Book &  Lyrics by  Emy McGuire
Music by Emy McGuire, Pluto Boll & Nathan McGuire

Anne, an ambitious 18th century housewife, enters the realm of piracy at the beginning of its very violent end. She runs away on a wanted man’s ship, falls in love with more than her fair share of irreputable individuals, and learns that pirates who are captured are forced to betray their kind to live or cling to their legends and die. 

With a sword at hip and adventure at hand, Anne seems poised to claim everything she has ever wanted, so long as she can avoid a watery grave as well as the hangman’s noose. But Anne’s captain has become the target of a vengeful pirate-turned-hunter. The world whispers around her that those beneath black flags will soon be doomed. And the quiet young man that Anne has desperately (and secretly) fallen for turns out to be no man at all. 

The Legend of Anne Bonny is a tribute to dark oceanic folklore, queer women’s history, and all the seafaring heroes and sinners who, in equal parts, were damned.

Much like theatre, the nature of a legend is ephemeral. It endures not out of reality, but out of accuracy to emotional experience. I started adapting Anne Bonny’s life into a musical when I was seventeen, and what began as pirate fanfic six years ago has since become an ode to queerness, womanhood, and my own time living at sea. This story has grown up with me. I have not poured my soul into this musical so much as this musical is my soul. It is also bigger than me now (maybe it always was) which makes it all the more beautiful. 

When you boil it down, my profession is writing thrillers, and Anne Bonny is the ultimate true crime cold case. We might never know for certain what happened to her after the Golden Age was crushed. Anne’s story is a mystery, but also a romance, an adventure, a tragedy, and a myth. It’s fleeting and enduring, larger than itself, yet still the size of a brave young woman, the swordsman she loved, and the fools who dared doubt her. It’s ephemeral. So sit back, bask, and remember: the seas don’t storm for long. 

- Emy McGuire