LaChiusa Wild Party- Page 5

[newintown]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 8:48am

The character's name is Burrs, not "Burse."

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 9:45am

CMU did the LaChiusa in 2004, with Matthew (then "Matt") Scott as Burrs. It was great.

They just did the Lippa in March of this year, but I didn't see that one because Lippa.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 10:01am

Most productions of both versions seem to be done primarily by colleges. It makes sense as both have a lot of moments for numerous characters to take the spotlight for a few moments, as opposed to the pieces where you have to stick a lot of people in the chorus where they just blend in as one.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 10:07am

Also, at CMU, Meg Hilty played Queenie, but it’s Lexy Fridell, who played Dolores, that is burned into my memory. It was a wonderful and – I don’t use this word lightly – fierce performance.

[jj39]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 11:38am

In May there was a production done at NYU Tisch by the senior musical theatre majors directed by Kent Gash, who also directed the CMU production in 2004.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 3:55pm

They just did the Lippa in March of this year, but I didn't see that one because Lippa.

When I first saw they were doing the Wild Party, I got so excited because I thought it was the LaChiusa, but was very dismayed to see it was instead the Lippa.

I would love to see (or hear) Megan Hilty's Queenie! I wonder if anything is floating around of her performance.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 4:46pm

Same here. I always thought that if they were to do a revival, Megan Hilty would make a great Queenie.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 5:10pm

I haven't turned up any footage, certainly not online. Even information about that production is pretty scarce. This site has some production photos:

http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Wild-Party/1625225

(I'd forgotten they'd cast a white Black.)

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 5:15pm

Is Black written as, well, black in LaChiusa's show? I know his show is essentially about race, but I don't remember Black being racialized as much as all the supporting figures were.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 5:31pm

^ I’d be interested to know, if anyone has a script. Obviously, both original NYC productions used men of color in the role, and the character’s name is, well, Black.

Moncure’s poem describes him as “tall; dark; heavy of shoulder.” The only other character described as “dark” is Dolores, who’s also explicitly stated to be part African-American. However, the poem also describes Black thusly…

“His face was tanned, and his smile was white.
His features were sharply cut
And clean:
He looked sporting: he looked keen.
He made you think of squash-rackets;
Polo; and yachting;
And dinner-jackets.”

…language, which, to me, rings of white upper-middle class.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 5:37pm

Fun fact: Aaron Staton, the Black from the CMU production with Hilty, plays Ken Cosgrove on "Mad Men."

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 5:58pm

LaChiusa has mentioned that they wanted to cast (I think it was Wolfe's idea) to cast someone of mixed race in the role, for that very reason.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 5:59pm

Fun fact: He was horribly boring in THE WILD PARTY, easily the most lacking performance in the production.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 6:09pm

"I’d be interested to know, if anyone has a script. Obviously, both original NYC productions used men of color in the role, and the character’s name is, well, Black."

The script was published in an anthology with Rent, Floyd Collins, and Parade. Sadly my copy is locked away in a storage unit back in NY and nowhere near where I currently am in Vermont. I don't recall if it specifically mentioned that the character was African-American.

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-American-Musical-Anthology/dp/1559362006

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 6/5/14 at 9:33pm

Both black and Kate are written as racially ambiguous, as is Queenie.

Edit: Queenie is mentioned as being blonde in the opening number, but LaChiusa himself originally wanted a black Queenie.

Updated On: 6/5/14 at 09:33 PM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 6/6/14 at 1:40am

Wasn't Vanessa Williams at one point slated to play Queenie?

[Fantod]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 2:22pm

I just finished watching a "version" of the show from the very first New York preview. The show is about half an hour longer and works a lot better. My comments about LaChiusa in the other thread got me thinking about this show. I personally think it is the only time LaChiusa's music actually works. The whole score is searing and sizzling, and though not exactly pleasant to listen to, it's quite good. In the first preview version, the song Need (my least favorite in the score) is cut and Black is a Moocher actually ends. The effect is much better. This is What it Is isn't in the show, and there is a different and less distinguished number in its place. The show still fascinates me, and I understand why people would hate it and love it. I still think Tonya Pinkins was miscast as Kate, especially as both the poem and script reference her as being a redhead.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 3:38pm

Just giving a quick genuflection to Eartha - a divine presence in a sublime show!

[JBradshaw]

Posted: 3/16/15 at 12:57am

Eartha should of won the Tony.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 3/16/15 at 1:02am

Fantod, In an interview, Tonya said the show greatly deteriorated throughout previews as Toni refused to work with any material she disliked, saying "If [blank] happened to me, I'd just leave" and such like that.

[Fantod]

Posted: 3/16/15 at 1:11am

That seems strange. Toni was a star at the time, but she wasn't and still isn't that big of a star (the show ran less than 70 performances and Eartha Kitt was the one who drew applause upon her entrance) so I wonder how she was able to make so many demands. I wonder what the show would have been like if Toni had done everything they wanted her to do.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 3/16/15 at 1:22pm

I just saw a professional production in Toronto. I liked it, but it was so heavy. Every character was in emotional turmoil in every scene for the whole show. 2 hours without intermission was exhausting.

From the talk back I found out, the original Queenie was to be played by Vanessa Williams who was passing as white in the chorus and in a relationship with Burrs who plays in black face and explore the dynamics of that relationship. But, obviously that had to be changed when she got pregnant and replaced by Toni Collette.

Queenie in the Toronto production was played by a mixed race actress. Burrs was played by a black actor (with several scenes in black face) and Mr Black was played by a white man.

By the way, in the production of Lippa's The Wild Party I saw (a professional production), Mr. Black is the one killed and Queenie and Burrs survive.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/24/15 at 1:00pm

Bumping this because the recent Encores presentation of Lippa's reworked Wild Party made me finally give LaChiusa's the attention it deserves. I have to say, it's a ravishing score- possibly my favorite of LaChiusa's, a composer who I have a lot of trouble embracing for reasons not dissimilar to newintown's. But every song in this score works, at least on the recording, very well, and unlike Lippa's, this feels like a party. His pastiches of 1920s style are also pretty darn great, and utilized well to establish plot and character. It lacks the vocal powerhouse songs of Lippa's, but then again, a song like "Black is a Moocher" says a lot more about this incarnation of Kate than "Life of the Party" does for Lippa's.

If Lippa's recent extremely ill-advised revisions are preserved, I do wonder how the legacy of these rather inexplicable rival pieces will be affected.