Home | Tickets | Directions | Blogs | Discussion Group | Links | About Us |
New Line Theatre's current presentation of The Wild Party is a deliriously engaging experience, easily making it one of the best productions of the year so far. Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com
Imagine a strobe-light flashing rapidly; or a coin flipping in the air, heads becoming indistinguishable from tails as it spins. Likewise, the flashing strobe creates an effect somewhere between bright light and pure dark, as the transitions themselves become a blazing, third state of energy. So it is with Scott Miller's fantastic new production of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party. . . Don't miss this excellent show. Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com
While highly melodramatic, sometimes to the point of hysteria, a large number of fine performances, spot-on, rapid-fire direction and plenty of sex make the show fast-moving, highly entertaining and oh, my goodness, bawdy and naughty. Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks
The Wild Party takes you on a wild ride. Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Read more reviews here. It's the greatest night they'll ever regret. It was a roaring age of bootleggers, flappers, and talkies; the hard-won vote for women; widespread social conflict; and the birth of organized crime. As unprecedented prosperity and sweeping social change dazzled the public, the restrictions of the Victorian nineteenth century vanished, and many of the institutions, ideas, and preoccupations of our own age emerged. America became, for the first time, thoroughly Modern.
And, much like America today, the culture spun dangerously out of control...
New Line's 19th season continued in April and May, 2010, with the St. Louis premiere of
Andrew Lippa's raunchy, rowdy jazz musical THE WILD PARTY. Based on the notorious
poem about a
decadent and deadly all-night party in 1920s Manhattan, it captures the potent
cocktail of bewildered innocence and worldly cynicism at the fiery peak of
the Jazz Age, just a year before the Crash of 1929, when everything would
change.
The New York Daily News called the show sizzling, vital and groundbreaking. The New York Times said, "Its strong suit is summoning the anxious restlessness behind the hellbent hedonism of the days of Prohibition." The legendary Beat writer William Burroughs said of the infamous original poem, "It's the book that made me want to become a writer."
The cast of the New Line production included Margeau Baue Steinau (Queenie), Jeffrey Pruett (Burrs), Deborah Sharn (Kate), Keith Parker (Black), Emily Berry (Mae), Mara Bollini (Delores), Mike Dowdy (Oscar), Zachary Allen Farmer (Eddie), Nikki Glenn (Madelaine), Joel Hackbarth (Phil), Theresa Hermann (Lois), Macia Noorman (Nadine), Eeyan Richardson (Max), Michelle Sauer (Ellie), Troy Turnipseed (Sam), and Aaron VanderYacht (Jackie). The show will be directed by Scott Miller and Alison Helmer, with choreography by Robin Michelle Berger, costume design by Thom Crain, scenic design by Todd Schaefer, and lighting design by Shannon Fedde.
New Line's Wild Party
|
|
Want
to explore more? We recommend: The Wild Party cast album and vocal selections Composer-lyricist Andrew Lippa's personal website Joseph Moncure March's 1928 epic poem, The Wild Party, the basis for the show, with illustrations by Art Spiegelman Director Scott Miller's background and analysis essay about The Wild Party The New Liners' Wild Party blogs -- director Scott Miller's blog, Mara Bollini's blog, Joel Hackbarth's blog, Margeau Steinau's blog, Troy Turnipseed's blog, Aaron VanderYacht's blog The not-very-good 1975 movie version The true story upon which the poem and show are loosely based An article about another stage adaptation and the poem's background The website 1920s Fashion and Music.com The University of Virginia's excellent vaudeville site, the New York Public Library's Vaudeville Nation, the American Vaudeville Museum, the excellent Jolson and Friends vaudeville blog, and a short history of vaudeville A short history video history of vaudeville from University of Arizona, and other vaudeville related videos on YouTube |