Interview: Kat Cartusciello of HARD TACK at Breaking Sound NYC

This Thursday night is no exception and just such a new musical will have a preview as part of the Breaking Sound NYC series.

Breaking Sound NYC specialize in showcasing the hottest emerging artists from premium locations in and around New York.  It was founded with the belief that artists deserve more. · Breaking Sound is kinda like your favorite Discover Weekly playlist but in real life.

“Hard Tack” is a boldly adventurous, seafaring musical inspired by the true lives of legendary pirates Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and Jack Rackham. Following the audacious capture of *The William*, life aboard Cap’n Jack’s ship proves far less tranquil than the open sea might suggest. Beneath the salt and bravado lie carefully guarded truths: Mark was born Mary; Andy is, in fact, Anne; and affections aboard ship are as fluid and unpredictable as the tides themselves—entangling Anne and Mark, Mark and Jack, and Jack and Anne in ways both exhilarating and perilous.

Composer Kat Cartusciello sat with us to discuss the upcoming presentation:

Kat, "Hard Tack" is a swashbuckling pirate musical that unapologetically centers queer identity. What first drew you to these historical figures, and how did you discover the queerness already embedded in their real-life stories?

There are so many delicious stories about Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham and so many delicious stories about Anne Bonny and Mary Read - it was so easy and fun to imagine that perhaps it all could be true and why not all at once? As writers, Jessie and I are drawn to the truth of historical figures, and it’s always thrilling to uncover the queerness. It is everywhere and it reminds us that we were never alone and never wrong.

“Pirate stories are often about freedom—on the seas, outside the law. How does that idea of freedom intersect with queerness and polyamory in Hard Tack, both thematically and musically?”

You’ve hit the nail on the head for why polyamory felt so right in this particular setting! It’s the freedom of piracy - the living outside of conventional rules and laws. Being polyamorous often feels like sailing uncharted seas, coming up with your own ideas of what is fair and right and good and liberating. Why shouldn’t we get to decide all these things for ourselves?

“Your score blends ska-inspired Celtic rock with musical-theatre storytelling. How did you arrive at that sound, and what does it allow you to express that a more traditional Broadway palette might not?”

I didn’t want to write a score that was just “sea shanties,” or what you would expect sea shanties to sound like. Nothing against them, I love a good shanty! But I think they should be used wisely. Blending these other genres helped me expand the musical palette and give everything an edge and a grittiness that I think helps deepen the narrative.

This week’s preview is part of the Breaking Sound NYC series, which highlights emerging voices. What does it mean to share this very personal, very queer work in a space designed for discovery and experimentation?

It’s always especially thrilling and terrifying to share work that hits close to our lived experiences. There’s an intimacy that comes from sharing early drafts of our work and we’re so grateful to be a part of Breaking Sound as part of our journey. We hope it will be a rip-roarin’, swashbucklin’, fun, gay ol’ time for everyone involved!

If audiences come in expecting sword fights and sea shanties, what do you most hope surprises them—about the story, the characters, or about themselves—by the time the final note hits?

I hope they are most surprised that the people doing the sword fighting are the women and non-binary characters, while the male characters have the romantic ballads and moments of pining for their lovers. I also hope the audience find themselves rooting for the three leads to end up together, rather than what you might expect in a typical love triangle, where the point person has to choose between one of their romantic partners.

Anything else you’d like to add?                               

Make yer own rules and be happy!

Composer: Kat Cartusciello / Lyricist:  Jessie Field

Such personal reckonings unfold amid tempests, mutiny, and mounting intrigue, as desire and danger rise in tandem. As passions intensify, so too does the scrutiny of a world eager to enforce its rigid norms. Can Jack, Anne, and Mark elude both the authorities who hunt them and the expectations that confine them? Will they claim lives of freedom on their own terms—or risk everything in the attempt? If even pirates are denied the right to live authentically, what hope remains for the rest of us?

Set to a propulsive ska-inflected Celtic rock score, **Hard Tack** is a theatrical meditation on gender, sexuality, and polyamory, grounded in a vividly imagined historical milieu. The term “hard tack” refers to a sharp nautical turn—an apt metaphor for a crew perpetually adjusting course. In Hard Tack, love and identity are not fixed points but living forces, shaped by circumstance, courage, and the willingness to change direction when the wind demands it. The musical embraces the elasticity of the self, asserting that transformation is not betrayal, but survival.

Written by two queer, polyamorous creators with a scholarly affection for history and an unapologetic delight in swordplay and spectacle, Hard Tack invites audiences to embark on a swashbuckling voyage of self-discovery. By turns witty, romantic, and defiant, the journey promises both pleasure and provocation—an evening that stirs the blood, sharpens the mind, and leaves one contemplating the many ways we might all live more freely, if only we dared to change course.

Where: PinkFROG Café (as part of the Breaking Sound series)

221 N 9th Street

Brooklyn, NY 

When: December 18th, doors open at 6:30pm, the "Hard Tack" set begins at 9:25

Show Title: Hard Tack

Writers: Jessie Field & Kat Cartusciello

Cast: 

Jack Rackham - Vaheed Talebian

Anne Bonny - Iris Rodrigo

Mary/Mark Read - Dani Koenig

Feathers - James Martinez Salem

Tommy Brown - Kat Cartusciello

MD/Pianist - Alex Parrish

Violin - Theresa Gardner

Guitar - James Powers

Bass - Andrea Tache Lopez

Drums - Amanda Lee Morrill

Link to purchase Tickets: Here (Guests should select "Kat Cartusciello" when purchasing their tickets)