RuPaul’s Drag Race favourite Jinkx Monsoon has announced her next big role – and it’s time to swash your buckles!
Season five and All Stars 7 winner Monsoon, who in August shared the tale of how the Pope once “screwed her over”, is set to return to the bright lights of Broadway.
Monsoon broke box-office records last year when she became the first drag queen to take on the role of Matron “Mama” Morton in the Broadway adaptation of Chicago and also starred as Audrey in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors.
Now, it has been announced that she will star in a Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera, The Pirates of Penzance, retitled as Pirates! The Penzance Musical.
Monsoon, who will play pirate maid Ruth, joins Canadian actor and singer Ramin Karimloo and Frasier and When We Rise star David Hyde Pierce in the production.
Doctor Who villain Monsoon took to social media to confirm the news, writing, “It’s a pirate’s life for Jinkx.”
Fans swamped her post, most predicting she could be in line for a prestigious Tony Award.
Karimloo is set to play the Pirate King, while Pierce will be the very model of a modern major-general.
Choreographed by Hello Dolly! and Kiss Me Kate‘s Warren Carlyle, the comedy romp will be set in New Orleans.
The show will be directed Scott Ellis, whose credits range from Hung, Desperate Housewives and Weeds on TV, to stage productions of Tootsie and The Elephant Man. “What you’re going to see is a musical that celebrates the genius of Gilbert and Sullivan while taking some joyous liberties,” he said.
“New Orleans was a big centre for piracy. So, since our pirates have now landed [there], we’re adapting the title to be both familiar and fresh.”
Pirates! is due to run at the Todd Haimes Theatre, West 42nd Street, from 4 April to 22 June.
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