The party's over for the Manhattan Theatre Club run of The Wild Party, which closed April 9, but the music will linger on in the form of a one-disc cast album from RCA Victor.
The 19-track disc will be recorded April 11, with a release date of July 11 expected. Lyricist-librettist-songwriter Lippa will produce the recording, which will include much of, but not all, the ambitious, swingy score that relates a debauched Jazz Age party.
The recording engineer is Grammy Award winner Jay Newland. Lippa was nominated for a Grammy for the cast recording of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
Also on Lippa's plate: Some possible film projects (scores and songs) and commercial-industrial projects (to make some money). He told Playbill On-Line that he's always looking for musical stage ideas. When asked if he always hopes to be a composer-lyricist-librettist on a project, he suggested that he's flexible and would entertain working with a playwright.
Composer-lyricist-librettist Lippa's musical opened to mixed reviews Feb. 24, at MTC's Stage I. Brian d'Arcy James, Julia Murney, Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel starred in the tuner, populated by corrupt vaudevillians, dancers, a pugilist, a predatory lesbian, songwriters and a mysterious playboy. Gabriel Barre directed, Mark Dendy choreographed.
The cast also featured Todd Anderson, James D. Beeks, Kevin Cahoon, Jennifer Cody, Charles Dillon, Kena Tangi Dorsey, Felicia Finley, Peter Kapetan, Lawrence Keigwin, Alix Korey, Kristin McDonald, Raymond Jaramillo McLeod, Megan Sikora, Ron J. Todorowski and Amanda Watkins.
Orchestrations are by Michael Gibson, with musical direction by Stephen Oremus.
The musical is drawn from the 1928 narrative verse poem by Joseph Moncure March, also called "The Wild Party." Composer-lyricist Michael John LaChiusa also uses the poem as the source for a Broadway musical, The Wild Party, opening April 13 at the Virginia Theatre.
Lippa told Playbill On-Line the following songs are being recorded for the disc: "Queenie Was a Blonde," "Out of the Blue," "What a Party," "Raise the Roof," "Look at Me Now," "Poor Child," "An Old-Fashioned Love Story," "The Juggernaut," "A Wild, Wild Party," "Two of a Kind," "Maybe I Like It This Way," "What Is It About Her?," "The Life of the Party," "I'll Be Here," "Let Me Drown," "Come With Me," "Jackie's Last Dance," "Make Me Happy" and "How Did We Come to This?"
