, it’s fun to hear gags that are nearly 150 years old, like the silly “orphan/often” exchange, still raise laughs today and it’s great to see Roundabout introduce a Gilbert & Sullivan classic, more or less, to a fresh audience.
READ THE REVIEWApril 24, 2025
Providing just around two hours of silly joy, Pirates! The Penzance Musical would make Gilbert and Sullivan proud. They might object to some of the changes, but they would surely approve of the pleasure it’s providing to modern-day audiences.
READ THE REVIEWApril 24, 2025
Hyde Pierce is perfect for Gilbert and Sullivan: He’s droll, a tad dotty, curiously understated, generous with fellow actors and there is a perpetual twinkle in his been-there-done-that eyes. Add a handlebar mustache and what more do you need?
READ THE REVIEW