Queenie was sexually ambitious... a wild party appreciation thread!

[broadwaygiant19122]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 11:05am

I finally bought LaChiusa's Wild Party and I cannot get enough of it!! I absolutely love it!. Just wanted to share. I know there have been a couple similar posts, but post any thoughts you have about the show/cast recording.
Updated On: 2/3/06 at 11:05 AM

[children&art]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 11:27am

i totally agree, the first time i listened to it i thought it was genius - it has an intelligence to it and the stylistic changes really work to portray the time period but also the claustrophobia of the oneroom party and the mental state of the characters.

mandy patinkin was great, love his "Gin" and well all his numbers.

toni collette should do more theatre.

tonya pinkins, marc kudisch, eartha kitt, and sally murphy really flesh out the secondary characters and help to put everyone's story on an equal playing field.

it's sexy and jazzy and smart and creepy and beautiful and just everything i want in a broadway musical.

[Jon]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 11:31am

MichaelJohn posts on this board. Let's see if we can lure him out of hiding!

[broadwaygiant19122]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 11:44am

oh yes, lets try. a talent like that deserves some acclaim from us crazy fans. i don't have the lyrics for it, since i bought it on itunes but i do have a question. is there a reference to albee in gold and goldberg? when they are listing the different theater personalities, i thought i heard albee, but that would be anachronistic, and i wasnt sure.

[children&art]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 11:52am

Edward Albee the playwright is the adopted grandson of Edward Franklin Albee who managed the Keith-Albee vaudeville circuit in the 1920s. He organized the National Vaudeville Artists union, and had a dominant monopoly on vaudeville up until 1928. At that time RKO bought his theatres to turn them into movie houses.

and i agree, michael john lachuisa is a definite talent (wild party, hello again, marie christine, first lady suite, little fish). he actually came to speak at our theatre in dallas when we did "Wild Party" in our upstairs theatre and "First Lady Suite" in our downstairs theatre - a very articulate, very New Yorker man.

[children&art]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:11pm

also, fyi - when "wild party" moved from the public to broadway it was the 2nd new lachuisa piece on broadway that season. both "wild party" and "marie christine" were nominated in 2000 for best book and score (they lost to "contact" for book? and "aida" for score).

[broadwaygiant19122]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:20pm

Ahh thanks for the albee info, thats really interesting... i didn't think he would be guilty of an anachronism. that must have been quite an event, having lachiusa there. I have been playing marie christine a lot lately. I had read so much about it being inaccessible, etc.. in my opinion, thats invalid. I had no trouble getting into it, its absolutely beautiful. I like elton, dont get me wrong. I'm not familiar with the Aida score, but how can these two gems lose?

[broadwaygiant19122]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:22pm

little sidenote: being a big idina fan, i actually bought lippa's wild party first and couldn't bring myself to listen to the whole thing. aside from idina's songs, there were one or two i could listen to. i found the rest grating. its kind of funny, it was idina who introduced me to the lachiusa music too.. my first lachiusa show was see what i wanna see. i picked up hello , again before i saw it so ii could get a feel for his music. hahaha, i guess its come full circle.

[teh_pretty]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:29pm

I REALLY love LaChiusa's Wild Party. It's so jazzy and reflects the era it takes place in perfectly. I love the way LaChiusa handled it, having secondary characters a little bigger, making for terrific group numbers.

I am all about this show!

[bare_nakedlady]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:50pm

I absolutely adore Toni Collete and Eartha Kitt. This show had so many wonderful performances. Everyone was absolutely rivetting. I've tried to listen to Lippa's version, but I can't get through it. I know its because I'm bias having listened to MJL's first, but I don't care this is an amazing score. Let's Appreciate!

Posted: 2/3/06 at 12:52pm

I don't know what it is, but I feel completely the opposite of most of you. I loved Lippa's Wild Party, but couldn't stand La Chiusa's version. I have practically worn out my Lippa CD.

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:12pm

I think Lippa's is fun, but misses the point of the story, and doesn't live in the time period (electric guitars??). LaChiusa's piece, which took me a little while to warm up to, is now one of my favorite pieces of theater and one of my favorite scores. The jazzy numbers are pure joy, and the characters are pure heartache. The opening notes of Queenie is a Blone give me chills! Along with People Like Us, which I think is one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs ever written. I think i've used a FEW too many superlatives here, but you get my drift.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:21pm

How I fell in love with Julia Murney -- since someone mentioned Lippa.

Updated On: 2/3/06 at 01:21 PM

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:29pm

Broadwaygiant, AIDA is, in my opinion, not a good deal. I think it's a bad score that had some powerful voices behind it, and it's very emotionally open faced, so people loved it. I didn't know it won the Tony that year though : The Tony voters usually vote in favor of whatever show they think will make the most money. Oh well. Sometimes they really throw me for a loop though, like voting for non-musicals and giving the "artistic awards" to bad musicals.

And here I've opened up another can of AIDA worms :P

On the same token, I'm not too much for Lippa's Wild Party either. Like you I find it a bit grating.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:33pm

Wait a minute....

Lippa's Wild Party wouldn't have been eligible for a Tony, right? I might be misreading.

