The Man whose Mother was a Pirate - The Musical
The Welsh Dragon Bar, 10a Cambridge Terrace, Wellington
06/03/2024 - 07/03/2024
Production Details
Nino Raphael – Composer & Lyricist
James Ladanyi– Creative Producer
Muz-act Theatre Co
A brand-new musical, based on Margaret Mahy’s much-beloved kids picture book. This production as a part of the 2024 NZ Fringe Festival is the first development season of the work, focussing on workshopping Nino Raphael’s composition of new music and lyrics for Mahy’s story. Ultimately, this is the first step in working towards creating a full-length show in the future, which will feature an orchestra, full cast, and a children’s ensemble.
The story?
A radical pirate mother, and her no-nonsense son. These two characters have never seen eye-to-eye, but when they take a well-needed trip to the seaside, things start to change…
A heartfelt tale of family ties, shaking society’s shackle of regulations that make us conform, the responsibilities of parents, and finding your true calling.
It is about the worries children and young adults have with leaving the nest and carving out a path for themselves. I want to put on a musical with spectacle, show tunes and sea-shanties that will involve the audience to sing along to help provoke characters and the story.
Season Details:
March 6th & 7th ~ 6pm at The Welsh Dragon Bar
Tickets $10
Taipuhi King
Hilary Norris
Adam Herbert
Ian Harcourt
Theatre , Musical ,
50 mins
Raise a glass of rum and toast to its future
Review by Maryanne Cathro 07th Mar 2024
What an exciting honour to be present at the small beginning of something big. This development season of Nino Raphael’s musical version of Margaret Mahy’s The Man whose Mother Was a Pirate I am pretty sure is going to be one of those moments. Producer James Ladanyi says as much, and in a not-too-distant future who knows, perhaps we’ll be watching this in BATS or the Hannah, both mere metres away, in its fully formed state before setting off for a world tour. Stranger things have happened in Wellington!
The Sea is a big place. The Welsh Dragon Bar not so much. But its compact quirkiness feels enough like the quarters of a pirate ship to lend an appropriate atmosphere. The choice of venue is aligned with the regular meetings of the Sea Shanty Society. A huge fan of this musical genre and its practitioners, I nevertheless do not make the connection between sea shanties and the story until I get chatting to the person beside me.
This is a very simple show, more of a slightly dramatized reading/sing through. Its purpose is to test the material so far on a real audience. It’s great. There are wonderful singalong shanties led by Nino in his ebullient style on concertina, guitar or piano. It does occur to me that sitting in two sets of three rows facing each other across the room is also like the choir stalls in a cathedral, and we merrily play into the setting.
The bones of this show are in the songs that carry the story, with echoes of Gilbert and Sullivan at times, a little Kander and Ebb in others. But only the faintest echoes – the music feels at once traditional but also original. Sung dialogue, repeat choruses that we can join in on … so many great elements.
I know Mahy’s book is well loved indeed, and it has been put on stage many times in many ways. Nino was inspired by seeing Tim Minchin’s Matilda in the West End – such a successful adaptation of a treasured children’s book. Tim is in town this week too. A great reminder that Down Under we have world-class talent making an international impact.
This review is a marker that in March 2024, in a pub converted from a public convenience, this show began. Raise a glass of rum and toast to its future.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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