Review Roundup: THE WILD PARTY at the Other Palace - Updated!

Set against a backdrop of Manhattan decadence and 1920's excess, The Wild Party tells the story of Queenie and Burrs, a Vaudeville showgirl and a Vaudeville clown whose relationship is marked by vicious behaviour and recklessness. In an attempt to salvage their toxic union, they decide to throw a party to end all parties. The guests are a vivid collection of the unruly and the undone: a cocaine-sniffing bisexual playboy; a washed-up boxer; a diva of indeterminate age; a fresh-faced ingénue; and a handsome 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. But when midnight debauchery turns into tragedy, the revellers must sober up and face reality. After all, no party lasts forever.

The cast of The Wild Party includes Frances Ruffelle as Queenie, John Owen-Jones as Burrs, Simon Thomas as Black, Donna McKechnie as Dolores, Dex Lee as Jackie, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as Kate, Ako Mitchell as Eddie, Gloria Obianyo and Genesis Lynea as The D'armano Bros, Melanie Bright as Sally, Lizzy Connolly as Mae, Steven Serlin as Goldberg, Sebastian Torkia as Gold, Bronté Barbé as Nadine and Tiffany Graves as Madelaine.

Based on Joseph Moncure March's narrative poem of the same title, The Wild Party originally opened on Broadway in 2000 with a cast including Toni Collette, Mandy Patinkin and Eartha Kitt. The production received 7 Tony Award nominations, and a Grammy Award nomination for its composer and lyricist Michael John LaChiusa. LaChiusa is one of the most prolific writers for the American musical stage, with works including Hello Again (1994), Marie Christine (1999), The Wild Party (2000) and See What I Wanna See (2005). He was nominated for Tony Awards for his book and score for The Wild Party and Marie Christine, and for his book for Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

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Gary Naylor, BroadwayWorld: The spectacle (and this is a big show even if The Other Palace remains a medium-size theatre) gives us plenty to look at while the booze flows and the insults fly, but we never really get to know the real person behind the stereotype, as there just isn't time available to do much more than sketch in a personality trait or two and they're off. Inevitably, we just don't care enough about them to be sufficiently invested in their fates.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: Michael John LaChiusa (book, music and lyrics) and George C Wolfe (book) turn it into a big, blowsy show that offers an exhausting miscellany of 1920s musical idioms. Drew McOnie's direction and choreography are also so unvaryingly frenzied as to leave one tired without being satisfied...It could work if the songs had room to breathe and if the show didn't advertise its decadence so strenuously...The cast work with a will. Frances Ruffelle as Queenie floats elegantly through the evening, suggesting there is a lost soul lurking inside her sinuous body. John Owen-Jones as her thuggish lover and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as her poisonous friend are perfectly good, and Donna McKechnie plays a showbiz veteran with poise and grace. But those are qualities in short supply in a musical that becomes monotonous in its unrelenting intensity.

Henry Hitchings, The Evening Standard: Some of the dialogue is as exciting as brushing your teeth, and there's a fair dollop of stodgy exposition. Yet what The Wild Party lacks in story it abundantly makes up for in other departments. Sassily directed by Drew McOnie, it's packed with bold choreography. The jazzy tunes are energetically performed by Theo Jamieson's eight-piece band, and the score has moments of feral unpredictability.

Mark Shenton, The Stage: The show is driven by ecstatic, elastic movement from director/choreographer Drew McOnie that perfectly complements its restless, relentless narrative journey. A stunning cast of musical theatre veterans, including not one but two Tony winners, and younger performers bring each character to bracing and bruising life.

Holly Williams, WhatsOnStage: It might not boast memorable individual tunes, but there's a really gorgeous jazz score, that murmurs seductively under the (rather lacklustre) dialogue and bursts into syncopated, scorching song and dance numbers, from scatting be-bop and the black bottom, to blues and the odd ballad. Under Theo Jamieson's musical direction the band is smoking hot, and under Drew McOnie's direction and choreography, the cast respond with flapping, high-kicking, jazz-hands-ing joy.

Ann Treneman, The Times: This musical, about gin, skin and sin, or so we are told, is set in 1920s New York. Queenie is a floozy vaudeville dancer living with Burrs, a clown who feels dangerous from the get-go. It is decided, in a scene in which Queenie starts out handcuffed to the bed and Burrs mutters about hitting her, that they may not be having enough fun. (You think?) "When was the last time we had a real party?" she asks. It's the kind of party you really wouldn't stay at for long.

Marianka Swain, TheArtsDesk: The Other Palace's housewarming party certainly lives up to its billing as a wild one...Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe's 2000 version...is smoky jazz opera, each number bleeding into the next. It slips down like smooth liquor, but leaves no aftertaste - amiable pastiche of more profound and more indelible shows. The plot is similarly insubstantial...Thank heavens, then, for director/choreographer Drew McOnie and his equally virtuosic company, whose unflagging energy and supreme ability to paper over the cracks turn a slight, meandering show into a sizzling spectacle.

Tony Peters, RadioTimes: ...director/choreographer Drew McConie has worked wonders with what is often a paper-thin narrative to make this an exuberant and breathless ride. And he's well served by a smoking hot band under the musical direction of Theo Jamieson and a faultless company serving up some cracking performances. Frances Ruffelle is a compelling mix of world-weary and vulnerable as Queenie; John Owen-Jones commands the stage as her melancholy clown partner, and Victoria Hamilton-Barrit is irresistibly sassy and sexy as Queenie's friend and rival Kate - their smokey vocals on the duet Best Friend a real highlight.

Terri Eastham, LondonTheatre1.com: The Wild Party starts with a bang with the song Queenie was a Blonde' and goes charging through the nearly two and a half hour runtime at full pelt until the final moments. This is Musical Theatre with a capital M and T. Virtually no script, the story is pretty much told in song and dance and looks like it really tests both the actors and the band...For the actors, this is high energy and Director/Choreographer Drew McOnie really evokes the spirit of the age...and keeps the narrative moving at a fair old pace...Frances Ruffelle as Queenie particularly shines as does John Owen-Jones as Burr and the two of them really do seem like lovers at loggerheads with each other...I think the problem was that there was so much going on at a frantic pace that, at times it all got a little overwhelming at times as to who was doing what to or with whom.

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Photo Credit: Scott Rylander

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