Jinkx Monsoon Back on Broadway in Updated 'Pirates' Next April
Deadline writes that "RuPaul Drag Race" star Jinkx Monsoon is joining the cast of the upcoming, reimagined take on Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "The Pirates of Penzance," scheduled for next April. She plays Ruth and joins the previously announced Ramin Karimloo (as The Pirate King) and David Hyde Pierce (in dual roles of W.S. Gilbert and The Major General).
Monsoon is a two-time "RuPaul's Drag Race" winner, who made an auspicious Broadway debut in 2023 as Matron "Mama" Morton in "Chicago." In 2024, she played Audrey in the Off Broadway production of "Little Shop of Horrors "opposite Corbin Bleu. Other credits include a "Doctor Who" debut as the new villain Maestro. She is currently touring with BenDeLaCreme "The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show."
"Retitled 'Pirates! The Penzance Musical,' Rupert Holmes' jazzy New Orleans-style reinterpretation of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic is being staged by the Roundabout Theatre Company with previews beginning Friday, April 4, 2025, at Roundabout's Todd Haimes Theatre. The official opening night is set for Thursday, April 24, and the limited engagement will run through June 22.
Additional leads are Nicholas Barasch as Frederic, Preston Truman Boyd as Sullivan/Police Sergeant, and Samantha Williams as Mabel Stanley. They will be supported by Kelly Belarmino, Maria Briggs, Eddie Cooper, Cicily Daniels, Ninako Donville, Alex Dorf, Rick Faugno, Niani Feelings, Tommy Gedrich, Alex Gibson, Afra Hines, Dan Hoy, Ryo Kamibayashi, Tatiana Lofton, Nathan Lucrezio, Shina Ann Morris, Cooper Stanton, and Bronwyn Tarboton.
Playbill.com adds that "Rupert Holmes ('The Mystery of Edwin Drood') has adapted W.S. Gilbert's original libretto, shifting the action to the legendary port city New Orleans. While the score by Arthur Sullivan remains intact, a new set of orchestrations with Caribbean and French Quarter influences have been written by Joseph Joubert and Daryl Waters, with Joubert serving as the production's music director. Scott Ellis will direct and Warren Carlyle will choreograph."
"The Pirates of Penzance" was the only Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to have its premiere in the United States in New York City in 1879. They did so because their previous operetta "HMS Pinafore" was not eligible for US copyright protection and was mounted by hundreds of American companies who took liberties with their text and did not pay any royalties. The successful mounting of "Penzance" in America prevented that from happening a second time.
Its most notable US revival was when Joseph Papp and the Public Theater produced a version that was a hit when it was performed in Central Park as part of the Public's Shakespeare in the Park 1980 series of summertime shows. It transferred to Broadway and ran for 787 performances. It starred Linda Ronstadt, Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, and Patricia Routledge (Central Park) and Estelle Parsons (Broadway). It was the longest-running Gilbert and Sullivan show in history, and was filmed in 1983 with the Broadway principals with Angela Lansbury replacing Parsons as Ruth.