powered by FreeFind

 


TREASURE ISLAND - A Musical Adventure

ti

A musical in 2 acts (Prince Street Players' Version)

Book by Jim Eiler freely adapted from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson; Lyrics by Jim Eiler; Music by Jim Eiler & Jeanne Bargy 

Synopsis

Excitement runs high in this musical adaptation of a favourite childhood adventure story. Robert Louis Stevenson’s thrilling tale of pirates, treasure maps, mutiny on the high seas and pieces of eight follows Jim Hawkins, an ordinary youth drawn into a dangerous race for buried treasure against the treacherous Long John Silver. As the author himself wrote, “If this don’t fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day.”

Story

ACT ONE

Tom Morgan, First Mate on the schooner Hispaniola, has just completed writing about his recent adventure to Treasure Island. He begins to tell the tale and is joined by a chorus of Pirates. The prize that was being sought out was a treasure full of Pieces of Eight, which are old Spanish silver coins. The pirates and Tom tell us of the great value of this treasure, and what lengths people would go to for such a fortune.

Tom continues to narrate as he crosses toward the Admiral Benbow Inn near the docks in Bristol, England. Tom has spent many leaves there and is friends with the owners, the Hawkins. They have a young son, Jim, who Tom is very fond of. Billy Bones, a man who has been staying at the inn for two months now, is sitting there, drunk on rum, singing an old sailing song. Mrs. Hawkins, the innkeepers wife, and her son, Jim, are there locking up for the night. Jim tries to help Bones to his room. Bones starts on about the men who want to give him the Black Spot and thinks that he sees a man with one leg. Jim does not understand him and gets him upstairs. Tom knocks outside and Meg, an assistant at the inn, lets him in. They are all happy to see him and they inform him of the sad news that Mr. Hawkins passed away a month prior. Jim tells Tom how he dreams of being out to sea. Tom encourages him, proud of his aspirations.

Tom and Mrs. Hawkins retire for the night and Jim and Meg finish closing up as another knock is heard at the door. It is Mr. Pew, a large, menacing, blind man with a stick and a black cloak. He tells Jim that he is there to see Billy Bones. Jim tries to stall him but Bones appears saying it is one of the men he had told Jim about. Pew says that they have been looking for Bones for two years and that he has something they want, and with that he goes to shake Bones' hand and slips a piece of paper into it. Pew cackles with laughter and exits. Meg screams and runs for Mrs. Hawkins and Tom-Bones holds up the paper which has a black spot on it. He calls it the Black Spot of Doom and tells them that once you get the black spot, your life is over-you don’t stand a chance.

Bones sends Jim to his room to fetch his sea chest. Tom suddenly recognizes Bones as having been one of Captain Flint's buccaneers. Bones opens the chest and pulls out a map. He explains that he was First Mate to Captain Flint who was the blood thirstiest buccaneer to ever sail. He had plundered and looted French and Spanish ships. He then buried all the treasure on Skeleton Island, a remote island in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Caracas. This map he has shows exactly where the treasure is! Flint had given him the map when he died and the others have been hunting him ever since. He gives the map to Jim and tells him to find the treasure which will make him rich! He says it is his thank you for the kindness Jim and Mrs. Hawkins have shown him. This is the only map except, for a copy he made, which does not show where the treasure is hidden. He leaves this copy in the chest as Pew and his henchmen burst in with guns and knives. They kill Bones and take the fake map.

The next morning Tom tells his captain, Captain Smollett, about the treasure, and brings him to meet Jim and his mother. Smollett asks if Jim wants to sail with him to find the treasure and they can all share it. Mrs. Hawkins insists that her son may not go out to sea. Jim pleads with her saying that now that his father is dead they could use the fortune-they could close the inn and not have to work anymore. His mother tells him there is nothing wrong with working and that it is better than searching for a hidden treasure on an island. Eventually, Mrs. Hawkins gives her consent with one condition. She is going to disguise Meg as a boy and send her along to keep an eye on Jim.

Two days later, Mrs. Hawkins brings Jim and Meg, who is now disguised as Sam to the ship and bids them farewell. The women are all there saying goodbye to the sailors as they pull away from the dock. The men on the ship show Sam and Jim the ropes and teach them their songs and dances.

Jim is introduced to the whole crew, most notably the new cook who they call Barbecue, though his real name is Long John Silver. He enters carrying a parrot and has a wooden peg for a leg. As soon as Jim meets him he is suspicious, remembering Bones talking about a man with one leg. Jim sits with him as Long John tells him all about himself.

