The Wild Party: Lippa vs. LaChiusa- Page 2

[Kad]

Posted: 8/8/20 at 10:54am

CATSNYrevival said: "Did anyone see the Lippa version at Encores Off-Center? Didn't he rewrite the opening and closing numbers?"

I'm not particularly a fan of Lippa's version, but the changes he made to the show worsened it. "A Wild, Wild Party" opened the show for some reason, with "Queenie was a Blonde" and  "Out of the Blue" cut, which kind of undercut the entire piece.

Lippa writes fairly generic musical theater-pop vocal showcase numbers and Wild Party is no exception. The songs are more accessible and work out of context, so they've found a great deal of life in schools and cabarets and auditions. The show itself is pretty shallow and focused solely on the Black-Burrs-Queenie melodrama romance triangle- everyone else is basically featured ensemble and don't really have much to do following their introduction numbers.

LaChiusa's score is more nuanced and period accurate and his version of the show actually expands the source material. All the party guests are developed- they have clear motives for being at the party and clear character arcs. The show delves into race and sexuality and how the characters are affected by society's views.  It's just a richer take.

[Owen22]

Posted: 8/8/20 at 11:26am

It's been noted that the LaChuisa version is much more. Period Accurate. I agree, except for the standout number, the duet between Black and Queenie which is pure pop.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/8/20 at 3:42pm

Owen22 said: "It's been noted that the LaChuisa version is much more. Period Accurate. I agree, except for the standout number, the duet between Black and Queenie which is pure pop."

"People Like Us." I adore that song.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 8/8/20 at 3:48pm

"People Like Us" was the lift-off moment of the whole night-- it made great dramatic sense to drop away all the twenties artifice and have these two characters sing from their hearts, out of period and outside the tawdry Harlem apartment on the fire escape. That scene was magic.

[binau]

Posted: 8/10/20 at 9:13am

'WILD' BEHAVIOR AT 'PARTY'
By MICHAEL RIEDEL
----------
IN the new musical "The Wild Party," Mandy Patinkin gives an intense and frightening performance as Burrs, a gin-swilling, psychotic vaudeville clown who beats his girlfriend.

But for many of his fellow cast members, Patinkin's performance has at times been a little too intense, a little too frightening and a little too real.

Cast members say that during previews, the actor has ad-libbed bits of physical and verbal abuse, including smacking people in the head, shoving them, spitting water in their faces and making offensive remarks to them under his breath.

He has also been prone to strange emotional outbursts - at one point holing up in his dressing room and sobbing uncontrollably for four hours because he was unhappy with the show's lighting.

The actors say they were never sure what Patinkin was going to do to them on stage. One said they "walked around like we were wearing lead underwear for protection."

Patinkin's co-star Toni Collette got so fed up with his antics that she decided to get even. During the performance last Friday night, she crept up on him from behind and gave him a "retaliatory shove," according to a cast member.

After the performance, a furious Patinkin said he was quitting "The Wild Party." He did not show up for the Saturday matinee, prompting the producers to threaten him with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, production sources said.

The threat worked: Fifteen minutes before the Saturday night performance, just as his understudy was preparing to go on stage, Patinkin walked through the stage door and did the show.

One of Broadway's biggest stars, Patinkin has long had a reputation for being difficult.

Even he concedes he can be flaky. At the start of rehearsals for "The Wild Party," he told cast members that "Mandy" is short for Mandel, which in Yiddish means "nut."

"And that's what I am, a nut," one performer quoted him as saying.

How nutty soon became abundantly clear, according to cast members.

During one preview, Patinkin smacked two male actors in the head and then kissed them violently on the mouth - two actions that were not part of director George C. Wolfe's staging.

Another time, while sitting at the bar on stage, he took a swig of water and then spit it out in an actress' face. The spitting had never been rehearsed or discussed, so the actress was caught off guard.

Patinkin clashed with Collette early on in rehearsals.

While working on an intense scene in which she holds a knife to his heart and threatens to kill him, he decided that instead of singing a tender song to her, he would turn to the audience and sing it to them.

A frustrated Collette finally yelled: "I'm holding a knife to your heart and I am going to kill you! Why are you singing to the audience?"

When Patinkin refused to look at her, she threw down the knife and walked out of the rehearsal room.

"You never know what he is going to do," said a cast member. "Sometimes he's nice and contrite about something he did the night before. Other times he's seething, and you have to watch out."

Patinkin's defenders say his outbursts and ad libs are part of his creative process, and that each time he has gone too far with another performer, Wolfe has spoken to him and the incident has not been repeated.

