Latest news with #RaminKarimloo
Globe and Mail
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Ramin Karimloo returns to the Pirate King in Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Ramin Karimloo's first paycheque from his debut musical theatre acting job came with a surprise bonus: printed on the pay stub were the words, 'US Pirate King.' The confused young Canadian called his agent, and that's how he found out he'd not only been cast as a swashbuckling ensemble member in Pirates of Penzance, he was also the understudy for the lead. 'I said, 'Wait, that means they could put me on as Pirate King at any moment?'' Karimloo recalled. 'I don't want that pressure!' Karimloo got the cheque for that Regent's Park production of the classic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in 2001, shortly after moving to London. 'Ignorance was bliss. I didn't realize what a prestigious job that was,' the actor said, a bit wistfully. Both director Ian Talbot and Pirate King actor Gary Wilmot have since been named to the Order of the British Empire. And Karimloo? He's a big-name musical-theatre star. However, 'I've always said I would love to do Pirate King again,' he said. Karimloo, 46, finally has the opportunity to do so in a revamped version of the show, christened Pirates! The Penzance Musical, on Broadway this spring. On May 1, Pirates! received a Tony Award nomination for best Broadway revival. The day the nominees were announced, Karimloo spoke with The Globe and Mail about acting opposite David Hyde Pierce, travelling as an Iranian-Canadian and how to stay fit when your job involves shirtless sword fighting. You're excellent in Pirates! So sorry to hear you didn't earn your second Tony nomination for acting. I don't care about any of that stuff. When I was nominated before [for Jean Valjean in the revival of Les Misérables] I didn't even know I was nominated until my friend told me, and I didn't want to go to the Tony Awards. Are you one of those anti-awards people? I'm not anti-awards. I'm not anti-anything, but I grew up in Peterborough, Ont. When I dreamt of being an actor, I never thought about awards. It wasn't part of my culture. It's got to be about the work and nothing else. I'm only trying to be better than yesterday, every day. In interviews, your colleagues have been talking about how special the cast of Pirates! is, and how well you work together. Is that accurate? Some shows have highs and lows. This one doesn't. It sounds cliché, but it's the first time I've felt like everyone is a family, and everyone is having a blast. My kids [now 17 and 20] saw Pirates!, and they said they like it more than anything else I've ever done, because they were like, 'It's great to see you having so much fun.' I saw Pirates! at the tail end of your opening week, and was amazed at the energy level. The dancing is just phenomenal. I'm doing things I should not be doing at my age. It's brilliant. I said to [choreographer Warren Carlyle], 'If you had a magic wand to wave, what would you want me to do?' And then he made you try doing a backflip off a plank. Yeah. And every night I'm like, 'Let's see if this works.' I think back to my days in Peterborough. Just no fear of anything. We'd jump off bridges or do whatever. I was stupid and 16. Now I'm dumb and 46, but thankfully, it's worked out. Physical fitness is part of your brand, though, even if the backflip is new. When I started Pirates! rehearsals, I knew quickly I had to up my endurance, so I would get up early and do my weights because I enjoy that, but I added a 10K running program. I didn't want this show to wipe me out. You've also played Gleb in Anastasia and Nicky Arnstein in Funny Girl. Do you worry at all about being typecast as rogue because of your ethnic background? I don't think of my ethnicity because I never have, and it's funny how the world is now wanting to make being Iranian a talking point. What I do like is that I see more Iranians and Middle Easterns come up to me at stage door. They see a path for themselves, and that's great. Some Iranian-born Canadians have reported issues trying to enter the U.S. Have you run into any problems? No. We've never had any issues, and my mom just came to America. Usually when I come through, they see my Green Card and say, 'Welcome home.' I get more questions when I come back to Canada. But honestly, that stuff doesn't bother me. My brother's a Toronto cop. These people have to do their jobs. What jobs are next for you after Pirates closes on July 27? The day we finish our Sunday matinee, I go straight to the airport to do Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Japan. And then I want to take a little break. Any chance you'll be back in Canada to do a show anytime soon? I would love to, but I want it to be Canadian content. I don't want to come back to Toronto as Jean Valjean again. I have a script right now that's pretty great, but everything's still under wraps. You'll have to wait and see. This interview has been condensed and edited.
