Video: David Hyde Pierce on the New Orleans-Flavored PIRATES! THE PENZANCE MUSICAL- 'It Really Works!'

A new kind of Pirates of Penzance is sailing to Broadway. Pirates! The Penzance Musical is a reimagined version of the 1879 operetta that begins previews on April 4 ahead of an April 24 opening at the Todd Haimes Theatre. The classic tale is brought to life by director Scott Ellis and Warren Carlyle choreographs with a hilarious new adaptation by Rupert Holmes. It is led by Ramin Karimloo, Jinkx Monsoon, David Hyde Pierce, Nicholas Barasch, Preston Truman Boyd and Samantha Williams. 

What makes this Pirates! different? In this version, the 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. 

"This has been in the works for seven years," Pierce told BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge. "At the time [of the first reading] it was just an experimental idea of maybe flavoring it with New Orleans for historical reasons. Then each successive iteration got more and more fulfilled and more New Orleansian. The further they went in that direction the further it became its own organism. It really works."

"This new adaptation will have everything you love about The Pirates of Penzance," added Monsoon. "And say you are completely new to it...  it's very welcoming to new audience members."

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