Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party, one of two short-lived musicals based on the same source material in the 1999-2000 New York season, will be heard again July 11, when the cast album is released in stores.
The party's over for the Off-Broadway Manhattan Theatre Club run of The Wild Party, which closed April 9 after 88 performances, but the music will linger on in the form of a one disc album from RCA Victor.
The 21-track disc was recorded April 11. Lyricist-librettist songwriter Lippa produced the album, whose liner notes include the lyrics and black and-white, arty production photos. The disc includes most of, but not all, of the ambitious, swingy, bluesy score that relates a debauched Jazz Age party. The work, like the Broadway version by Michael John LaChiusa that folded in spring, is based on a 1928 poem by Joseph Moncure March.
Lippa was nominated for a Grammy for the cast recording of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
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 disc includes: "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," "By Now the Room Was Moving," "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," "Tell Me Something," "Come With Me," "Jackie's Last Dance," "Make Me Happy" and "How Did We Come to This?"/"Queenie Was a Blonde."
The plot synopsis in the notes is by director Gabriel Barre.
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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.
