Thursday, May 03, 2007

The Wild Party

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "The Wild Party" by Andrew Lippa

based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March

Date: Wed, May 11:59 PM

Quicktake on THE WILD PARTY

     Those with fond memories of Speakeasy's production of Michael John LaChiusa's version of "The Wild Party" a few season's back are liable to be slightly disappointed in Andrew Lippa's approach to the same material. Not that the New Rep's current production just could be the sharpest and most energetic small music theatre presentation of the season, but that Lippa's one-man show (book, music, and lyrics) seems something of a pastiche. He's tried to meld the jazz and music theatre sounds of the Roaring '20s with contemporary styles with mixed results. He's also concentrated on four principal characters, leaving the rest of Moncure's menagerie mostly as background. None of the four are particularly well motivated.

     First there's Queenie, the archetypical blonde nightclub dancer, played Marla Mindelle, the center of most of the numbers, bored after three years living with Burrs, a vaudeville clown with a dark side. Burrs gives Todd Alan Johnson, seen as Mac the Knife previously at the New Rep a chance to play full-throttle. The other woman, who shows up for the party is Kate, a nightclub singer and old friend, played by Sarah Corey, who appeared in "Caroline or Change" as Mother, with an agenda to break things up. She's accompanied by Black, played by Maurice E. Parent, seen last season as Coalhouse in "Ragtime." He and Queenie hit it off, Sarah vamps Burrs, and tragedy ensues. But the major motivation behind it all seems to be terminal boredom, not a particularly dramatic emotion.

     The rest of the characters are given somewhat short shrift, though Leigh Barrett as Madeline True, Lesbian, has the show's most memorable number, the solo "An Old Fashioned Love Story." Jake Mosser and Ilyse Robbins as Eddie the Prizefighter and Mae, his diminutive partner, have their own musical hall number, "Two of a Kind" but no plot, and Phil the Broadway producer, played by Brian De Lorenzo, is really just part of the ensemble. Director Rick Lombardo has assembled a fine ensemble and choreographer Kelli Edwards generates a lot of erotic heat from them, with the help of Betsy Adkins and Ilyse Robbins as Dance Captains. One could only wish that all this talent had stronger material to work with, It's a show certainly worth watching, there are effective and challenging musical moments, masterfully handled by music director Todd C. Gordon, but the aftermath isn't a hangover, but rather like a large dinner of Chinese takeout where everyone ordered their favorites, a lot got sampled, but the result wasn't particularly satisfying. The ending is typical of this problem. When Queenie, whose world has crashed around her, should be waiting for the cops, she sings a rather moralizing power ballad and exits into the night. End of show.

     The design for "The Wild Party" is uniformly superb with a mirror filled set by IRNE winner Janie E. Howland, spot-on period costumes by IRNE winner Frances Nelson McSherry, and effective contemporary lighting by Franklin Meissner, Jr. Properties by Erik D. Diaz and a number of small movable pieces, notably the brass bed and the bathroom give a sense of Queenie and Burrs' hermetic world. All that's lacking is the author's dramatic focus, despite the best efforts of all involved. Sometimes you can't have everything. Incidentally, the New Rep is adding a summer show this year. Leigh Barrett, Andrew Giordano, and Maryann Zschau are doing "Side by Side by Sondheim" July 7 - 22 on the Arsenal Mainstage. That'll be something.



"The Wild Party" by Andrew Lippa, April 25 - May 20
New Repertory Theatre at Arsenal Center for the Arts

321 Arsenal St. Watertown MA, (617) 923 - 8487
New Rep

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