Alladin, Donica, Pinkins & More Complete ENCORES! THE WILD PARTY Cast — Page 3

I'm so excited for this. I saw the original twice. If you're not familiar with the score and you don't mind spoilers, I would recommend listening to the score before you go in. It's a complex one and for my amateur ears, it didn't catch the first time. I remember thinking I have to hear this again after the first viewing.

I'm just wondering what the Encores subscriber base is going to think of this. It's DARK and not exactly full of hummable/mummable melodies (although there are some gorgeous ones). I think it will be best if there is no intermission.

Plus I love the cast especially Jordan and Amy. I think Jordan will surprise alot of people. He was magnificent in Sunset. He gave a heartbreaking detailed performance.

I saw the obc three times. Loved it! So crazy

This looks well intresting …Oh Tonya

Kad said: "Falsettolands said: "Have there been any murmurs of Lachiusa touching the show at all? Minor rewrites? Curious to know if anything if getting spruced up."

The only thing I could see them revising is the use of black face in the show. I hope they don't, though."

They don't revise the black face. It's still there via Donica etc.

Updated On: 3/18/26 at 02:45 PM

Going Sat. It's a long time since I've been so excited for a show... very happy at that early report. It's quite a piece of material... hope this cast and team can do it justice!

I saw the show tonight and thought it was excellent! Very well directed and paced. The entire ensemble is giving layered, lived-in performances. This had the energy of an opening night but the confidence of a tight show that’s been running for months. No one on book, you would never believe this is a production that had around 2 weeks of rehearsal.

Jordan Donica brings a calculated menace, Jasmine Amy Rodgers is touching, charming, and sensual, and Tonya Pinkins absolutely brings the house down at the end. Adrienne Warren and Jelani Pinkins are also standouts. Everyone’s voices are stellar. This was my first time ever seeing this work, so I’m still reeling from the material as well as the production, but I really think this is a great staging and a must see. I think that with the right theatre and marketing this can absolutely transfer to Broadway if the production has the opportunity.

I knew the cast album a bit but had never seen the show. I’m glad I saw it and I’m glad Encores did it, but it left me wanting so much more.

There is a lack of focus in this production. And yes, it’s a concept musical about a night of dizzying intoxication, but there was something sort of rudderless. Which is deadly when your runtime is two intermissionless hours.

The cast is a mixed bag. Some good, some average, some that might improve over the next week and a half — or would have been good with better direction. Above all I wanted more out of Tonya Pinkins who felt so right on paper but there is something missing.

The stage feels too vast for a show that is contained to an apartment. It has an attractive enough scenic design, but not great costumes, sound and lighting. Felt like everything needed to be pulled 5 feet closer to the audience.

Updated On: 3/18/26 at 11:35 PM

The lack of an intermission is a structural choice made by the creative team to maintain the show's momentum, not a NYCC policy. A break would kill the tension they’re building. FWIW, it’s noted in the Playbill and mentioned by ushers as you’re being seated. Don’t let it put you off the venue altogether; almost all of their other productions have traditional intermissions.

On a separate note, I just saw on the website that Jordan Donica is out of the show next Wednesday, 3/25, with his standby - Curtis Bannister - on as Burrs. I’ll be there tonight and next week, so it’ll be interesting to see both.

Updated On: 3/19/26 at 09:54 AM

Incredible - an embarrassment of riches! Thankfully I didn't have to go to bathroom because I wouldn't have wanted to miss anything. I had never seen a prod. of this & only knew of the Lippa take on it thanks to ENCORES 11 yrs ago. Unbelievably I sat taking this in not knowing that I was watching the same artists that I had seen in Camelot, Boop & Caroline or Change. I totally thought I was watching Leslie Uggams instead of Tonya Pinkins & surprised at how I could see nothing from these musical theater stars 'Lancelot' or 'Betty' that could have clued me in to what else I had seen them in. After HIGH SPIRITS it was so nice to see such a full out performance & appreciated the design choices which utilized stage back corners in a way I have not quite seen at City Center mainstage before. (The only thing that bothered me were the role of the 14 yr old girl & some of the Black mens hair (buns, ponytails) that just didn't seem period to me. Meghan Murphy as Madeline True was a standout in a company full of standouts. All in all, an exciting, ambitious & challenging piece of performance art that raises the bar for Encores.

Bought a ticket for tomorrow based on this thread, and very much looking forward to seeing the show. Love Donica, he was wonderful in Sunset last summer.

Wowie. What a night.

It’s hard not to be biased, since this very well may be my all-time favorite score, but (other than maybe Into the Woods) this was the best, most sure-footed Encores production I’ve seen. I have some quibbles with the sound balance and lighting, and poor Lesli Margherita’s voice sounds shredded to bits, but I just loved this. Michael John LaChiusa’s score is a modern masterpiece, in my opinion - dark, sexy, twisty, gorgeous, often a blast - and this cast more than does it justice.

That said, it’s not for everyone. I heard a lot of befuddlement leaving the theater, lots of Playbill- and watch-checking, and a group of maybe 50 high school students left en masse after “Black is a Moocher” (which, in all fairness, is staged pretty explicitly). In the musical canon, it’s less tiki cocktail and more shot of something that stings all the way down. But for folks who like their theatre dark and unvarnished, this is as good as it gets.

Bravo especially to Jordan Donica, who gets better every time I see him, and Jasmine Amy Rogers, who I hadn’t seen onstage before tonight and absolutely blew me away. You would truly never know these two have theoretically only been working on this material for less than two weeks. Remarkable stuff.

Updated On: 3/19/26 at 10:03 PM

Have to echo the praise here. The show has some shagginess and lack of focus, but only because it wants to focus on so much. George C. Wolfe’s influence is all over it and I find it hard not admire a show that sets such a high bar for itself. Although may not totally clear that bar, it grazes it constantly and still comes out a mature, intelligent piece of musical theatre artistry.

This is really a showcase for some rising theatre talent. Donica is giving a bravura performance here; it’s hard not to imagine him a strong contender for awards if this were a full production. And Rogers - wow. Watching this star rise in real time over the last year has been thrilling. Warren is a force here as well. Pinkins acquits herself well and sounds great, but this is nearly an impossible role for anybody who isn’t Eartha Kitt reincarnate. The role is so clearly tailored to that singular talent and personality that it lingers on every line and note like old perfume. Shoutout to Meghan Murphy, Claybourne Elder, and Andrew Kober & KJ Hippensteel, as well.

(also, of note, Eddie’s “Golden Boy” has been cut. I understand why it would be, but I always kind of liked it as a peek into the racism that’s shaped his life and relationship. It seems to be the only cut to the score)

(also, of note, Eddie’s “Golden Boy” has been cut. I understand why it would be, but I always kind of liked it as a peek into the racism that’s shaped his life and relationship. It seems to be the only cut to the score)


This makes complete sense to me. But I do mourn losing the little bit of the Brothers D'Armano in that number --- them singing "A Little Mmm" but instead of an easy jazz 4 it's somehow a swing waltz (without rewriting the vocal!). My personal favorite musical "trick" of the evening...