A new kind of pirate is docking on Broadway. Roundabout Theatre Company will bring a new version of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic, The Pirates of Penzance, back to Broadway in 2025. Pirates! The Penzance Musical is a reimagined version of the 1879 operetta.
The Pirates of Penzance was last seen on Broadway in 1981- a production that won three Tony Awards. The classic story epitomizes the Victorian-era operetta and explores themes of duty, love, and honor, coupled with parody of class structures and authority. As a cornerstone of light opera, The Pirates of Penzance has solidified its place as a timeless work that bridges the gap between classical and contemporary musical theater.
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.
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.
Borrowing “We’re All From Someplace Else” from Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore for the finale, Pirates! ends its tale with a generous plea for tolerance – swashbucklers are people too, after all – and having built up enough good well over the previous couple of hours the underlying earnestness at show’s end seems absolutely deserved.
Sporting mutton-chop whiskers in his dual role as Gilbert playing Major-General Stanley, David Hyde Pierce rattles through several patter numbers with perfect assurance and depicts the retired soldier with a befuddled dignity droll to behold. Robust and roguish as the Pirate King, Ramin Karimloo shows off his magnificent baritone and the gleaming chest from which it comes. Genial as Sullivan, Preston Truman Boyd amiably appears as the Sergeant of Police whose midnight gambols with the Stanley daughters and his tap-happy flatfoot platoon are highlights of the second act. Nicholas Barasch makes a perfectly ingenuous Frederic and sings the role handsomely opposite Samantha Williams’ flirtatious Mabel. Jinkx Monsoon ably cuts her good-natured Ruth along the mildly goofy lines of Andrea Martin, but gets stuck with one of Katisha’s arias from The Mikado reworked as a not so hot torch song; better had they simply given Ruth a new costume for act two. The members of the ensemble perform with fresh voices and considerable vitality. Finally, any child who witnesses David Hyde Pierce reel off “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General,” backed by the ensemble cheerily waving blue and white flags during the choruses, will either wake up screaming some night or will recall this sequence for the rest of their lives. Family audiences: Be warned.
| 1879 | Regional (UK) |
World Premiere Regional (UK) |
| 1879 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 1880 | New York |
Unknown New York |
| 1880 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 1884 | West End |
London Revival West End |
| 1900 | Broadway |
Unknown Broadway |
| 1912 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1918 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1926 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1927 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1931 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1933 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1934 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1934 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1935 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1936 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1936 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1939 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1940 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1942 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1944 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1946 | Broadway |
Unknown Broadway |
| 1948 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1949 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1951 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1952 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1955 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1961 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 1976 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1977 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 1979 | Off-Broadway |
LOOM Revival Off-Broadway |
| 1981 | Broadway |
Broadway Transfer Broadway |
| 1981 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
| 1982 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 1985 | Off-Off-Broadway |
Off-Off-Broadway Revival Off-Off-Broadway |
| 2006 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2006 | East Haddam, CT (Regional) |
Goodspeed Production East Haddam, CT (Regional) |
| 2007 | Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
Paper Mill Production Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
| 2017 | West End |
English National Opera Revival West End |
| 2024 | West End |
West End |
| 2025 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Adaptation | Rupert Holmes |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Warren Carlyle |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical | Nicholas Barasch |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Fight Choreography | Rick Sordelet |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Fight Choreography | Christian Kelly-Sordelet |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Joseph Joubert |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Daryl Waters |
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISINTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | Jinkx Monsoon |
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | Ramin Karimloo |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Warren Carlyle |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Joseph Joubert |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Daryl Waters |
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