Just Discovered "The Wild Party"- Page 2

Posted: 2/3/09 at 6:14am

I'm a massive LaChiusa fan (Giant better get recorded *shakes fist) and this is in my top 3 of his shows. What must be disheartening is that it had such a very short run--despite a great production by Wolfe and huge stars in the cast! Why? While I'm a LaChiusa fanatic I'm not blind to why many of his shows aren't big hits--but Wild Party has a superior book and seemed to have a brilliant production to many. All I can think is that it was just too intense for most audiences--you don't really have any release in the tension until People Like Us--and then it's back on, even in the slow songs.

Posted: 2/3/09 at 9:02am

There were a LOT of problems with the show- all those characters never really got defined, no real plot line.

[mallardo]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 10:27am

The characters never got defined? What? Every one of the characters on stage gets his or her song and his or her dramatic moment. We know exactly who they are and what their lives are like. It's one of the strengths of the show and one of the main things that separates it from the Lippa version which, with all due respect, is about the four leads and their anonymous friends.

As for a plot line, it all takes place in one evening at a party. A lot happens. Lives are changed. A relationship is destroyed. A person dies. What more do you want?

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 10:34am

Put me down as a fan of the show, Collette, and "People Like Us."

It wasn't a perfect show, but there was something about it that I really responded to. And Toni Collette was thrilling.

Eartha, too, of course, though it was too obviously a plant-the-diva-in-the-middle-of-the-stage-for-her-big-number moment for my taste. But lord knows she pulled it off.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 10:47am

"As for a plot line, it all takes place in one evening at a party. A lot happens. Lives are changed. A relationship is destroyed. A person dies. What more do you want?"

For the door to spring open and the cops to rush in?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 11:36am

I was dying to see the show, but it closed before I even had the opportunity. I did see Marie Christine earlier that season however, and loved it. Audra delivered a tour-de-force performance. I still have no idea how Heather Headley beat out both Toni and Audra for the Tony unless the voters simply don't like LaChiusa.

Updated On: 2/3/09 at 11:36 AM

Posted: 2/3/09 at 1:20pm

Well I'll piss everyone off again and say Headley absolutely deserved her Tony- her performance in Aida was dazzling.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 2:06pm

This thread has inspired me to give the recording another chance. I listened to this once and liked the Lippa version more. This is probably because I was introduced to the that one first, and people tend to like what they are first introduced too.

Oh, and I agree, Heather Headly was amazing in Aida.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 2:14pm

I was also introduced to the Lippa version first. But as my tastes matured, I definitely realized how much BETTER LaChiusa's version is.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 2:49pm

LOL, that almost sounded insulting, but then that is why I am willing to give this one another shot... to see if my tastes have changed (not so much matured) any.

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 2:49pm

"As for a plot line, it all takes place in one evening at a party. A lot happens. Lives are changed. A relationship is destroyed. A person dies. What more do you want?"

For the door to spring open and the cops to rush in?

I've always wondered why neither show went with the final eding of the poem. I suppose they wanted there to be atleast one little glimmer of hope and hapiness in an otherwise dramatic and depressing ending.

"There were a LOT of problems with the show- all those characters never really got defined, no real plot line.

Pretty much the only character that isn't defined is Sally simply because she spends the entire show in a drug-induced haze and doesn't speak. Nothing is learned except for what True says of her, the validity of which is kinda faulty seeing as "Sally" doesn't even resond to that name when she sobers up.

So really that either says alot for the drugs or for True, who could be so starved for love that she made up the identity of this random woman she "found in the gutter."

Other characters that aren't given a full backstory and development during the show still have good stuff to work with: The Brothers D'Armano deal with trust, jealousy and infidelity, as well as Mae who deals with her regrets of leaving the theatre and personal image issues. Nadine is kind of a one dementional innocent girl yearning to be a grown up, but what Queenie, True and Jackie subject her to is simply disturbing, and the rape pounds the last nail making sure she'll probably never be the same after that night and will go the same way as Queenie and Dolores. There's a really interesting lineage in those three characters, a sorta going-there, in-there, been-there thing. Dolores tries to "help" Queenie but Queenie, even though she can see herself in Nadine, only stokes her fire.


...sorry I did an analysis of this show for a script class last year so I know way too much and look way too deep into this musical.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 4:01pm

I will agree that Heather's singing in Aida was amazing. But that was the only extraordinary thing I found in the performance. Her acting was somewhat pedestrian and she mumbled nearly all her speaking lines when she was wasn't using that severely affected authoritative dialect of sorts. I barely understood her half the time. I mean in all honesty, the night I saw her, she kept speaking barely above a whisper. I could not figure out who thought that was a good choice.

I actually thought Sherie Rene Scott delivered the only award-worthy performance of the cast. Every line was spot-on.

