Asian Pirate Musical brings queer Asian time-travel theatre to London this July

A queer all-Asian pirate musical is coming to London this July and it travels from the 14th century to the 23rd

Asian Pirate Musical opens at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate from 28 July to 2 August 2026, with an all-queer, East and Southeast Asian creative team and a genre-devouring soundtrack.

The year is 2049. A lone pirate sails the Straits of Melaka under a red sky. A storm hits and throws seafarers from across time and space onto the same ship. What follows is a queer musical that spans four eras, two real historical figures and one deeply imagined future, written and composed entirely by an all-queer, East and Southeast Asian creative team.

Asian Pirate Musical opens at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate on 28 July and runs until 2 August 2026. Book, music and lyrics are by Zhui Ning Chang, Frey Kwa Hawking, Jade Leamcharaskul, Sarita Lewis, Nemo Martin and XANA. The show draws on the real histories of Zheng He, the 14th-century Muslim navigator who led the largest fleet in pre-modern history, and Sek Yeong, the 19th-century pirate queen who commanded hundreds of ships in the South China Sea. It places them alongside 21st-century climate survivors and 23rd-century space revolutionaries, all thrown together on the same deck.

The soundtrack moves between traditional instruments, 21st-century Asian pop and diasporic musical influences. A studio cast album is already available to stream. The show takes on grief, colonialism, solidarity, the climate emergency and what it means to find a place to call home when the world has changed beyond recognition. The content warnings are real and the creative team has not softened the edges.

The project was developed specifically to push back against the stereotypical and exploitative narratives that have long surrounded Asian people in musical theatre. As an all-queer team making work about queer Asian histories and futures, the ambition is to build a new repertoire rather than occupy an existing one.

Photos by Mike Skelton.

Tickets are £16. Six performances only.

Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate, London N6 4BD. 28 July to 2 August 2026 at 7:30pm nightly.

Tickets at upstairsatthegatehouse.com.

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