LaChiusa Wild Party- Page 4

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/29/14 at 6:08pm

But when I refer to the Medea upon which Marie Christine is based, I'm referring to the entire myth, not Euripides' work alone.

Ah...that wasn't clear. But then, it's not as if the majority of audiences are going to be that familiar with the entire myth. Even taking the entire myth in regard, LaChiusa's work is still very different.

Even My Fair Lady, adhering rather closely to Pygmalion, still has a very different feel, adapting Shaw's Anglo-Irish Socialist sensibility through an American lens.

Sounds like hair-splitting. I'm surprised you find My Fair Lady a more substantive adaptation than Hello Again, especially considering Hello Again incorporate similar changes (and more) from its original text. But if you really can't be bothered to explore it further, then I can only surmise you are simply making assumptions based on a memory of a single viewing many years ago and there may have been more to the adaptations than you care to remember. I just find it odd. As you said, you believe "substantive" is the eye of the beholder and I assume you find it more closely related to personal preference than by definition.

[newintown]

Posted: 5/30/14 at 8:31am

I suppose so, probably. I'm not invested here in being "right," but rather, only expressing my observations and opinions.

I've never done repeated viewings of any LaChiusa show (and I've seen them all except for Queen of the Mist and See What I Wanna See in its entirety, only R shomon), and very rarely listen to any of the recordings (although I have a few). But it should be acknowledged that, even in his more through-sung shows, the recording isn't an entirely accurate representation of the show as a whole.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 5/30/14 at 2:12pm

Does anybody know where I can find a detailed synopsis of this show? The plot seems to be quite different than the one off-Broadway and in the original poem, but I would love to know what it is.

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:15pm

^ I second the request for the full synopsis. Is the cast recording the full show? As in, is the show sung-through?

[newintown]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:24pm

I think the basic storyline is the same for both, adhering to the poem; LaChiusa & Wolfe's show just gives more material to the other party guests.

That is, the basic story is the Queenie-Burrs-Black triangle. Although some of the songs for the other guests in the LaChiusa are fun, they don't directly have anything to do with that story, but contribute more to the tone and general themes of the evening.

[J.J.]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:24pm

Didn't this production end up cutting out almost 90 minutes of material during rehearsals? I think originally it had an intermission also. Does anyone remember anything that they cut, besides Yancey's speech?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:33pm

I don't have the poem in front of me, so take this with a grain of salt, but if memory serves, in the poem, Kate and Burrs sleep together while Black is romancing Queenie, but neither musical includes that. Can anyone help out here?

[newintown]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:36pm

Here's a link to the full text, if it helps.
The Wild Party

[newintown]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:39pm

I think Burrs & Kate just make out:

Meanwhile, on the double bed,
Eyes closed in bliss,
Burrs and Kate lay locked
In a five-minute kiss.
Of course —
It meant nothing to either one:
They were simply snatching a bit of fun.
They stirred:
They unlocked:
They came up for air.
Their eyes blurred:
The room rocked:
They peered here and there.
Suddenly Kate had a moving thought:
“Where’s that cock-eyed bastard I brought?”

They return to the bed later, but nothing explicit between them is described.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:41pm

If I remember correctly (and I'm not forty and still dealing with a hangover from the weekend), in Wolfe's staging, Kate sings 'Black Is a Moocher' to Burrs in the bedroom and ends up straddling him at the end of the song like she's riding his...well...you know.

I always inferred that they were in fact f*cking.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:46pm

Oh, right, now I remember that. They don't have sex, but they do get "intimate." And that's funny, Robbie -- in the Wolfe staging, I never inferred that they were doing anything more than being drunk and behaving a little desperately.

Also, newintown, I've looked at that page before, and sadly, it's not the full text, as advertised.

[newintown]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:49pm

Those filthy LIARS!

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:50pm

Yeah, I don't think the poem exists online in its entirety.

[newintown]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 3:56pm

What is missing from that site, O Growl? The published version I have (at home, sadly) is a very thin volume.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 4:02pm

I've always wondered (for either version), is anything other than the opening lines taken directly from the poem?

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 4:03pm

I just assumed during After Midnight Dies, the entire apartment smells of sweat and various other bodily fluids. I remember Kate lowering herself onto Burrs' crotch, but, as recent events have proved to me, that don't have to mean nuthin.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 4:11pm

I don't have the hard copy in front of me, either, but that last line is completed as "Neither one knew what the other was saying," and it goes on from there.

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 11:14pm

If I recall, it's alluded to that Burs either has or is about to screw Kate, and has definitely done so in the past.

[Pawnee Bill]

Posted: 6/3/14 at 11:47pm

The senior Albee, the vaudeville magnate, was the playwright's grandfather, not his father.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 6/4/14 at 4:19pm

So strange that there is not a single production of it scheduled anywhere in the world...
according to the R&H website. I have only heard of one production at Columbia University in Chicago several years back. Surprises me that neither version of "The Wild Party" gets performed very much.

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/4/14 at 4:43pm

I've seen the Lippa version performed in PA at least twice in three years, but never the LaChiusa.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/4/14 at 4:45pm

Before that, there was a production at Circle Theatre in Chicago that I believe LaChiusa attended in 2002.

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 6/4/14 at 7:26pm

Okay, so after reading the scripts of both versions, I can say that they differentiate in plot considerably. One thing is the in the original poem, Burrs rapes Nadine, while in the Lippa version he just attacks her and in the LaChiusa version Jackie rapes her. Also, there is something between Kate and Eddie in the LaChiusa version as referenced in the song "Wouldn't it be nice?".

Mr. Nowack, The entirety of Queenie was a Blonde and these lines from Marie is Tricky are in the poem:

She lived at present with a man named Burrs
Whose act came on just after hers,
A Clown of renown
He was comical as sin
He was comical as hell
A gesture, a grin and the house would yell

also

Studio bedroom
bath, kitchenette
furnished like a third act passion set
oriental, sentimental
they owed two months on the rental.

edit: spelling of "Burrs"

Updated On: 6/5/14 at 07:26 PM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 6/4/14 at 8:11pm

Thank you, mjohnson. I had always wondered that, because the opening few lines were definitely from the original poem, since both versions used them, but I was never sure how far it extended.

Wouldn't that have been fascinating to see what it would be like if both composers just musicalized the poem (even if not in its entirety)?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/4/14 at 8:15pm

There was a well reviewed (and apparently very explicit) professional production in Vancouver two years back that I wish I had been able to see. (The LaChiusa show.)