Denis Staunton reviews The Pirate Queen in Chicago and finds it presents a certain one-dimensional view of the conflict between Britain and Ireland

The Pirate Queen, Cadillac Palace Theatre, Chicago

The Chicago theatre was alive with excitement and more than a little anxiety on Sunday, as an expensively dressed audience filed into the Versaille revival-style auditorium for the world premiere of The Pirate Queen, a lavish new musical about the life of 16th-century Irish rebel Grace O'Malley.

A collaboration between Riverdance producers John McColgan and Moya Doherty and Les Misérables creators Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the musical is reputed to have cost almost $20 million (€15 million) to stage. Its month-long run in Chicago is a warm-up before the show opens on Broadway next April, offering the producers a chance to gauge audience reaction and make any changes they think necessary.

The show is sung magnificently, costumed sumptuously and choreographed brilliantly with some memorable songs and thrilling dance sequences. But poor plotting and shallow characterisation leave it lacking a powerful, emotional impact.

The show opens with the young Grace (Stephanie Block) pleading with her father Dubhdara (Jeff McCarthy) to be allowed to sail with him to fight the English, who are oppressing and exploiting the Irish and dishonouring their women. When Dubhdara refuses, Grace slips on board disguised as a boy and wins the confidence of the crew by taking down a sail in the middle of a storm and saving the ship.

Clan politics oblige Grace to marry Donal (Marcus Chait), a philanderer, instead of her true love Tiernan (Hadley Fraser), but when her father dies and Donal proves a poor leader, Grace takes command of the fight against the English.

The action switches between the west of Ireland and the court of Queen Elizabeth I (Linda Balgord), who is surrounded by effeminate courtiers and is increasingly frustrated by her army's failure to capture Grace. However, Donal's treachery eventually leads to Grace's capture. She comes face to face with Elizabeth and the two women agree a deal that brings peace and a measure of justice to the people of Ireland.

The Pirate Queen is not meant to be a history lesson and the liberties it takes with the historical record would not present a problem but for the fact that the show's one-dimensional view of the conflict between Britain and Ireland help to rob the central characters of emotional depth and complexity.

The first-night reviews agreed that, although The Pirate Queen has all the ingredients of a successful Broadway show, it needs radical restructuring before it opens in New York.

"There's plenty of work to do and not a lot of time between this run and the scheduled Broadway engagement. Lame sword fights must be addressed and can certainly be fixed in time, and the show really could use at least one additional dance number. But the problems run deeper. Boosting superficial elements can help shows that seek to be escapist entertainments, but the more ambitious Pirate Queen is in trouble unless its love story can find true romance," wrote Steven Oxman in Variety.

The Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones agreed that The Pirate Queen is not yet shipshape, but argued that the show's fundamental strengths may be enough to ensure success if the right changes are made.

"These are brilliant, world-class artists - if they can stare down their own defenses - and they have things on their side. Most notable is Stephanie Block's central performance - a gutsy, powerful, honest piece of acting that will land her a Tony nomination, regardless of what happens to the show. And there are hints of a worthy score . . . But when the overall theatrical environment is so lacking in veracity or subtlety, it makes the score difficult to judge, as one cannot find an emotional pathway into the songs," he wrote.

The first-night audience gave The Pirate Queen a standing ovation and preview audiences were enthusiastic. Innovative marketing techniques have helped to sell $7 million (€5.5 million) in advance tickets for the Broadway run and other shows have overcome mixed reviews to become massive hits.

Doherty and McColgan are serious and ambitious producers, and are determined to create a show that is both commercially successful and a substantial piece of musical theatre. The Pirate Queen has all the elements of success; its producers have just five months to put them all together.