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Avast! And indeed, ahoy!
It’s not been the plainest sailing on the good ship Secret Theatre over the last few months. In the middle of November it was announced to the immersive entertainment legends’ entire mailing list that a new show would be announced the next day, with industry reports suggesting Barbie would be the next blockbuster to receive their trademark treatment.
That simply didn’t happen. Skip forward a few months, and the company made two separate, seemingly uncoordinated announcements on the same day: one that last summer’s Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical would be returning to Battersea Park this summer (presumably in lieu of Barbie) and the other to say that Secret Cinema would be opening a new permanent London theatre.
What would go into this theatre? It was unclear then but we know now and there is at last a sense that the company has finally found its bearings again.
To cut to the chase, February next year will see Secret Cinema’s new Greenwich theatre play host to Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Immersive Adventure. A show based on the Johnny Depp-starring Gore Verbinski blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl had been mooted in 2020 and cancelled for the usual 2020 reasons; the obvious difference is the name suggests (though doesn’t confirm) that as with Grease you’re liable to be watching the enormously successful 2003 smash on screens throughout the evening with lots of supplementary spectacular stuff occurring before, during and after (a canny move away from the model where the cinema screening had become an optional afterthought after what was essentially a long theatre show).
To quote Secret Cinema boss Merritt Baer: ‘Get ready for high jinks on the high seas! With epic aerial stunts, fearless swordfights and a cast of your favourite swashbuckling pirates, where better to invite audiences than raucous Tortuga and aboard the Black Pearl for the ultimate cinematic adventure: Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean.
‘We can’t wait to open our new flagship venue at Greenwich Peninsula, minutes from The O2, with the world premiere of Secret Cinema presents Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Immersive Adventure - a journey that we promise will blur the lines between film, theatre and live spectacle in Secret Cinema’s most ambitious production ever.’
Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Immersive Adventure will be at Secret Cinema HQ (it doesn’t actually seem to have an official name yet) for 10 weeks from February 2027. To be the first to hear about exact dates and when the tickets go on sale, sign up here.
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