Songs on the high seas: Pirates Dinner Adventure in Buena Park sets sail with a new show

It is Friday night and families are seated row by row, some wearing tri-cornered hats and others waving pirate flags. The smell of roast chicken fills the air and kids eagerly watch the replica 18th-century ship at the center of the arena for signs of activity. Pirates Dinner Adventure in Buena Park has started nights like this for over 30 years.

The theater is located on Beach Boulevard near many of the city’s other popular attractions like Knott’s Berry Farm, Porto’s Bakery and Café and the Source OC, and hosts nightly swashbuckling performances on the Seven Seas. Audience members can cheer for their favorite pirate while being served a chicken dinner and maybe even get pulled on stage.

Recently the theater switched from the previous show, “Secrets of the Deep,” to nightly performances of “In Search of Neptune’s Treasure.” While the script, stunts and songs have changed, the show remains kid-friendly, and children enthusiastically waving their pirate flags will not be disappointed, assures show manager Toby Pruett.

“This is the world’s most interactive dinner show, and the opportunity to live up to that each night is exhilarating,” said Pruett. “Each cast member brings their own unique and brilliant take on the same scene each night but the audience, especially the kids, have the power to rewrite a moment or scene altogether. That theatrical immediacy is truly a gift for a performer.”

Pruett leads the cast along with assistant show manager Maddie Ellingson and is also one of the show’s lead actors, playing Capt. Sebastian the Black, the Pirate King.

“He is the legendary leader and rumored to be the most viscous pirate king to have sailed the Seven Seas,” Pruett said.

The large live-action show has a lot of moving parts, both figuratively and literally, and updating the story is a true group effort.

“Neptune’s Treasure leans more closely to traditional musical theater for young audiences. The tech work, including cue pickup, vocal demands and overall timing, are all very precise,” Pruett said. “The show also lends itself to a more classical clowning structure with elements and character types similar to commedia dell’arte stock characters.”

Pruett has extensive experience living the pirate’s life; the actor worked at the Orlando location of Pirates Dinner Adventure before coming to Southern California.

“I loved the show, the cast and crew and all of our operational partners, so when I moved out to the West Coast, I joined the cast out here as well,” said Pruett.

Capt. Sebastian the Black at Pirates Dinner Adventure in Buena Park.

(Courtesy of Pirates Dinner Adventure Buena Park)

Pruett moved to New York City to pursue acting right after high school and studied at the National Shakespeare Conservatory’s Professional Actor Training Program. He honed his craft in the New York City theater scene before moving to Orlando to work with the major theme parks there, eventually finding his way to Pirates Dinner Adventure.

The show includes aerial acrobatics, countless stunts, choreographed fights and a magical mermaid that swims in the 250,000-gallon indoor lagoon surrounding the ship. Although action and stunts are an integral part of the show, like Pruett, many of members of the cast are actors first.

“Most have had serious, formal acting training through conservatory programs. There are a few that have special talents and a few that did come to us directly from circus and stunt training experience,” Pruett said.

For his own role in the new show, Pruett said he approaches the character with stronger influences from a clowning background that differs from the Capt. Sebastian in the previous show.

“With ‘Secrets of the Deep,’ Capt. Sebastian had evolved into the man the legends were born from. He had a haunting and dark past that played out more like a tragic Shakespearean character fueling his rage,” said Pruett. “This version of the captain isn’t as dark.”

The turn to musical theater means a less violent show, with a love story at its heart. New script aside, Pruett said the show is different each night, thanks to the talent of the cast.

“It’s always exciting to tell the story of our show the same way with different voices, styles and strengths of the various casts. We’re all sailing toward the same horizon, but we navigate the path a bit differently each night,” Pruett said. “That’s also what makes the show so exciting to see more than once.”

Pruett said he is honored to take the stage each night with his fellow cast members, as an actor, stunt performer, choreographer, director and now show manager.

“Each night we have the opportunity to have the best show ever, and that is exactly what we strive to do for our audiences,” said Pruett. “There isn’t another crew anywhere that I would rather sail these seas with than my pirate’s family on both coasts.”

Pirates Dinner Adventure hosts nightly performances Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. and two shows on Saturday at 5 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at piratesdinneradventure.com.