Origin Theatrical

 

THE WILD PARTY

Manhattan decadence in the 1920's provides the backdrop for this tough musical fable. Queenie, a vaudeville chorine, hosts the blow-out of the title with her vicious lover, a black-face minstrel. The guests are a vivid collection of the unruly and the undone: Queenie's conniving rival; a cocaine-sniffing bisexual playboy; a washed-up boxer; a black brother act; a diva of indeterminate age and infinite life experience; the fresh-off-the-farm ingenue whose naivete quickly evaporates; a lesbian actress and her comatose girlfriend; and the bargain basement Valentino who catches Queenie's roving eye.

The jazz and gin soaked party rages to a mounting sense of threat as artifice and illusion are stripped away. When midnight debauchery leads to tragedy at dawn, the high-flying characters land with a sobering thud, reminding us that no party lasts forever.

Cast Requirements: Principals: 7 Female, 8 Male.

Set Requirements: THE WILD PARTY takes place in New York City in 1928. SPECIFIC LOCATIONS: A Bare Stage; Queenie and Burrs' Apartment;

Genre / Style: 1920's Musical Drama

Rehearsal / Orchestral Material: Rehearsal Set (22 Books, 1 Logo) 20 Libretto-Vocal Books; 2 PIANO CONDUCTOR SCORE; Orchestra Package (15 Books) 1 PIANO CONDUCTOR SCORE; 1 REED I (Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone); 1 REED II (Clarinet, Alto Saxophone); 1 REED III (Flute, Piccolo, Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone); 1 REED IV (Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Bariton Saxophone); 1 TRUMPET I (Doubling Flugelhorn); 1 TRUMPET II (Doubling Flugelhorn); 1 TROMBONE; 1 PIANO (Doubling Celeste); 1 BASS (Acoustic Bass Doubling Tuba); 1 GUITAR (Doubling Banjo, Standard Ukulele, Baritone Ukulele); 1 VIOLIN I-II; 1 VIOLIN III (Doubling Viola); 1 DRUMS (Traps, Police Whistle, Wood Block); 1 PERCUSSION;

Musical Numbers: Queenie Wazza Blonde, Dry, Welcome To My Party, Breezin Through Another Day, Eddie & Mae, Moving Uptown, Best Friend, Woundn't It Be Nice? Lowdown-Down, The Lights of Broadway, After Midnight Dies, Love Ain't Nothin' This Is What It Is, How Many Women In The World?

Music and Lyrics by MIchael John LaChiusa
Book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe

1990 Grammy Awards
Nomination, Best Musical Show Album

"The first musical triumph of the new century!"
New York Daily News

"THE WILD PARTY is a dark, sensual, and glittering musical. [It proves] that the good, old-fashioned book musical form is still vibrant and very much alive. Bravo!”
Thomas Burke, TalkinBroadway.com, 2000

"The show has vast entertainment potential and stark emotional power... This score is easily the hottest that Broadway has recently produced."
Matthew Murray, Theatermania, 2005

"It should have many more reincarnations in the regional theatres and elsewhere and take its rightful place among the few great works of contemporary musical theatre."
Suzanne Bixby, TalkinBroadway.com