The two-time Drag Race winner will star alongside Broadway veterans Ramin Karimloo and David Hyde Pierce in a new reimagining of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.
Jinkx Monsoon
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
When it comes to reviving a 145-year-old comic opera, who better to enlist than drag superstar Jinkx Monsoon to liven things up?
On Wednesday (Nov. 13), the Roundabout Theater Company announced its upcoming new musical Pirates! The Penzance Musical, starring Monsoon alongside Broadway veterans Ramin Karimloo and David Hyde Pierce. Billed as “reimagined, lovingly adapted production” of Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1879 work The Pirates of Penzance, the new show will feature “jazz-infused, New Orleans-style” music and will celebrate “the genius of Gilbert & Sullivan while taking some joyous liberties,” according to a statement from director Scott Ellis.
Monsoon will portray the role of Ruth, the original show’s pirate “maid-of-all-work” and comic relief throughout the production. In a statement to Billboard, Monsoon shared that she was thrilled to join the cast. “If ever there were an unexpected role for me to sink my teeth into … she has EVERYTHING I could want in a character, not to mention a chance to play her from a completely new perspective,” she said.
“The chance to revitalize the classics is something special I am honored to be asked to do.”
This won’t be Monsoon’s first time taking on a prestigious role on the Great White Way. In 2023, she made her Broadway debut in the role of Matron “Mama” Morton in Chicago. During her initial run, Monsoon broke multiple box office records for the show, including her own single performance gross record. Monsoon later returned to the role in June after her run as the first transgender woman to portray the role of Audrey in the off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors.
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Meanwhile, Monsoon’s 2025 is currently stacked with more Broadway-adjacent gigs: In January, the two-time Drag Race winner is set to star as Reno Sweeney in the Pasadena Playhouse’s Anything Goes: In Concert, before making her Carnegie Hall debut in her Valentine’s Day concert, Jinkx Monsoon: Live at Carnegie Hall.
Pirates! The Penzance Musical will begin previews on April 4 and open officially on April 24 at the Todd Haimes Theatre. Tickets are available at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s website.
