Fri. August 30, 2002
By John Olson
Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party Bohemian Theatre Ensemble
In an interview I did for TalkinBroadway a few months ago, Stephen Schwartz told me Chicago was the "best theater town in America." The past few weeks have provided some strong support for his opinion. We've had two world premieres from two of the city's always-reliable resident
companies: at the Goodman, Rebecca Gilman's intriguing updating of Ibsen, Dollhouse, directed by Robert Falls; at Steppenwolf, Bruce Norris'
The Pain and the Itch. There's been the opening of a Broadway-scale sit-down production of Schwartz's Wicked as well. As good as these Equity productions are, that's only half the story. The other half is the smaller, "off-Loop" theaters where you never know when you'll find, for the price of a $15.00 or $20.00 ticket, a showcase for talented young performers like I Sing, (LINK TO REVIEW?) a musical influenced by Chicago's improv tradition Band Geeks, or a production by a first-year company that rivals the professionalism and excitement provided by the big guys downtown.
). The set design by Genovese and Joel Hoover seamlessly unites the existing brick walls of the venue with realistic flats. Christine Ferriter's lighting design adds much to the mood with red and orange hues, coming magically from god-knows-where in this tiny storefront.
Uncredited in the program is the Chicago Transit Authority, whose rumbling elevated trains running nearby through the Clark Street junction added an element of realistic sound design. In fact, the production had a bit more of an environmental nature than perhaps was intended. The tiny Stage Left Theater, certainly no larger than Queenie's apartment, contributed through the failure of its air conditioning on this hot July night. That was entirely appropriate, though, given that the original source material refers to the setting as "broiling hot" and that the cast spends a good amount of their time onstage dressed only in their underwear.
The current issue of American Theatre magazine has an interview with B.D. Wong in which the actor is asked what, to him, is true theater. It's not true theatre, Wong replies, if it "cannot be done without electricity." This production nearly qualifies, literally, by that standard. Without any electric current, we would have missed Ms.
Ferriter's lighting design, but she probably would have been resourceful enough to manage with only candles.
This was my first exposure to The Wild Party, either in Lippa's version or the one by Michael John LaChiusa which enjoyed a brief Broadway run at the same time the Lippa piece was produced by Manhattan Theater Club off-Broadway in the Spring of 2000, or for that matter, the long poem by Joseph Moncure March on which both musicals were based. I was taken by Lippa's complex yet accessible score, filled with potential "hits" that could be performed out of context but still primarily serve their dramatic purposes within the piece. It's a Broadway-style score that never feels like it's diverting its attention from the story just to deliver a show tune. Lippa and these performers can share in the credit for making this important, and under appreciated piece succeed dramatically and musically.
So why did "the best theater town in America" have to wait five years to see this (the Circle Theatre in Forest Park did the LaChiusa version in Fall, 2002)? Okay, New York, we'll give you this – you got The Wild Party first. Just don't forget that we saw Spamalot and The Light in the Piazza before you.
The Wild Party runs through August 13, 2005; Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., at Stage Left Theatre, 3408 North Sheffield, Chicago. For tickets ($20.00), call the BoHo box office at: 773-791-2393 or go to www.BoHoTheatre.com and click on "TICKETS"
Photo: Anthony Fett, Jennifer Jordan Rhoads, Cassandra Liveris and Jess Godwin. Photo by Jessica Pinkous.
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