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The Wild Party (LaChiusa) (2000 Original Broadway Cast) | 
 enlarge | Artists: Michael John Lachiusa, Marc Kudisch, Norm Lewis
Label: Decca Broadway
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy Used: $3.94
You Save: $15.04 (79%)
New (37) Used (21) Collectible (4) from $3.94
Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 10489
Format: Cast Recording, Soundtrack
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 159003
UPC: 601215900323
EAN: 0601215900323
ASIN: B00004T9VJ
Release Date: May 23, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Cd has some scratches that may impede play.Case has a crack and booklet are in great condition.FAST 1st class shipping.
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| Tracks:
| • | Queenie Was a Blonde | | • | Marie is Tricky | | • | Wild Party | | • | Dry | | • | Welcome to My Party | | • | Like Sally | | • | Breezin' Through Another Day | | • | Uptown | | • | Eddie & Mae | | • | Gold & Goldberg | | • | Moving Uptown | | • | Best Friend | | • | A Little Mmm | | • | Tabu/Taking Care of the Ladies | | • | Wouldn't It Be Nice? | | • | Lowdown-Down | | • | Gin/Wild | | • | Black Is A Moocher | | • | People Like Us | | • | After Midnight Dies | | • | Golden Boy | | • | The Movin' Uptown Blues | | • | The Lights of Broadway | | • | More | | • | Love Ain't Nothin'/Welcome to Her Party | | • | How Many Women in the World | | • | When It Ends | | • | This Is What It Is | | • | Finale |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com's Best of 2000
With his controversial The Wild Party, prolific composer-lyricist Michael John LaChiusa continues to stretch the possibilities for contemporary musical theater. His racy musical is based on a 1928 poem about one night of escalating decadence, through which LaChiusa stages a brilliant, savage, polystylistic unmasking of the lies we live by. The original cast recording captures the manic energy of the top-rate cast, including Mandy Patinkin, Toni Collette, and Eartha Kitt all working together in electrifying ensemble. --Thomas May
Amazon.com
Ever since he emerged in the 1990s as one of Broadway's brightest hopes, the young and prolific composer-lyricist Michael John LaChiusa has been charged with the undeniably Sisyphean task of revitalizing the moribund musical. Along with such Tony-nominated efforts as 1999's Marie Christine--his Americanized retelling of the Medea tragedy--LaChiusa has managed to galvanize the genre with The Wild Party. Curiously enough, Joseph Moncure March's once-banned narrative poem of Prohibition-era decadence is the basis for two vastly different musicals produced within the same season (the other being Andrew Lippa's off-Broadway show at Manhattan Theatre Club). LaChiusa's work, which was produced by the Public Theatre's visionary director George C. Wolfe (who also collaborated on the book), kick-starts the new century with a manic, many-leveled, viciously satirical portrait--both brilliantly period and postmodern--of jazz-era alienation, sketching its "sexually ambitious" and "ambi-sextrous" promenade of characters with bold, flinty strokes. In addition to the 1928 poem, it seems equally inspired by The Threepenny Opera, Stephen Sondheim's dark humors, even Ann Douglas's cultural history, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s. LaChiusa depicts the party-turned-nightmare trajectory of the story through complex, polystylistic counterpoint, as well as such searingly straightforward numbers as "After Midnight Dies"; even the orchestrations (by Bruce Coughlin) are fantastically detailed and allusive. Mandy Patinkin is made to draw on his full repertory of shticks and gives a wildly over-the-top characterization of the vaudeville clown Burrs, while Toni Collette (an Oscar nominee for The Sixth Sense), playing his unhappy lover Queenie who throws this mother of all parties, plays against him with toxic, combustible energy. For all the star turns here (including some economical but superbly effective cameos by Eartha Kitt), it's the unflappable ensemble that keeps this party going till the bitter end. --Thomas May
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| Customer Reviews:
 Absolutely Amazing.. Bottom Line March 17, 2008
Tyler A. Rebello (Plattsburgh, NY/Wilmington, VT)
If you are the person who thinks Wicked is the greatest show on Earth.... this is not your flavor of candy. This music is absolutely amazing. Wicked was good, but it was the special effects that grabbed the audience. This cast recording is so unique, it's unbelievable. I didn't expect what I was going to hear.
This style of musical theatre is sophisticated and witty. Amazing and stupendous. Absolutely wonderful. I have listened to this recording about 30 times total. Which is a lot for me considering I have 100+ shows. I am a musical theatre addict. It's what I do. I eat, sleep, work, go to school, and listen to showtunes. it's an exciting life. What can I say...
Buy this if you are into sophisticated and "smart" musical theatre.
Plus, this is the ideal show for any college. It showcases every voice. It's not a one man show, I'll tell ya that much.
Buy it. It's worth every penny.