And AIDA didn't win best musical. It wasn't even nominated. It won best score. I think you could make a better case in favor of your "it's about the money makers" argument if it had been a bigger awards, like best musical. And obviously, "bad" is subjective. I'm not gonna call AIDA high artistic theatre, but the score really wasn't that bad. Yes, the worst songs in it were kind of awful, but overall, I think it's quite a good score. And hey "mediocre Elton John is better than a lot of the other crap that gets put out there." I think a lot of people who find it bad -- a lot, not all -- are just not into that kind of stuff to begin with.

You opened the can!

AIDA is my favorite show; secret to few. I'll stand behind the things I thought were great about it, but I will also make concessions in regards to the things that I don't think were great about it. That said, I certainly find the AIDA score much more playable than Lippa's. Not sure I can really feel fair in comparing it to LaChiusa's.

Updated On: 2/3/06 at 01:33 PM

[BSoBW3]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:44pm

Lippa's was Off-Broadway anyway.

Aida is OK... but no where near the quality of THE WILD PARTY or MARIE CHRISTINE.

And let's not start on Heather vs. Audra.

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:45pm

I love listening to The Wild Party by LaChiusa because it is the 1920's. Whenever i listen to it i can almost feel the sex and taste the booze. MJL is a theatrical genius. Anyone else going to see Bernarda Alba?

[broadwaygiant19122]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:51pm

i wish i was seeing bernarda alba but the tix are so gone.... i even hightailed it out of the shower the morning the studenttix went on sale and still couldn't make it!..

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:56pm

Comparing Wild Party and Aida is like comparing Mozart and Clay Aiken. No comparison. Wild Party is one of the most brilliant scores ever, period. Thought provoking, diverse, magical, theatrical, and complicated. One of my most treasured recordings.

If LaChiusa's Wild Party is caviar, then Lippa's is dog food.

[zippyjen]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:56pm

Back to the original subject, i am in love with LaChiusa's Wild Party! The music and the time period, the acting and the sets. Everything about it! i would like to thank Bso for introducing it to me. As for Lippa's version, even though i have it, i have not gotten myself to listen to the entire score. I just find that Lachiusa's style fits more with the time period (which i love!). The jazzy feeling and the actor's tones just make the entire score much more realistic i guess i can say.

[broadwaygiant19122]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:58pm

that's what was so fantastic.... its a complex score which fits perfectly within the time period.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 1:59pm

Don't worry Bso, they're both wonderful (although Audra is several steps more wonderful ;P). And anyone who says otherwise will have to fight me. Union Square, midnight, be there.

luvtheEmcee, I didn't feel the need to point out which shows won what awards because it had already been mentioned in the thread for the sake of those who didn't know--although I did reference which shows won what awards in my post. Maybe I wasn't clear (although I think I was) but I consider best score one of the awards that should be given to shows of more artistic merit, and therefore am baffled as to why AIDA won this award. I mean, the list goes on from here of what should have won and what did, obviously it's all opinion. Best musical is THE biggest award (and I don't think AIDA was nominated, correct me if I'm wrong), with best score very close behind. Isn't the point of a musical the music?

As for comparing the two shows, well, first off, if you're going to have an awards program that is all encompassing, you must compare the shows to be able to hand out awards. Second, I don't get it, why don't you think it's fair? They are incomparable scores, I agree, in different styles trying to do different things (besides entertain). But both men are trying to entertain a large Broadway audience. It's all "Broadway". Or are we trying to give Elton a break? Elton John, who has world renown, is a "Sir", and heralded as a musical genius? From whom I hardly think it's that much to expect more.

Honestly, I just don't like AIDA, and nothing barring my heart growing three sizes bigger just in time to save all the AIDA CDs I stole from the Whos in Whoville from falling off the icy cliff will change that any time soon. But I suppose I can accept that other people do like it.

Although it might not shut me up :P

[BSoBW3]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 2:02pm

No, prob, zippy!

The Wild Party
Marie Christine
Hello Again
Little Fish
See What I Wanna See
First Lady Suit

I think that's the order in which I like his show. Not to knock any of them, they are all superb and far beyond any other modern shows.

I used to have MARIE CHRISTINE further down the list, but having studied it more in depth for a personal essay, it is just amazing. The way MC's music is wild and ethnic compared to the more structured Dante's. Etc.

Listening to TWP now, as always.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 2:04pm

Marie Christine is one of those scores that gets better each time you play it.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/3/06 at 2:07pm

Roninjoey, your response makes me think my post came off with a tone that I didn't intend. I was pointing out the specifics about the awards because I was confused about what you meant; you just said "the Tony." I wasn't using it to refute you. Hence the "wait a minute..." Sorry for that, be it the case.

Anyway, yes. AIDA was not nominated for best musical that year (Contact won). And yes, music is kind of important in a musical but then again, that's why I think its win was justified.

As for comparing the two shows, well, first off, if you're going to have an awards program that is all encompassing, you must compare the shows to be able to hand out awards...

Yes, of course. But I don't hand out Tonys. All I meant by that was that I -- personally, here on my own -- don't find them as *easily* comparable. I'm not talking about all-encompassing awards; I'm relaying my own personal opinion.

Or are we trying to give Elton a break? Elton John, who has world renown, is a "Sir", and heralded as a musical genius?

Hardly. AIDA got a TON of critical backlash, some before it even hit Broadway. People were HARDLY trying to give the show a break just because it was Elton's work.

Updated On: 2/3/06 at 02:07 PM