Through Sat 11/19
Dance, jazz, love, death, jazz, dance. Nothing sedate about Andrew Lippa’s action-packed Wild Party, now playing at Baldwin Wallace University’s Kleist Center in Berea.
Opening night Wednesday, November 9, Lippa’s raunchy, dance-heavy creation, directed by Victoria Bussert, offered a vibrant show. It was a splendid showcase for the cast filled with over a dozen super-talented performers from BW Conservatory’s Music Theatre program and Department of Theatre and Dance.
Raunchy, jazzy trumpet notes (thank you, Joe Miller) from a small above-stage ensemble conducted by Matthew Webb, opened Lippa’s music-packed dance orgy and set the mood. The production, strikingly choreographed by Gregory Daniels and Lauren Tidmore, is double cast with “Queenie” (which we saw) and “Kate” casts.
All seating in the black box theater is close enough to the alley stage that the audience can feel they too have been invited to celebrate. Although a problem with the lights was announced before the show, it didn’t seem to impede the action.
It’s the 1920s. Big-city showgirl Queenie (Mia Soriano) and her lover, professional clown Burrs (a menacing Ricky Moyer), throw a party that they hope will become legend. They succeed, but maybe not in the manner they anticipated. The party grows especially riotous when Kate (Alexa Lopez, gorgeous in red) appears and goes after Burrs.
That makes Queenie mad. (Soriano’s Queenie shape-shifted impressively from helpless blonde to flirtatious bitch.) When Queenie sleeps with the handsome newcomer Black (an earnest Praise Oranika), the already off-balanced Burrs flies into jealous rage. Bad things happen.
All the party guests look 1920s fabulous thanks to Charlotte Yetman, costume designer (with Tesia Benson).
Note: It’s adults-only style entertainment unless you want to explain the nuances of, for example, lesbian guest Madelaine True’s “An Old-Fashioned Love Story” (told in a knock-out performance by Jaedynn Latter).
Bottom Line: The Wild Party is not a feel-good cheerful story, but what makes this simply plotted musical stunning is that everyone at the party turns out to have a great voice and to be an amazingly good dancer. From the opening numbers, when the onstage guests assemble, to the last jazzy note that leaves even audience members quick-stepping home, it’s a celebration that invites the audience in.
For more information see bwmt.bw.edu/the-wild-party.