[moe.ron]

The duo that made Les Mis and Miss Saigon will have a new musical comming out next year. Rumors have Colm Wilkinson playing the lead role. Chicago will host the pre-Broadway run.
Here is the article (we need more pirates musicals. I love pirates):

'Pirate Queen' to dock here for pre-Broadway run

November 4, 2005

BY MISHA DAVENPORT Staff Reporter

An Irish pirate queen will hoist her sails in a Chicago palace in 2006.

The Cadillac Palace Theatre will be the only pre-Broadway stop for "The Pirate Queen," the latest musical from "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon" creators Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. The show will have a limited run Oct. 3-Nov. 26, 2006, before heading to Broadway for the 2006-07 season.

Steppenwolf's Frank Galati will direct. The musical is being produced by Moya Doherty and John McColgan, the duo behind the wildly successful "Riverdance."

Though Dublin was considered for the pre-Broadway engagement, Boublil says the creative team decided on Chicago after Galati (who directed the Broadway musical "Ragtime" and won a Tony Award for "The Grapes of Wrath") and American lyricist John Dempsey came on board.

"We knew the show had to open in America," Boublil said at a news conference Thursday. "Chicago was the obvious choice because the city has always been very kind to us. Both 'Les Miserables' and 'Miss Saigon' enjoyed several full engagements here."

"And Chicago does have a lot of Irish," Doherty added.

Group tickets went on sale Thursday. Individual tickets will be available in February. Casting for the show is under way, and producers will announce stars by the end of the year.

The musical is based on the life of Grace O'Malley, a legendary Irish chieftain and pirate who sailed the 16th century seas and took on England's Queen Elizabeth I.

Traditional Irish instruments will be incorporated into the score. But choreographer Mark Dendy says theatergoers shouldn't anticipate a sequel to "Riverdance."

"You can expect some traditional Irish steps, but not a front line like in 'Riverdance,' " Dendy said.

It's a bit of a departure for French playwright-lyricist Boublil and composer Schonberg. Their previous works were set in France and in the former French colony of Vietnam.

"I am French, Jewish and Hungarian and have nothing to do with the Irish or Irish music," Schonberg said matter-of-factly. "But I also didn't live in 18th century France before writing 'Les Miserables,' and I didn't travel to Vietnam before 'Miss Saigon.' "

Boublil added, "The French and the Irish both had a violent history. We share a common passion with regard to forging our own national identity."

As for how their "Queen" will fare sailing Broadway's dangerous waters, both Boublil and Schonberg are cautiously optimistic.

"So much of Broadway musical theater is about other entertainment at the moment," Boublil said. "John Lennon, Queen, ABBA -- hopefully there is room for the kind of show we like to write."