THE ROYAL PYRATE Musical To Premiere At Waterfront Barge Museum
Running August 16-31.
By: A.A. Cristi Jun. 17, 2025
Polyphemus Productions will present the World Premiere of The Royal Pyrate, a new musical with Book by Chas LiBretto and Music & Lyrics by Jason Landon Marcus and (Pulitzer Prize nominees for Cyclops: A Rock Opera) at the historic Waterfront Barge Museum (290 Conover St, Brooklyn, NY 11231), August 16-31. Director and cast to be announced,
The Royal Pyrate is a new musical that reimagines the 300 year-old love story between Bellamy and Mary Hallet, a woman so ahead of her time she is accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. Based on the real life pirate Black Sam Bellamy, whose flagship 'The Whydah' sank off the coast of Cape Cod in 1717, only to be uncovered by explorer Barry Clifford in 1980.
Originally developed as part of Ars Nova's inaugural Uncharted musical theater writing group, the musical was further developed at the Almanack Arts Colony on Nantucket and the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Performances are scheduled on:
Saturday, August 16 at 7pm
Sunday, August 17 at 7pm
Saturday, August 23 at 7pm
Sunday, August 24 at 7pm
Saturday, August 30 at 7pm
Sunday, August 31 at 7pm
Tickets ($35-$65) are available for advance purchase at https://events.humanitix.com/theroyalpyrate. The performance will run approximately 100 minutes, with no intermission.
Chas LiBretto (Book) is a Brooklyn based playwright and novelist. He received his playwriting MFA at Columbia University, where he studied under Lynn Nottage, David Henry Hwang, and Charles Mee. He was mentored by Oskar Eustis while writing The Laodamiad, a play inspired by a lost, fragmentary work of Euripides. As a playwright, his work has been developed around the country, including at Roundabout Theatre, Signature Theatre, Ars Nova, Lincoln Center, The Tank, 59E59, Less Than Rent, Almanack Arts Colony, and the Getty Villa. He is a Harvard University/Center for Hellenic Studies Fellow, a Paideia Institute Brightheart Fellow, a Pulitzer nominee (Cyclops: A Rock Opera w/ Jason Landon Marcus) and has won grants from the Puffin Institute and the NYU Classics Everywhere Initiative. Recent work includes Poisonville (Less Than Rent/59E59), Song of Rage (Play Date at Pete's), Melville on the Shore (developed at the Almanack Arts Colony on Nantucket last summer), and The Royal Pyrate, a new musical developed and performed at Almanack Arts Colony on Nantucket and at the Waterfront Barge Museum Brooklyn in 2024. In 2026, his play Melville on the Shore will have its world premiere as part of the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket's 70th season and he will finish the third book in a trilogy of novels about 12th century poets in residence at Le Porte Pointe in Noyers, France.
www.chaslibretto.com
Jason Landon Marcus (Music & Lyrics) is a Pulitzer nominated composer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He has an MA in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research and has composed music and written lyrics for four original musicals, including The Royal Pyrate (Ars Nova, Almanack Arts, coming to a barge near you), The Bacchae (Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, University of Bristol), Sally May (a Southern rendition of Oscar Wilde's Salome) and Cyclops: A Rock Opera (Pasadena Playhouse, The Tank NYC). Cyclops: A Rock Opera received a nomination for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2012. Jason has composed music for "American Horror Story" and is currently working with on a full-length feature film entitled Take Us To Your Santa. When he's not composing or writing, Jason performs in a rock band called Merman. Their unique "aquadelic" sound can be heard in various venues across the Eastern seaboard.
www.jlandonmarcus.com
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