Gilbert and Sullivan’s swashbuckling two-act comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, which premiered at NYC’s Fifth Avenue Theatre in 1879, is the subject of a new adaptation, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, by Rupert Holmes, conceived by Holmes, director Scott Ellis, choreographer Warren Carlyle, and music director Joseph Joubert, and now playing a limited Broadway engagement with Roundabout Theatre Company at the Todd Haimes Theatre. In this hilarious reimagining, the legendary pirate ship docks in 1880 New Orleans, where the buccaneers – and the audience – encounter madcap fun and romance, witty wordplay and swordplay, and a score with nods to jazz, blues, and Caribbean rhythms.
Framed in the metatheatrical device of librettist Gilbert and composer Sullivan, before the curtain goes up, explaining that they have decided to place their new work in New Orleans in order to be protected by American copyright laws and to receive royalties from the production (in fact, The Pirates of Penzance was their first opera to make its debut in NYC for precisely that reason, after they received no payment for fifteen unauthorized New York productions of their operetta HMS Pinafore). The curtain rises, the performance, at NOLA’s Theatre of the Renaissance, launches with the carousing crew singing and dancing in the French Quarter, the pirate ship docking, their leader declaring himself (“I Am the Pirate King”), and, under Ellis’s lively direction, the mood of rollicking and rabble-rousing never stops.
A stellar cast is led by Ramin Karimloo as the acrobatically agile, robust, and orphan-sensitive Pirate King (”He Is an Orphan Boy”), David Hyde Pierce (who also appears as Gilbert) as the tongue-twisting Major General (performing the classic “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” with flawless timing and comedic flair), falsely claiming that he’s an orphan (the “orphan/often” routine with Karimloo is played to perfection) to spare himself and his daughters (Kelly Belarmino, Cicily Daniels, Ninako Donville, Afra Hines, Tatiana Lofton, Shina Ann Morris, and Bronwyn Tarboton) from the pirates (Rick Faugno, Tommy Gedrich, Alex Gibson, Dan Hoy, Ryo Kamibayashi, Nathan Lucrezio, and Tyrone L. Robinson, who later portray the policemen sent to quash them), Nicholas Barasch as Frederic, a true orphan apprenticed to the ship, who’s about to turn 21, follow his conscience, and leave the life of marauding to wed the Major General’s willing daughter Mabel (a flirtatious and golden-throated Samantha Williams) and to fight the pirates he loves, until “A Paradox” of his birthdate threatens to put his plans on hold for another six decades, and Jinkx Monsoon as the hard-of-hearing Ruth who raised him (“When Frederic Was a Little Lad”) and, though much older, has hopes of marrying him once he reaches legal age.
The zany plot and familiar (but sometimes revised) songs (with orchestrations by Joubert and Daryl Waters and dance arrangements by John O’Neill) are interspersed with segments of humorous sword-fighting (fight direction by Rick Sordelet and Christian Kelly-Sordelet), chorus line high kicks and tap dancing (featuring Preston Truman Boyd, who doubles as Sullivan, as the Sergeant of Police), and numbers borrowed from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe (“Good Morrow,” here reconceived as “Good Morning,” and “The Nightmare Song”), The Mikado (Ruth’s eleven-o’clock solo “Alone, and Yet Alive”), and HMS Pinafore – “We Sail the Ocean Blues,” reworked as “The ‘Sail the Ocean’ Blues,” an upbeat closer to the first act with the cast accompanying themselves on washboard to a Dixieland beat; and the timely and resonant “He Is an Englishman,” now heard as “We’re All from Someplace Else,” which closes the show by significantly addressing the current immigrant crisis in our country and leaving us with a meaningful message of acceptance, as does the setting in The Theatre of the Renaissance, which, the program points out, was “open to all . . . with no exceptions or exclusions.”
An equally colorful, exuberant, and transporting artistic design supports the transplanted narrative and characters, with Victorian-style costumes, uniforms, and pirate wear by Linda Cho, hair and wigs by Charles G. LaPointe, and make-up by Ashley Ryan, a set by David Rockwell – enhanced by Donald Holder’s time- and mood-setting lighting and sound by Mikaal Sulaiman – that captures the streets and balconies, waterfront and pirate ship, vegetation of the bayou and mansion of the Major General, which, in the end, will be put to good use to the satisfaction and unity of all. It’s a happy conclusion to a high-spirited show with energetic pacing and an all-in cast – something we all can use right now, so be sure to get your tickets before Pirates! The Musical sails away.
Running Time: Approximately two hours and 15 minutes, including an intermission.
Pirates! The Penzance Musical plays through Sunday, July 27, 2025, at Roundabout Theatre Company, performing at the Todd Haimes Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $58-379, including fees), call (212) 719-1300, go online, or find discount tickets at TodayTix here.