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Ahoy! a swashbuckling new musical is premiering at sea this month – or rather, on board the Waterfront Barge Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Royal Pyrate boasts slamming acoustic music and sharp, clever lyrics by Jason Landon Marcus, with a book by Chas Libretto. It takes up the exploits of “Black Sam” Bellamy, a sailor-turned-pirate who made headlines during a short, eventful career along the U.S. East Coast and the Caribbean in the early 1700s. His piratical successes, his generosity with his crew and others, and his relationship with a Wellfleet woman called Goody Hallet form the meat of this rough-and-ready treasure.
The production checks pretty much all the boxes: a super cast with great voices; a talented acoustic band, some of whose members also play supporting roles; catchy, sinewy songs in arrangements that circle a variety of styles, from sea shanty and folk to pop to acoustic punk; period costumes that look real and delightfully cartoonish at the same time; a rollicking sense of humor; and ebullient staging by Emily Abrams.
Danny Hayward, a Broadway-style tenor (think Darren Criss with a flicker of Freddie Mercury) plays Sam Bellamy. His love story with Goody Hallet (here with the given name Mary) takes a tragic twist and forms the show’s emotional heart. Not so much is known of Hallet, so the writers imagine the character as a strong-willed young woman with an ahead-of-her-time revolutionary spirit, inspiring others with calls to bring down the aristocracy and create a democracy with a song called “New World.”
That number has some uncomfortably prosy lyrics, a small flaw that most of the songs avoid. Anyway Maggie Likcani in the role is warmly convincing, whatever she sings, including Mary’s love duet with Sam (“Fight for You”) and especially the spellbinding pop ballad “Never to Come Home.” In the latter, Marcus, the composer and lyricist who also plays in the band, accompanies her alone on acoustic guitar.
Handily for the show’s creators, Bellamy’s career also intersected with that of the strong-arming buccaneer Edward “Blackbeard” Teach. Baritone Korie Lee Blossey commands the stage both as Blackbeard and as Treat, the minister who rules Mary’s town of Wellfleet with a corrupt iron fist. Blossey would have no trouble stealing a lesser production; in this cast he’s the most physically imposing among equals.
Lauren Molina delivers a firecracker performance in the fourth primary role, Paulsgrave (Paul) Williams, a colleague and companion of Bellamy’s who funded and accompanied him to sea. The show makes this character a kind of narrator/commentator as well as a participant in the story. Molina’s furious energy and total embodiment make Paul all at once best friend, spitfire, and comic foil. With a sharp tongue and a huge vocal range Molina fires up every number she’s part of.
Number after number and bit after bit hit their targets. Accordionist Charley Layton hilariously continues playing his instrument while under terrifying duress in a secondary role; Paul urges Sam to give up on trying to return to Mary and instead abscond to the other side of the world to escape the law and start afresh (“Madagascar”). Sam gets an unpleasant surprise about precisely how Blackbeard plans for the gang to steal treasure from a Spanish fort (“The Weapon”).
The show’s weak element is, fortunately, also its least important: the plot. Exactly what’s happening isn’t always clear. Sam Bellamy’s expansive biography offers a lot of material to dramatize, but it’s also shrouded in unknowns, with many gaps and guesses in the historical record. The creators understandably paint a wide canvas, filling in details while covering a lot of ground, and the storyline gets somewhat confusing. Additionally, they insert political material that not only looks anachronistically ahead to the revolutionary era later in the 18th century but also comments obliquely on the U.S.’s current slide into autocracy. This doesn’t always fit neatly into the storytelling.
But those are just small swells in a smooth-sailing voyage that cruises on cat-o-nine-tails storytelling, crackling performances, inspired (and mostly merry) music, and barrels of pure fun. It runs Saturday and Sunday evenings through the end of August 2025. Get tickets and info online.