In Defense of Yancey Arias... September 5, 2007
T. Holmes
Both versions of "The Wild Party" suffer when they are transferred to CD. The Lippa show, in particular, has more than half of the music cut from the show to the disc. This leads to some strange choices for the final product... why on earth would you keep the most irrelevant, lyrically vapid character number ("Two of a kind") in the final production over the "kitchen scene", the "confrontation", or even the sweet Queenie / Black number "Man with a dozen women"? The world may never know...
In LaChiusa's show, the only downside to the recording is that very much of the show is visual. "Wild Party" was up for the Best Lighting Tony when it came out on Broadway in 2000, and it has some absolutely brilliant staging. On the CD, it's also impossible to see the physical interactions among the characters. For most of the cast, this is not a problem, as they are predominantly characterized in their songs. However, the one cast member who gets screwed over is Yancey Arias. No one seems to like his characterization of Black: either he's whiny or dull or otherwise not adequately fleshed out. On the recording, the whole Queenie/Burrs/Kate/Black love-quadrangle seems a little disjointed. In the actual show, Yancey Arias has more strictly-dialogue interactions with Toni Collette that make him a likeable, if somewhat static, character. Black's progress from the initial attraction to Queenie to his willingness to protect her from her violent lover Burrs is clearer and more believable. Not to mention that Arias has a smooth, beautiful voice and can definitely stand up vocally to those he sings against.
Many reviews have already stated that this, moreso than the Lippa show, is an ensemble effort. The supporting cast, consisting of Eartha Kitt, Norm Lewis, Marc Kudisch, Leah Hocking, Jane Summerhays, Michael McElroy, Nathan Lee Graham, and Brooke Sunny Moriber, are all wonderful singers and actors in their own right. Jane Summerhays and Brooke Sunny Moriber (Madelaine True and Nadine, respectively) also suffer from their transition from show to recording, but they are nonetheless very talented and indispensible members of the ensemble.
Toni Collette is, of course, a blessing to every project she participates in. She creates an trapped, outwardly jaded and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of Queenie and she is an absolutely mindblowing singer, (not to mention lyricist. Check out her solo CD under "Toni Collette and the Finish"). Tonya Pinkins is similarly wonderful as Kate, the "dagger-tongued beauty", who is either Queenie's best friend or her greatest rival. Mandy Patinkin's Burrs is a demonic alter-ego to Brian D'Arcy James' portrayal of Burrs in Lippa's show. Patinkin's voice is an incredible instrument, but perhaps he's overqualified for his role here. Burrs is terrifying, and not at all sympathetic. This creates a weakness in the show because you have no reason to believe that Queenie is torn between her two lovers (Black and Burrs). This is not entirely Mandy Patinkin's doing, as it is the responsibility of the show's creators to give the actors something to work with.
The score is magnificently discordant and effectively unsettling. The ensemble numbers such as "Gin/Wild" and, though it's not included on the disc, Madelaine's solo "I Need", are genius, and the solo numbers keep the show rattling along to its tragic conclusion. You should decide for yourself what side to pick in the "Which is better" debate that arises, but LaChiusa's show is definitely an underrated musical theater classic.
The Wild Party - One of the Best Scores of the Past Decade July 4, 2007
wdk921
The Broadway version of THE WILD PARTY, written by Michael John LaChiusa, is surely one of the best scores of the past decade. It is a jazzy, thrilling, brilliant score, and the show has one of the best ensemble casts ever assembled.
Toni Collette is pitch-perfect as Queenie. Every word she sings is entralling. Mandy Patinkin is also fantastic as Burrs, Queenie's violent lover.
Adding great support is Eartha Kitt as Dolores. Her "When it Ends" is a highlight. Tonya Pinkins and Yancey Arias are thrilling as Kate and Black, respectivley. Norm Lewis as Eddie and Marc Kudish also do great work.
Some of the best tracks are:
Queenie is a Blonde
Dry
Breezin' Through Another Day
Gin/Wild
Black is a Moocher
People Like Us
When it Ends
Go out and get this brilliant CD. It is very worth the money.
Simply amazing. November 20, 2006
Aidan Reilly
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Put this CD in your player. Turn the volume knob up. And hit play. Sit back.
.....
BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT!
Way to open a show, Michael John. And it just gets better from there - a rat-tat-tatting drumbeat cuts through the chaos, and the band swings into full hot-jazz swagger. Marc Kudisch smirks out the eternal line "Queenie was a blonde, and her age stood still", and from there on the recording is pure bliss.
Michael John LaChiusa is an immensely gifted lyricist and composer, possibly the most promising of the "New School of Composers", but suffers from the same disease as many of his contemporaries - while his songs are intricately layered and textured, with fantastic lyrics that cut to the core of the characters, he too often forgets to include a melody. Or actually a tune of any kind. Not so here. While his signature key changes, atonality, and surprise tempo shifts are still here, he supplies steel-trap tunes for the overwhelming majority of the songs. It's a genuine surprise to listen to something like "People Like Us" - it's instantly memorable, with a gorgeous melody and lyrics that mist the eyes. It's everything a theater song should be - instantly memorable, heartbreaking, smart and tuneful. And there's more where that came from.