They also say that, because of its subject matter, "The Wild Party" itself has stirred up weird behavior not just in Patinkin but in other cast members as well.

"This is a violent show," said one source. "There's simulated sex, drug use, fighting and drinking. It brings out the dark side of everyone."

Wolfe told The Post: "The parameters of this material are so volatile, it has taken everybody - and I mean everybody - some time to learn what they are."

He added: "The rehearsal and preview process ... has been demanding, exhilarating and exhausting. The material requires that actors go to very complicated emotional places inside of themselves. All of the actors have gone on that journey passionately, intensely and fearlessly."

Wolfe called Patinkin "an amazing artist who has transformed the role of Burrs in ways I never imagined. He is a one-of-a-kind creative force ... I would relish the opportunity to work with him again."

Calls to Patinkin's lawyer, Victoria Traube, were referred to the show's press agent, who said the actor was "unavailable for comment."

[binau]

Posted: 8/10/20 at 9:13am

'WILD' BEHAVIOR AT 'PARTY'
By MICHAEL RIEDEL
----------
IN the new musical "The Wild Party," Mandy Patinkin gives an intense and frightening performance as Burrs, a gin-swilling, psychotic vaudeville clown who beats his girlfriend.

But for many of his fellow cast members, Patinkin's performance has at times been a little too intense, a little too frightening and a little too real.

Cast members say that during previews, the actor has ad-libbed bits of physical and verbal abuse, including smacking people in the head, shoving them, spitting water in their faces and making offensive remarks to them under his breath.

He has also been prone to strange emotional outbursts - at one point holing up in his dressing room and sobbing uncontrollably for four hours because he was unhappy with the show's lighting.

The actors say they were never sure what Patinkin was going to do to them on stage. One said they "walked around like we were wearing lead underwear for protection."

Patinkin's co-star Toni Collette got so fed up with his antics that she decided to get even. During the performance last Friday night, she crept up on him from behind and gave him a "retaliatory shove," according to a cast member.

After the performance, a furious Patinkin said he was quitting "The Wild Party." He did not show up for the Saturday matinee, prompting the producers to threaten him with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, production sources said.

The threat worked: Fifteen minutes before the Saturday night performance, just as his understudy was preparing to go on stage, Patinkin walked through the stage door and did the show.

One of Broadway's biggest stars, Patinkin has long had a reputation for being difficult.

Even he concedes he can be flaky. At the start of rehearsals for "The Wild Party," he told cast members that "Mandy" is short for Mandel, which in Yiddish means "nut."

"And that's what I am, a nut," one performer quoted him as saying.

How nutty soon became abundantly clear, according to cast members.

During one preview, Patinkin smacked two male actors in the head and then kissed them violently on the mouth - two actions that were not part of director George C. Wolfe's staging.

Another time, while sitting at the bar on stage, he took a swig of water and then spit it out in an actress' face. The spitting had never been rehearsed or discussed, so the actress was caught off guard.

Patinkin clashed with Collette early on in rehearsals.

While working on an intense scene in which she holds a knife to his heart and threatens to kill him, he decided that instead of singing a tender song to her, he would turn to the audience and sing it to them.

A frustrated Collette finally yelled: "I'm holding a knife to your heart and I am going to kill you! Why are you singing to the audience?"

When Patinkin refused to look at her, she threw down the knife and walked out of the rehearsal room.

"You never know what he is going to do," said a cast member. "Sometimes he's nice and contrite about something he did the night before. Other times he's seething, and you have to watch out."

Patinkin's defenders say his outbursts and ad libs are part of his creative process, and that each time he has gone too far with another performer, Wolfe has spoken to him and the incident has not been repeated.

They also say that, because of its subject matter, "The Wild Party" itself has stirred up weird behavior not just in Patinkin but in other cast members as well.

"This is a violent show," said one source. "There's simulated sex, drug use, fighting and drinking. It brings out the dark side of everyone."

Wolfe told The Post: "The parameters of this material are so volatile, it has taken everybody - and I mean everybody - some time to learn what they are."

He added: "The rehearsal and preview process ... has been demanding, exhilarating and exhausting. The material requires that actors go to very complicated emotional places inside of themselves. All of the actors have gone on that journey passionately, intensely and fearlessly."

Wolfe called Patinkin "an amazing artist who has transformed the role of Burrs in ways I never imagined. He is a one-of-a-kind creative force ... I would relish the opportunity to work with him again."

Calls to Patinkin's lawyer, Victoria Traube, were referred to the show's press agent, who said the actor was "unavailable for comment."