New York Post
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Pirates! The Penzance Musical' review: Hilarious high-seas hijinks with David Hyde Pierce
Theater review PIRATES! THE PENZANCE MUSICAL The title of 'Pirates! The Penzance Musical' is a loony one. What, exactly, is a Penzance musical? Don't give this sugar-coated, smile-a-second Broadway show the hook so fast, though. The only grunted 'arrrgh's come from the stage. Advertisement The slaphappy, reworked revival of 'The Pirates of Penzance,' which opened Thursday night at the Todd Haimes Theatre, has nothing to do with the coast of England. It shifts the absurd action some 2,800 nautical miles west to New Orleans, Louisiana. Leaving 'Penzance' on the marquee, I suppose, serves to remind audiences they're not seeing 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides — The Musical' or 'Captain Phillips Live!'. They're getting the same favorite old Gilbert and Sullivan songs, just with a French Quarter twist. The continental leap dusts off the 145-year-old operetta and gives it an energetic oomph of swing and ragtime music, and the stage is brightened up by hot-sauce pops of purple, yellow and fiery red. Advertisement Director Scott Ellis' boisterous romp is not groundbreaking in the way the Joseph Papp-produced 1980 revival was, but it has the same irreverent spirit — and perpetually ridiculous tale. 4 Nicholas Barasch, Ramin Karimloo and Jinkx Monsoon star in 'Pirates! The Penzance Musical' on Broadway. Joan Marcus There's naive pirate apprentice Frederic (Nicholas Barasch), who turns 21 (or so he thinks), only to learn that his lifetime of slavish duty to the seafaring rogues was the result of an administrative error. Years earlier, weird Ruth (Jinkx Monsoon), the only woman he's ever met, accidentally mistook Fred's dad saying 'pilot' for 'pirate.' Whoops. Advertisement His cronies, and later enemies, are the ship full of clumsy adult 'orphans,' led by the swaggering Pirate King (Ramin Karimloo). Loud and easily fooled, they are far from the world's best swashbucklers. And the pinky-out Major General (David Hyde Pierce) and his young daughters — including Mabel (Samantha Williams) — have Fredric's eyes bulging out of his head, and wedding bells clanging in his ears. 4 David Hyde Pierce is especially hilarious as the Major General. Joan Marcus The plot, however, is beside the point, which is why this material can stand up to pretty much any staging so long as the performers can sing the hell out of it and sell a punchline. Advertisement All of them can. Especially wonderful is Hyde Pierce's doddering 'I am the very model of a modern' Major General. He's Niles Crane if he retired to the Villages in Florida. His signature tune, the show's most famous, is wisely untouched by the creative team. And it kills. Not so uppercrust — crusty maybe — is 'RuPaul's Drag Race' star Monsoon's lovesick Ruth. She chews the scenery in just the way you want her to. Monsoon's 'When Fredrick Was A Little Lad' performed on a spinning piano is Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory. 4 Bararach, who falls for Samatha Williams' Mabel, has evolved into a formidable romantic lead. Joan Marcus Barasch, who's so often played the quirky sidekick, has become a winning romantic lead. His Frederic is innocent and lovable, and importantly not an airhead. And Karimloo, while not the funniest King ever, looks the part swinging from a rope and booms the tunes like canon fire. And now, some quibbles quaint. I'm no purist, but there are a couple changes from Ellis and adapter Rupert Holmes that don't sail as well as others. Many lyrics have been updated, which is fine. Not so digestible is that they've crammed in a treasure chest of unnecessary backstory to Karimloo's otherwise rousing 'I Am The Pirate King!' that makes it overcomplicated and hard to follow. And the duo have also tacked on two songs from Gilbert and Sullivan's 'HMS Pinafore.' One of those, 'We Sail the Ocean Blue,' at the end of the first act is a brilliant addition that sends the audience into intermission on a high. Advertisement 4 'Pirates!' is full of humor and frivolity. Joan Marcus The other, the out-of-nowhere finale, misguidedly turns 'For He Is An Englishman' into the heavy-handed 'We're All From Someplace Else.' Searching for an important message in 'The Pirates of Penzance' is like trying to find the lost city of Atlantis. Never gonna happen. Just have a wedding and dance a dance. Advertisement But what's two minutes in a musical that's otherwise effervescent, gorgeously sung, hysterical and frivolous? These days on Broadway, that is, that is a glorious thing.