Over the first part of the journey Long John befriends Jim. Jim adjusts well, but Sam does not, which has a few people suspicious. As they reach the Caribbean there is a brief conversation between Long John and Johnson, one of the men on the crew. Long John asks Johnson how his "fishing" is going and he says that he has three more crew joining them. Johnson asks Long John how he is doing getting information out of the boy, and he responds that he is not getting much. Sam is working as the Captain's personal cabin boy. The Captain comes out to take a bath and have Sam scrub his back, which throws Sam into a real frenzy. Long John comments on how afraid Sam is of the Captain, and then the men all sing about how tight a ship he runs.

The night before the ship reaches the island, most of the men have turned in. Jim goes to get himself an apple and has to climb in the barrel to get it. While he does this, the men, including Long John and Johnson, convene and discuss their plans for mutiny. Jim, unseen by them, overhears the entire meeting. They have 11 men recruited for this plan. Long John had sent the men to get the map and kill Bones, and he knows the map they have is a fake. He is not sure if Tom or Jim has the real one. The final plan is to let the men go find the treasure, follow them, take over and leave them on the island. The ship approaches the island and Long John makes one last try to get information out of Jim. Jim goes and informs Tom, the Captain, and the rest of the crew of the plans he has heard.

ACT TWO

The men are on the island hunting for the treasure. The Captains knows of the plan and instructs the men to continue as if they know nothing. He leaves Jim and Sam with weapons at a guard point. They hear some unfamiliar sounds and set out to find where they are coming from. Ben Gunn appears, and tells the boys he was marooned and has been on the island without talking to another living soul for three years. He tells the boys he had been with Long John Silver three years ago hunting for the treasure that they knew was there. He had fallen into a cave and broke his leg and Long John, having only one leg, could not help. He promised Gunn he would return but never did. He tells the boys about all the things he has missed, especially his favourite food, cheese.

They hear a canon fire and realize the mutiny has begun. Gunn offers to take them to his cave to hide. Sam wants to go, but Jim insists he go down and fight. Frustrated and scared for his life, Meg reveals to Gunn that she is a woman, and is there to care for Jim. Gunn says he will take them to his cave where he has a boat he made himself. He says that after nightfall they will row out and recapture the ship themselves and take it to a hidden cove he knows. The mutineers are hunting down the boys, but unsuccessfully. The battle begins and carries on through the night. The Captain, Tom, and their men are successful in fighting off the mutineers. Gunn, Jim, and Meg successfully recapture the ship and anchor it in the cove. Jim wants to go back and find the Captain and Tom and let them know what has happened, but Jim gets lost on his way and decides to wait until morning to continue. He is scared and alone and regrets his decision to take this voyage. Suddenly Long John and his men find and surround Jim and get the map from him. They take him with them to go find the treasure.

The next morning, Gunn and the Captain and his men have met up. Gunn went to look for Jim, worrying he would be lost in the fog, and left Meg in the cave. They realize that Jim has been captured and that Long John must therefore have the map too. They try and remember where the map showed the treasure was hidden, and realize that this spot is the exact place. As they realize this, Long John and his men appear with Jim tied up. Jim has lied to them and said he sent the ship adrift. The men want to kill Jim but Long John won’t allow it. They get together for a meeting wanting to try and overthrow Long John, while Long John tries to form an alliance with Jim to save himself, which Jim agrees to. Long John convinces the men that Jim was lying and that they need to keep him as a hostage. Long John tries to set him free, but Jim will not go. Since he made a deal with Long John, he insists he stay as a "hostage."

The men find the treasure chest and open it to only find rocks, bones and the skull of Flint, no fortune at all. As this happens, Gunn, from within the cave, begins calling out, then appears dressed as a ghost...the ghost of Flint. All the men run away in fear except for Long John who is holding on to Jim. Gunn throws off his disguise and reveals himself to Long John. The Captain, Meg, Tom, Jim, and the rest are all reunited. Gunn reveals that the treasure is actually in the cave and the map was another decoy. Long John left Gunn in the cave to die, but if he would have come back he would have discovered the treasure.

The group all goes back to the boat. The Captain arrests and chains up Long John and leaves his men on the island. They sail to Savannah to get a new crew. The morning they leave back for Bristol they discover that both a few sacks of silver and Long John were missing. They suspect Jim set him free, although they never confirm this. They arrive back in Bristol where Mrs. Hawkins greets them. Meg appears on the gangway with Gunn, her new husband. Jim assures his mother that he has had enough of the sea. He bids goodbye to his crew and leaves with his mother, happy to be home and now rich.

Musical Numbers

  1. Pieces of Eight
  2. The Black Spot
  3. Away to Sea
  4. Where Your Treasure Lies
  5. Away to Sea (Reprise)
  6. Bosun's Pipe Down, Sailing Scene, Sea Shanties, Jimmy-Jim-Jim
  7. Long John Silver
  8. Ship Shape
  9. Run Jim Run
  10. Whatever It Is
  11. Cheese! Cheese!
  12. Jim's Soliloquy
  13. Lucky Man
  14. Finale

Cast