Last night we attended the pre-Broadway production of “The Pirate Queen” at the Cadillac Palace Theater and here’s what we thought:
This show will be lucky if it ever makes it to Broadway.
“The Pirate Queen” is the brainchild of the creators of "Les Miserables" and the producers of "Riverdance." It’s definitely a combination of the two, but not a good one. The unfortunate thing is the story is very good. The play is about real life 16th century Irish heroine Grace “Grania” O’Malley who, after a childhood spent on her father’s vessel, became the unofficial Queen of Ireland. Queen Elizabeth I was extremely threatened by Grania and eventually had her captured and imprisoned. There’s much more to the story, but at the end there is a resolution between these two powerful women.
While some theater critics weren’t impressed by the costumes, we thought they were great. The problem was the pace.
This 7:30 show with a 15 minute intermission ended after 10 p.m.
There were only a handful of upbeat numbers to keep the audience awake.
Had there been more lively scenes with more Irish dancing, some of the
audience members who left at intermission may have stayed until the end.
Our pre-theater dinner at N9ne was pricey but delicious. Our three diners had the black cod miso, which our waiter told us was a house specialty, salmon marinated with Chinese mustard glaze and the veal chop special. We had a pecan tart of sorts for dessert which was also very tasty.
