Tony winner David Hyde Pierce and entertainment sensation Jinkx Monsoon are setting sail for Broadway this spring, anchoring at The Roundabout’s Todd Haimes Theatre in Pirates! The Penzance Musical. This fresh reimagining of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Pirates of Penzance centers on a band of pirates and their encounters. David Hyde Pierce steps into the role of The (Modern) Major General, delivering one of the theater’s most legendary patter songs, while Monsoon plays the role of Ruth, a hilarious pirate maid of sorts. Entertainment journalist Frank DiLella of Spectrum News NY1 caught up with Hyde Pierce and Monsoon during a break from rehearsals to talk about reintroducing this 146-year-old classic to 2025 audiences. Seafarers, get ready!
Jinkx, Pirates! The Penzance Musical is a new take on The Pirates of Penzance … set in New Orleans?
JINKX MONSOON: When Gilbert and Sullivan wrote and premiered Pirates of Penzance in the 1800s, they had written and premiered H.M.S. Pinafore and never got a license or a copyright on it, so people ripped off their work. So, in an effort to not let that happen again, they came to America, did productions of The Pirates of Penzance, workshopped it, and then premiered it in London after securing a copyright in America. They were able to make money off of Pirates. That actually happened. Now we’re taking that moment of history and posing a “What if?” question. What if they had chosen to perform it first in New Orleans and beat anyone else to the punch before anyone could rip them off? And, essentially, Gilbert and Sullivan are characters in our musical. They set up that they’re here to premiere The Pirates of Penzance, but they’re going to call it The Pirates of New Orleans because they’re premiering it in New Orleans. It’s really well explained by David Hyde Pierce at the beginning of our musical.
David, how familiar were you with Pirates?
DAVID HYDE PIERCE: I got to New York when they were doing it at The Public Theater. I saw the movie with Kevin Kline. I was just counting up before we spoke: Since I was in summer camp, where they would do a Gilbert and Sullivan show every year since we were founded in 1912 — that was the tradition — I’ve been involved with eight different Gilbert and Sullivan shows. I’m really steeped in this stuff, and I love it.
Jinkx, were you familiar with Pirates prior to signing on for this production?
JM: I’ve never seen the film. I’ll watch the film at some point. If I’ve seen the show already, or if there’s dramaturgy, I might watch the movie to see something before performing it. I want to know what the fans of the piece are looking for. But since we’re creating something from the ground up, I want to let my imagination roam free a little longer before I absorb what already exists.
I recently got a tour of the set from your set designer, David Rockwell. It’s fabulous, with a lot of New Orleans flair!
JM: It’s very old-school Broadway. Everything is going to be painted flats. Old-worldly, vaudeville, classic operetta feel, even though what we’re doing is a bona fide musical. We’re nodding at the history of what was “musicals” before musicals. Our show is definitely a musical.
David Hyde Pierce, you’ve never played The Major General, but I feel like you were born to play this role. This is a match made in heaven.
DHP: This is a well cast show top to bottom, side to side — and that doesn’t just mean the principals. The ensemble in this show, they’re ridiculous. They can dance and sing anything. They’re really funny actors. For Scott Ellis, our director, and Warren Carlyle, our choreographer, it was important to both of them that our ensemble was not just a park-and-bark type of chorus. I’m really happy to be playing this part.
You get one of the great patter songs written for the theater. How’s that coming along?
DHP: It’s hard to talk about the song. It’s a little like Los Angeles traffic: As soon as you say “Oh, the traffic is good today,” immediately it stops, and you’re stuck for seven hours. So, for me to say it’s going well, that dooms me. [Laughs.] It’s a song I love. I can’t wait to share it with an audience. It’s a one-of-a-kind patter song in musical theater — possibly an early version of rap? I don’t know. I look forward to it. And I keep working on it and experimenting with it.
Jinkx, with playing the character of Ruth, you’re following in the footsteps — in recent years — of Estelle Parsons, who played the role on stage in New York in the 1980s, and Angela Lansbury, who did the film with Kevin Kline.
JM: What I love about this role is, I knew that these were the kind of roles that I was born to play. These were the roles that I would be able to bring a lot to. And when there is a role that gets to be nuanced and have layers and is also there to make you laugh, that’s exciting for me. Because those are the characters that get to really kind of invent themselves. She’s not quite a pirate and she’s not quite like the rest of the women in the show.
Can we talk about the sound for this production? I understand it’s not the traditional Gilbert and Sullivan sound. It’s going to be jazzed up a bit?
JM: It will be jazzed up more than a tad. I saw another show recently and it was incredible — it was Sunset Blvd. I’m a huge Sunset Boulevard fan. I listen to the score a lot — I listen to both Patti [LuPone] and Glenn [Close] sing it. I love the story. I love the film. The source material. So I went to Sunset Blvd., the revival, and there were songs missing and it was revamped and reimagined, and I loved it. Because we have to do that a little bit to keep these stories relevant, right? I think we’re doing something similar: taking incredible music and source material and finding new ways to welcome new audience members in so they can enjoy it.
David, how does it feel, introducing Gilbert and Sullivan to a new audience?
DHP: When I was growing up, Gilbert and Sullivan were in the culture in a way that has pretty much evaporated. Although, I will say, when I hosted Saturday Night Live during the Frasier years, the opening song they wrote for me was a Gilbert and Sullivan parody song with the guys in sailor suits. I’ve seen how styles and composers and performers start to evaporate and fade into the background. I think in that Wilford Leach production of Pirates in the ’80s it was the same thing: They said, “This stuff is great! Let’s give it a new spark to bring it to a new audience.” And I think that’s what we’re trying to do with this. The fundamental original show is there for people to see — the most beautiful music and tunes, some slightly or largely reinterpreted. But you get the story, comedy, and amazing characters. I hope our show has people tapping and singing their way out of the theatre, but also thinking, “Who are these people, Gilbert and Sullivan?”
Jinkx, a year ago you performed a one-person version of “One Day More” from Les Misérables at the MCC Theater’s benefit MISCAST. You ended the performance waving the Pride flag. You’ve been a beacon and a leader for the LGBTQIA+ community. What’s your message for your community as you ready for your big return to the stage?
JM: If I had a platform now to say anything, I would say: Yes, this is a dark time, and yes, this is scary, but I know we will win because we already have. We have won this fight over and over, and every marginalized community who had to fight this fight has won this fight. We’ve won this fight before. The women’s suffrage movement won. The Civil Rights Movement took steps forward. We’re constantly fighting for civil rights. We take steps forward with these battles. I don’t think we should be battling at this point; I think we should be able to copy and paste with what we’ve learned from past fights and be able to cut to the chase here. But here we are fighting again. I keep reminding myself there was a time when drag was illegal and yet we still found a way to do it. We have always found ways. I’ve had people to look up to because they found ways. I had John Cameron Mitchell, who made sure Hedwig and the Angry Inch was there. I saw there was some kind of future for performers like me. There was the Rocky Horror Show. I had lifelines all along the way. And if all I can do right now is be that lifeline for someone else, I’m happy to do that. My best plan for revenge is to keep succeeding despite everything. We can’t give up.
Header photo features David Hyde Pierce, Ramin Karimloo, and Jinkx Monsoon. Photo by Roland Fitz.