By André Hereford on September 28, 2017 @here4andre
The band is blowing, the hooch is flowing, and the guests are lit. But Constellation Theatre’s new production of The Wild Party (★★½) doesn’t lift off to the heights it should, in order to fully convey the dizzying descent and devastating impact when the party comes crashing down.
As surely as the stock market crash brought the curtain down on the Roaring ’20s, a bloody end does come to the swell party at the center of this Jazz Age musical from 1999, based on the eponymous narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March. The publication of March’s poem presaged the Great Depression by over a year, yet somehow perfectly captured the precipitous decline of a golden era in its story of Queenie and Burrs, two high-living lovers brought low by pride and jealousy.
Featuring a book, music, and lyrics by Andrew Lippa (Big Fish), The Wild Party presents the Queenie and Burrs romance as a straightforward drama of lust and angst, infused by an electrifying jazz-influenced score.
The music is as hot as ever in Constellation’s production, directed by Allison Arkell Stockman, and musical director Walter “Bobby” McCoy leads a swinging seven-piece band through the rag, rumba, and blues of Lippa’s stylistically varied, emotionally evocative tunes. Meanwhile, choreographer Ilona Kessell, a Helen Hayes nominee for her work on Constellation’s 2016 production of Urinetown, puts the ensemble through their vigorous paces with toe-tapping, tightly synchronized jumping and jiving that does its share to keep the party lifted. Costume designer Erik Teague has outfitted the cast in snazzy period suits and flapper gowns that generously complement all that jazz stepping. And Tony Cisek’s sets, while beautifully concealing the bandstand, create an environment somewhere between a speakeasy and grandma’s basement that feels just right.
Where the party sags is in the middle, with a lead foursome who are two players shy of a solid quartet. As Queenie, the hostess, Farrell Parker swaggers and stares with a glint in her eye that befits this doyenne of the free-and-easy bohemian scene. But her tart demeanor falters in song, and, although the show supplies Queenie with a few party-starting numbers, Parker’s interpretations don’t really raise the roof.
A vaudeville hoofer intent on serving a public comeuppance to her rough-handed lover Burrs, Queenie should come on like a minx hiding a dagger behind her back. Yet, Parker’s Queenie feels neither dangerous nor aggrieved enough to twist the knife as willfully as she does in her efforts to make her man suffer. Partly, that seems due to the scant onstage connection between Parker and Jimmy Mavrikes, as the sad clown Burrs.
Queenie and Burrs are a couple bound particularly by their intense sexual chemistry, and that sort of combustion doesn’t register here. Mavrikes sings and broods with passion, however, adding an undercurrent of dark unpredictability that helps drive suspense, as the sex and gin-soaked party builds to its climax.
Long before that, and even before the first act closes, the fabulous Kari Ginsburg’s entrance as Kate, a boozy, bedraggled partygoer who lusts after Burrs, is a climax unto itself, with the actress bursting onstage to perform “Look at Me Now.” A rousing force of talent, tenderness, and moxie, Ginsburg shifts the gravity onstage, projecting a maturity of experience that’s mostly missing from the other members of this uniformly young cast. Few in the cast convey scars of life as surely as Ginsburg. Where her Kate has been and where she’s going is of far more compelling interest than whether Queenie will steal away the handsome stranger who accompanies Kate to the party, the mysterious Mr. Black.
The fourth in this unbalanced love quadrangle, Mr. Black appears as this wild party’s It Boy, the beautiful face and form that enchants everyone in attendance — with perhaps the exception of licentious lesbian Madeline (a wonderful Rachel Barlaam). Unfortunately, neither Black, nor Lippa’s excellent songs for him, are done any service by Ian Anthony Coleman’s unpersuasive vocal performance.
Whatever mysteries Black might be hiding, there’s barely a hint of a past life in Coleman’s characterization. Luckily for the audience, there are plenty other intriguing guests worth meeting, and the shindig doesn’t ride completely on Queenie deciding to bet it all on Black.
The Wild Party runs until October 29th at Source Theatre, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $25 to $55. Call 202-204-7741, or visit ConstellationTheatre.org.
By Doug Rule on April 3, 2022 @ruleonwriting
In the not-too-distant future, a young married couple tries to hold their fledgling marriage together as their secrets are slowly exposed to the world -- and to each other -- as a result of living under constant surveillance.
Mona Pirnot's Private, currently having its World Premiere at Mosaic Theater Company, portrays a society where surveillance is so pervasive as to make privacy a commodity in everyday interactions.
In this particular case, Eric Berryman plays a new hire at a company mandating that he submit to 24/7 surveillance, something he doesn't initially tell his wife, played by trans, non-binary artist Temídayo Amay, who has just quit her day job to focus solely on her passion for music.
By Ryan Spahn on April 10, 2022 @ryan_spahn
It was the early days of April 2020 when my partner and I received an email from a longtime collaborator who runs a successful Los Angeles theater company.
"Would you and Michael like to participate in an online reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream for Shakespeare's 456th birthday?"
In case you're like, "...wait, what?," during Covid, theater actors gathered on Zoom to read plays. Patrons could order a ticket from a theater website, receive a private link, and then tune in from the comfort of their quarantine.
"Nobody will be watching this," our friend wrote. "It won't be recorded. It won't be live. It's just going to be an internal thing. For fun."
By Doug Rule on April 15, 2022 @ruleonwriting
Over the past decade, Jonathan Rockefeller has made puppetry his calling card and the primary focus of Rockefeller Productions, the company he runs with his husband, Wilson.
"There are a lot of interesting shows that we do with all different styles of puppets," Rockefeller says. "as bizarre as The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show all the way up to Disney's Winnie the Pooh."
Yet one show stands out in the company's roster, one with special appeal to audiences of a certain age and persuasion. "The tagline is, 'Calling all girls, gays, and grannies,' because that's who love that show," Rockefeller says, referring to That Golden Girls Show!: A Puppet Parody.
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