This lesser-known musical is a celebration of Gene Kelly’s fantastic butt
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes—is part of “Queersighted,” Criterion Channel’s Pride month spotlight on queer-coded musicals. Obviously, to me, everything is queer coded.
But there’s something a little different about The Pirate, something that makes everything gay people love about both Gene Kelly and Judy Garland undeniably plain.
When Serafin corners Manuela and hypnotizes her for an audience as part of his act, he asks her to unlock the secret of her true love, the thing which, if known, could throw her nice, socially-acceptable life off the rails.
In this state of hypnosis, she tells him—and the crowd—that she loves the pirate Mack “The Black” Macoco. He does things for her. “Someday he’ll swoop down like a chicken hawk and carry me away,” she says, wide-eyed. “And I’ll do his bidding.”She then launches into a song about the pirate to whom she’s dedicated her entire spank bank, calling him “Macoco the fabulous” and letting her hair fall down in cascading red waves, becoming the entertainer we recognize.
