MUSICAL: The Pirate Queen

Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, the masterful team who brought the world such soaring musicals as Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, have written a new musical: The Pirate Queen. The story, a historical drama, is touching and desperate and sweet, and while the show opened to generally bad reviews and sales, the music is alright. I say "alright" because, although I have grown to like it very much through repeated listenings, I was quite disappointed at first. It seems as though Boublil and Schonberg are attempting to be Andrew Lloyd Webber in their use of electric guitars, when, in reality, the reason why their other projects have been so impressively successful is in their ability to utilize a classical orchestra, and especially violins. No one can forget the strikingly poignant melodies of Les Miserables - why not use a formula that has been proven a triumph? Of course, the music of a show is only icing - it is the story that really matters, even though some would argue otherwise. For example, the music from Wicked, a show whose story is based around the life of the Wicked Witch of the West, held no beauty for me until I knew the story. It has since become a personal favorite.(Interestingly, the woman who played Elphaba in the production of Wicked which my sister and cousins saw in Denver is the star of Pirate - Stephanie J. Block) The Pirate Queen has a good story,an exceptionally good story, actually. One that is perfectly formulated to the emotions of an audience - but it is not put together especially well.
Nonetheless, I like the music, particularly "Woman" and "I'll be There".