Lippa's Wild Party

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 1:44am

How did this version not transfer to Broadway? I think it is absolutely incredible.
What's the story?
I think it far superior to the other version.
I searched for reviews of Lippa's but all I could find was Riedel's quote on the dreadful wikipedia site.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 1:45am

Ick, Ick, Ick. Why would it transfer to Broadway while LaChiusa's was ON Broadway?

Anyway, I think it's just a mediocre pop score with lots of screaming and riffing. LaChiusa's score is artsy, Sondheim-esque, and PERIOD APPROPRIATE.
Updated On: 1/31/08 at 01:45 AM

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 1:48am

To each his own.
But why were they running around the same time? It just seems like bad planning...

[Act0r721]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 1:52am

I honestly just found out today that they were two different musicals. How is that for coincidence?

I only know Lippa's, but I love it. But with that powerhouse of a cast- how could you not?

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 1:59am

I'd take Toni Collette, Mandy Patinkin, Eartha Kitt, Tonya Pinkins, and Marc Kudisch over Julia Murney, Idina Menzel, and Taye Diggs, anyday. LaChiusa's cast was STELLAR.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 2:57am

From what I've heard Julia Murney gave one of the most impressive stage performances of the past decade in THE WILD PARTY. She (along with Sherie Rene Scott) is one of the few matinee female idols that I find pretty impressive and talented.
Toni Collette had better material to work with, IMO.
I enjoy some of Lippa's score. Ultimately, him and LaChiusa had very different views of the poem which I think is great because we got two very different musicals about the same poem (and I do really like the poem). I don't think either THE WILD PARTY was meant to make it on Broadway though. Neither had the commercial appeal, critical love, or celebrity casting that is needed to make it on Broadway today.

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 3:04am

its interesting because I think Murney is fantastic in THE WILD PARTY recording, but otherwise, in other things I have seen her in I was less than pleased.
Menzel and Diggs and James are simply phenomenal vocally on the recording.
I'm interested to read reviews.

[commasplice]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 3:18am

I think (but I might be wrong, because I can't remember where I read this) both Lippa and LaChiusa began writing their shows around the time when March's poem became public domain, which can account for at least some of the coincidence. Either way, it's just how the timing worked out.

Lippa's Wild Party off-Broadway ended a month after LaChiusa's began previews on Broadway -- it would have made absolutely no sense for two shows about the same thing to run at the same time on Broadway (the producers of Lippa's said in a statement that "it doesn't make sense to transfer to Broadway in the current environment"). Also, the reviews weren't fantastic (these are the only two I found with a quick Google search; there might be more, but I'm too tired to dig deeper):

Variety - http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117915264.html?categoryid=33&cs=1
New York Times - http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=940CE7D81130F936A15751C0A9669C8B63

[Broadway Bob*]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 3:54am

I saw both productions and LOVED both in their own different ways. My fantasy is to take the two shows and mix them together taking the best from each. I've listened to the Lachuisa recording more, but that's just because it came out first and I got used to it. I do really need to play the Lippa version more often, especially considering I'm a HUGE Julia Murney fan! I'd be interested to know which one (if either) gets produced more often in regional/community/college theaters. (I know Megan Hilty played Queenie in the Lachiusa version in college in Pittsburgh.)

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 10:54am

O no, why would you want to mix them? I think that would be terrible. They're very different shows. I say leave them be.

I'm sure Lippa's is performed more. The music is more accessible. That said, we did LaChiusa's at my school. I was the rehearsal pianist and played violin in the pit, and the whole show is underscored so I literally didn't get to see one bit of the show. That's some tough music and playing it straight through for 90 minutes is tough!

~Steven

[iloveidinamenzel]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 12:45pm

I love LaChiusa's version.
But i can't deny that I love the music in Lippa's way more.

Julia Murney was incredible!

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 1:08pm

See THAT's one of the reasons why LaChiusa's is done more often. The logistics are much harder to deal with. LaChiusa's is harder to cast, play and just do really. I say leave them be as well. They're very different takes both valid. I know there's no other real way to put it, but I really do hate when people say Lippa's is more accesible. It seems to imply that LaChiusa's isn't accessible, which is completely untrue.

[rewritemystory]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 10:42pm

It simply could not run at the same time as the other Wild Party.
Easy enough.
What audience would there be?

Julia was fantastic though and it's a shame.


I've seen a lot of colleges do Lippa's, but I'm sure LaChuisa's been getting its fair share.
Updated On: 1/31/08 at 10:42 PM

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 2/1/08 at 12:14am

The Lippa version starts previews Saturday at The Gallery Players in Park Slope.

[OrdinaryJukebox]

Posted: 2/1/08 at 12:43am

Just because you like one version over the other doesn't make your opinion "right." There seems to be lots of arrogance on this board.

I would hardly consider anything Taye Diggs does to be "powerhouse."

-Vincent