Broadway’s Pirates! The Penzance Musical Sets Sail with Jazz, Joy, and Jinkx

By Judith Davis

For a good time, take a moment and go out to see Pirates! The Penzance Musical. The show opened on April 24, 2025, and will be running until July 27, 2025. Tony winner Rupert Holmes has adapted W.S. Gilbert’s original libretto, shifting the action to the legendary port city of New Orleans.

Ramin Karimloo, Jinkx Monsoon, and David Hyde Pierce lead the high-stepping Broadway cast in Pirates! The Penzance Musical, this rollicking, rousing new Roundabout reimagining of The Pirates of Penzance.

The show is electric and gives the audience the opportunity to feel as though they are a part of the performances.

The updated musical reconceptualizes Gilbert & Sullivan’s 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 a tongue-twisting Major General, and a rabble-rousing Pirate King, coupled with romance, swordplay, wordplay, and off-the-charts fun, there’s a shipload of musical comedy delights on board to dazzle first-timers and G&S aficionados alike.

Audiences are sure to leave the theater elated and ready to tell all about the exuberant experience they had. The show is now playing at the Todd Haimes Theatre.