Everybody knows by now the differences between this Wild Party and that Wild Party - Lippa's party is a great source for show-stopping pop tunes and anachronistic bombast, LaChiusa's is the cerebral cousin that requires repeated listening but turns out greater rewards in the end . It's Jerry Herman versus Stephen Sondheim all over again. I will say that I prefer this one, because LaChiusa has widened the scope - while Lippa's show is indisputably the property of the four leads (Queenie, Burrs, Black, and Kate), this is a true ensemble effort. While the brothers D'Armano (here played riotously by Nathan Lee Graham and Michael McElroy) are nothing more than token homosexuals in the Off-Broadway version, here they are absolutely delightful debauchers, singing vaudeville duets and sleeping around, sometimes in the course of the same song. Same with Jackie (Marc Kudisch), Eddie and Mae (the always-welcome Norm Lewis and Leah Hocking), Gold and Goldberg (Adam Grupper and Stuart Zagnit, deliciously Yiddish), the sometimes-comatose Sally (Sally Murphy) and of course Dolores (Eartha Kitt herself, in full vamp mode, purring and sliding and stealing the show with every word out of her mouth). Each of them is a person - a real, flesh-and-blood person. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes terrifying. While the majority of the credit must go to the talented actors (Lewis, Kudisch, and Kitt especially must be singled out as terrific singers), LaChiusa does deserve kudos for refusing to write these oddballs off.
And now for the leads. Here they are, ladies and gentlemen - Mandy Patinkin, Toni Collette, Tonya Pinkins, and Yancey Arias. Toni Collette was born to play Queenie; her slightly husky voice, undeniable singing and acting chops, and way with a wisecrack flesh out the character more than Julia Murney's constant belting ever could. She is more than up to the vocal demands of the score, and every word she says reveals a little more of the damaged goods beneath the hard shell of sex and drugs. Tonya Pinkins is kind of shafted as Kate. She's not given anything particularly revelatory, like Idina Menzel's "Life of the Party". However, she is a far better actress than Menzel, and does good work with what she's given. Yancey Arias shares Taye Diggs' dubious honor of being the weak link in an otherwise excellent cast - he's dull throughout, competent but unspectacular. Maybe it's the character, but at least here Black has some worthwhile material to work with. And finally?
Oh, Mandy. I've listened to this recording over seven times, and I still can't figure out whether his Burrs is a perfectly unhinged portrayal of a shattered vaudeville star or just Patinkin's indulgences allowed to run rampant. He works every single vocal and characteristic quirk he has to its fullest. He's passed "over-the-top" by his third line. He screams, hisses, snarls, growls, tightens his voice to a thin dog's-whistle and widens it to a full, encompassing belt, usually in the same sentence. You can almost hear the foam flying from his mouth. At the very least, he IS scary. (and the way he delivers the line "Don't ever think about not loving me" is absolutely perfect) Also, the differences between characterization on the part of the composers must be noted - Lippa makes Burrs a broken and violent man, while LaChiusa skips the "broken" part and focuses on the "violent", throwing in a pinch of "gibbering mental patient".
The music is great, the characterizations run the gamut, the voices are fantastic. It adds up.
An easy way to tell which version of this show you'll prefer: August 3, 2006
Musical Lover (Ohio)
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
As you may be aware, there are two musical versions of WILD PARTY: this one, written by Andrew Lippa, which premiered off-Broadway, and another version written by Michael John LaChiusa which premiered on Broadway.
Much debate rages in theatre circles about which version is better. In the interest of helping you, the consumer, make an informed decision about which one would better suit you, I have a simple multiple choice quiz you can take. Answer honestly, then scroll to the bottom to tabulate your results (NO PEEKING!).
1.) I think musical theatre is primarily _______.
A) entertainment
B) art
2.) I think RENT and WICKED are bright, shining pinnacles of musical theatre.
A) True
B) False
3.) In a musical, my biggest requirement for songs is:
A) that they be pretty, hummable and toe-tapping.
B) that they be vital to plot and character development.
4.) I think a musical's score should accurately reflect the time period in which it is set.
A) False
B) True
5.) Speaking broadly, I think Stephen Sondheim is _______ while Jonathan Larson is ______.
A) overrated / genius
B) genius / overrated
6.) In a musical, I think the score should:
A) wash over the audience and be easily digestable.
B) require its audience to listen carefully.
Pencils down!
If you scored three or more A's, you will be happier with the Lippa version of this show, as it is a typical book musical in the modernist vein, with an emphasis on musical numbers that function like set-pieces rather than plot points.
If you scored three or more B's, you will be happier with the LaChiusa version of the show, as its score is more stylistically appropriate for the time period. It also develops its characters through music rather than through the script, with an ironic post-modern approach to the subject matter that doesn't attempt to dispell the moral ambiguity of its characters.
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