Blackbeard (musical)
Blackbeard, or officially, Blackbeard: The Musical or Blackbeard: A New Musical, is a musical created by Rob Gardner. The plot focuses on the notorious pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, and his blockade of Charles Town in South Carolina in 1718. The musical portrays Blackbeard as a compassionate person, who's deeply in love with a woman on his ship named Mary Ormond. Blackbeard struggles to maintain his fierce façade, while at the same time trying to win the heart of the pacifistic Mary. "Blackbeard" debuted at the Herberger Theatre Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on September 5, 2008, under the  direction of Cambrian James and the musical direction of Rob Gardner himself. Marketed as a 'pre-Broadway event', the musical received mixed to positive reviews from critics, and won 9 AriZoni Awards from 15 nominations. On May 1, 2009, "Blackbeard" made its Australian premiere in Bunbury, Western Australia. Background. In an interview with Broadway World, Gardner said his inspiration for creating the musical was a documentary he saw on television about Blackbeard. Fascinated, he researched his life, and found that most of his apparent deeds were legend, rather than fact. He also found that Blackbeard had a notable fondness for  women, marrying fourteen women, of whom he only married Mary legitimately. As Broadway World writes: "it was this multi-layered, paradoxical character that Gardner chose as the protagonist for his new musical". "Blackbeard" had a successful workshop run in the summer of 2007 in Phoenix, for which it was nominated for all its AriZoni awards. After the show was subsequently 'reworked and re-imagined', the show premiered globally on September 5 at Herberger Theatre Center in Phoenix, running until September 27. In November 2007, the director of the Bunbury production negotiated the rights for the Australian premiere of "Blackbeard" with  Gardner. "Blackbeard" premiered in Bunbury on May 1, 2009, but only performed two shows. Reception. "Blackbeard" has received mixed reviews, tending towards the positive, with almost universal acclaim for the music score. Pasha Yamotahari of The Pashavian Review, a reviewer of Arizonian theatre, wrote that the musical lacked "clarity in its structure and goal", but praising the music score as "magical". Paula Shulak of theatermaven.com also held the music score in high acclaim, but stressed that "Blackbeard"'s major flaw was its script and its thin plot. Showup.com, a website that collates amateur reviews and ratings of musicals, gave Blackbeard  an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Factual inaccuracies. The director's notes of the Bunbury production of "Blackbeard" state that "though not completely historically accurate, the main storyline is based on truth". Though all of the main characters are based on real people, bar Anne and Georgette, their fates differed considerably from their interpretations in the musical, or are completely unaccounted for. The characters' actual fates include: Awards. "Blackbeard"'s 2007 Phoenix workshop production garnered 15 AriZoni nominations with 9 wins, most notably 'Best Original Production for a Musical', 'Best Original Script for a Musical', and 'Best  Original Music Composition'.