The Pirate Queen

Yesterday was Father's Day. Since my dad is no longer living, I thought would spend the day doing something that we had loved to do together. My dad took me to see my first Broadway musical. It was Sweeney Todd starring Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. Not exactly the type of show that you would expect a father to take his daughter, the tale of a murdering barber intent on revenging the rape of his wife and the abduction of his daughter. But we loved it, and since I'm such a history geek it was the perfect show, combining history and musical theater.

So I headed downtown to the TKTS booth and bought a ticket for the final performance of The Pirate Queen. Wow, I wish I could tell you that the critics were wrong and the show undeservedly had a short run, but the truth is, this show blew chunks. Seriously, from the first song, I knew this show was going to be painful and it was. I have no idea what made 2 frenchmen think they could write a show about an Irish legend. Don't get me wrong, Les Miserables is one of my favorite musicals (I cry everytime I listen to Colm Wilkinson sing 'Bring Him Home') and Miss Saigon wasn't bad although the helicopter and the statue of Ho Chi Minh got bigger press, but the music for this was unmemorable and unremarkable. And not even particularly Irish for that matter. Plus every dance number was an Irish step dance. The first time, it was pretty cool when the men came out with the oars and danced. By the fifth time, I was bored out of my skull, and I hated Riverdance.

The other thing that got me was why was the lead actress the only one doing an Irish accent? My rule of thumb when I was acting was, everyone in the show had to do the acccent or none of us did. Having one person doing an Irish accent while everyone else who is supposed to be Irish was doing an American accent was like, WTF?

What made it even worse, I read the notes in the souvenir program in the gift shop about the real Grace O'Malley and the true story was so much more interesting than the musical. The writers created this character called Tiernan who was supposed to be her one true love, instead of using the real man that she ended up with. I totally understand why they cut her other two kids out of the show, but they could have used the legend that when her father refused to let her sail with him, she cut off her long hair. That would certainly have been a dramatic moment.

Clearly, I was being punished for accidentally cutting the TKTS line. Oops! My bad.

The real Grace O'Malley (Grannia) was born in 1530, three years before her nemesis, Queen Elizabeth. At the time, England had virtually ignored Ireland for years after their initial conquest during the reign of Henry II. The Irish chieftains and the Anglo-Irish pretty much co-existed somewhat uneasily. Like the Scottish clans, the Irish chieftains warred with each other constantly (which is how the English/Normas found it so easy to step in). Grace's father was the O'Malley and the family were seafarers which was actually unusual for a clan. They taxed anyone who fished in their waters including the English. Unlike the musical, when her father died, she did not become the clan chieftain because women were not allowed to hold that position. She engaged in constant revolutionary activity against the crown, which is barely hinted at in the musical. In fact, she becomes the Pirate Queen literally in one scene, when she helps her father defeat the British who are attempting to take over their ship. In the next scene, we see a young Queen Elizabeth telling Richard Bingham to take care of Grace and get rid of her. Huh?

Of course the musical has a happy ending with Grace and Tiernan reunited with her son Eoin, having come to terms with Queen Elizabeth, with lots of happy step dancing to end the evening. In reality, Grace went on warring against the English crown until she died at the age of 73, 3 years before Queen Elizabeth.

Bertrice Small used quite a huge chunk of Grace's story when she created Skye O'Malley, right down to her husband's first name, and the names of her children, to their overlords the Burkes. Like Skye's fourth husband Adam de Marisco of Lundy Island, Grace's second husband Richard Burke owned a castle on an island. In fact, Skye O'Malley would have made a better musical than The Pirate Queen.

The one good thing that came out of seeing this musical was my desire to read more about Grace O'Malley, so I'll be picking up a copy of Robin Maxwell's book as well as Morgan Llewellyn. However, I won't be listening to the cast album of The Pirate Queen anytime soon.

Thanks for reading!

EKM