THEATRE

Uppercrusters and swashbucklers cross swords this April as Flat Earth Theatre stages the world-premier of Pirate Lives! The Musical! at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown. Written by Somerville playwright David Marino with composer Stephen Gilbane, Pirate Lives! pays crass homage to the works of Noel Coward with a tip of the hat to Gilbert and Sullivan.

Cultures clash when Captain Jonathan Emerald Sherry dubiously enlists Britain's bourgeois as crewmen aboard his once-feared—though unfortunately-named—pirate ship, The Coward. While the captain fights tooth and nail to recapture his ship’s notoriety, havoc rages on deck as the novice cutthroats navigate otherworldly encounters, romantic entanglements, and secret identities as they adapt to life on the high seas. With a pursuing foe drawing nearer, do the misfit buccaneers have what it takes to make The Coward brave again?