Heather in Aida looked liked she needed to attend a Master Class viewing Audra in Marie Christine.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 4:13pm

I can't help but feel that the Tony's that year were much like the Academy Awards the year of Sunset and All About Eve. Two amazing performances that basically cancelled each other out and allowed the third to walk away with the prize.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 4:29pm

I loved Heather in The Lion King and honestly think that she was more or less deemed the darling of the year. The Disney machine was very kind to her and I do believe her voice was at its peak when they catapulted her from the thankless role of Nala to the lead in Aida. Audra already had three Tonys under her belt by that time and Toni was a Broadway newcomer in a brief run surrounded by the most negative buzz of any musical that season. Marin was considered a higher contender for Kiss Me Kate than Toni and I don't believe poor Rebecca really had a shot at all.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 5:21pm

I'm SO glad to see so many others who think LaChiusa's is far superior. Don't get me wrong, I do still really enjoy Lippa's, but LaChiusa's is much grittier and much more period sounding. Plus, Toni Colette or Julia Murney? Toni any day.

[beltingbaritone]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 6:47pm

Can you buy the libretto for this anywhere?

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 8:49pm

The libretto is included in the anthology The New American Musical. It includes Floyd Collins, Rent, Parade, and The Wild Party.

http://www.amazon.com/New-American-Musical-Anthology-Century/dp/1559362006/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233712190&sr=8-1

[beltingbaritone]

Posted: 2/3/09 at 9:03pm

Thank you. =)

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/27/09 at 9:29am

I was browsing on Amazon to "beef up" my cd collection and came across two recording for The Wild Party....an Off Bway AND a Bway recording, but both recorded in 2000. That alone seems odd to me.

I know there is the whole LaChuisa v Lippa debate but I am totally confused -- because until now, I just assumed they were completely different productions.

Can someone enlighten me to the backstory here as well as convince me which one belongs in my collection -- are their arguments to owning BOTH? (And my apologies for this gaping hole in my knowledge!)

[ashley0139]

Posted: 7/27/09 at 9:48am

They were two completely different productions - that happened to occur in the exact same season. The Off-Broadway one, by Lippa, was produced at MTC and LaChiusa's was produced on Broadway.

LaChiusa's starred Toni Collette, Mandy Patinkin, Marc Kudisch, etc. The music is very LaChiusa. Brilliant and intricate but a lot of people can't appreciate it because it's not "mainstream." IN GENERAL people who like LaChiusa's are the more "artistic" theatre lovers.

Lippa's starred Julia Murney, Brian D'Arcy James, Taye Diggs, and Idina Menzel. This is why a lot people have even heard of the Wild Party at all. And ask a general person which they like better, they will probably say this one. It's a belt-fest of Julia and Idina screaming their faces off. Lippa's usually draws the Wicked, Rent, etc lovers.

However, you DO NOT have to pick one. Honestly, I really enjoy both recordings for different reasons. I totally fell in love with Julia and her voice on the Off-Broadway recording and appreciate the darkness and aspects of the poem Lippa brings. This cd also made me fall head over heals with LaChiusa, though not particularly with any of the actors. But I've said it once- People Like Us is one of the best songs ever written. The only reason people compare them is because they have the same source material. Other than that, they are completely different shows in which the writers focus on totally different aspects of the poem. So do yourself a favor and get them both. Then decide for yourself which you like better (or even IF you like one better. you don't have to).

[myshikobit]

Posted: 7/27/09 at 1:05pm

I love both and I love your "sunday" reference, ashley =). yeah, both are entirely different in style and delivery, and both are valid, at least.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/27/09 at 1:11pm

Thanks for the info....at least I don't feel stupid anymore. (Well, AS stupid.)

[iflip4musicals]

Posted: 7/27/09 at 1:15pm

I was in a revue 6 years ago, and we did some songs from both Wild Parties. My director said that they both went on at the same time because the rights to the original poem were finally in the public domain, giving anyone the rights to use the poem for whatever project they had going.

Personally, I'm a Lippa fan. I think that may have to do with the fact that I sang "Maybe I Like it This Way", but I think I'm ready to give LaChiusa a try!

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/27/09 at 1:42pm

I would also say that Lippa's is more "based on" the original poem and its plotline and characters, in which the four-way love struggle is the heart and soul of the piece, with the other characters as "color" to shadow the events of the night and play their minor parts.

LaChiusa's play gives deep character studies to each of the characters, where only a paragraph of outline was given in the poem. He makes the show less of a linear, plotted event and more of a look into the lives of some strange, wounded people.

It's true that LaChiusa's score is more "period" than Lippa's, but Lippa made no attempt to make it a period score, or even a realistic piece. However, the diegetic music of the show tends to be much closer to period than the actual "numbers" do.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/27/09 at 1:43pm

Yeah, basically the copywright on the poem, written in th 1920's expired after 75 years.