Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO – February 2, 2015 – Acting Up Stage Company in association with Obsidian Theatre present the hotly anticipated Toronto premiere of Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe’s thrilling and controversial musical THE WILD PARTY, directed by the celebrated Robert McQueen (Acting Up Stage Company’s Caroline, or Change, Stratford Festival’s Man of La Mancha). THE WILD PARTY will run in Toronto from Friday, February 20th to Sunday, March 8th (Opening night February 23rd) at the Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs (26 Berkeley St.). Tickets from $18 to $55 are available by phone at 416-368-3110, online at http://www.canadianstage.com, or in person at the box office.
Leading the Toronto cast are Cara Ricketts (CYMBELINE, BOOK OF NEGROES) as Queenie, Daren A. Herbert (PARADE, THE TOXIC AVENGER) as Burrs, and Susan Gilmour (LES MISERABLES, INTO THE WOODS) as Delores. Joining Ricketts, Herbert, and Gilmour are acclaimed Canadian performers Dan Chameroy, Lisa Horner, Sterling Jarvis, Stephen Patterson, Sara-Jeanne Hosie, David Lopez, Rebecca Auerbach, Josh Epstein, Larry Mannell, J. Cameron Barnett, Sarite Harris and Eden Richmond.
The gin and jazz are flowing in this explosive musical set in 1920’s Manhattan, following the reckless relationship between a Vaudevillian clown and dancer as it spirals out of control during one ferocious get-together.
“Some love is fire: some love is rust:
But the fiercest, cleanest love is lust.”
The guests at the party are a vivid collection of the unruly and the undone: Queenie's conniving rival; a cocaine-sniffing bisexual playboy; a washed-up boxer; a black brother act; a diva of indeterminate age and infinite life experience; the fresh-off-the-farm ingénue whose naïveté quickly evaporates; a lesbian actress and her comatose girlfriend; and the bargain basement Valentino who catches Queenie's roving eye. The jazz and gin soaked party rages to a mounting sense of threat as artifice and illusion are stripped away. When midnight debauchery leads to tragedy at dawn, the high-flying characters land with a sobering thud, reminding us that no party lasts forever.
Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe’s Tony-nominated musical, based on the 1928 poem of the same name by Joseph Moncure March, was called “The first musical triumph of the new century!” by the New York Daily News. The Broadway production coincidentally opened during the same theatrical season (1999–2000) as an off-Broadway musical with the same title and source material.
“Queenie was a blonde and her age stood still,
And she danced twice a day in vaudeville.”
In 2001, LaChiusa said that the role of Queenie was written for the African-American actress Vanessa L. Williams; when Williams got pregnant, she was recast with Toni Collette. LaChiusa stated, "I don't think of it as something that was lost in the piece, but it would have been fascinating to see how an audience responded to a black Queenie. The show is all about the masks that we wear culturally and the removal of those masks over the course of the party.” (Talkin’ Broadway)
Acting Up Stage Artistic Director Mitchell Marcus comments, “I’d like to think we’re helping to realize LaChiusa and Wolfe’s original vision in casting Cara as Queenie. The show examines our cultural masks and I think that bringing race to the forefront of the piece will make it even more poignant and powerful.” Acting Up’s casting also includes having Herbert in the lead role of Burrs, a vaudeville star who performs in blackface, which has traditionally been played by a white actor and was originated by Mandy Patinkin. Adds Marcus; “There was a tradition at that time of black performers, like Bert Williams, who put on blackface to please the white public of the time.”
THE WILD PARTY is based on a book-length narrative poem of the same name by writer Joseph Moncure March. The poem was published in 1928, but was largely banned due to its controversial and highly sexual material. The work was republished in 1994 in a hardcover edition subtitled ‘The Lost Classic.’ Art Spiegelman, whose work is currently having a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario, illustrated the book with approximately 50 black and white illustrations.
Notably, William S Burroughs once recounted to Spiegelman, that the poem THE WILD PARTY inspired him to become a writer.
Throughout the run, Acting Up Stage Company will host a pre-show conversation in the lobby (including snacks and beverages) beginning 45 minutes prior to each performance, featuring a local expert touching on themes important to The Wild Party.
Talkbacks with the cast will occur after each Friday evening performance, and Saturday afternoon performance.
Acting Up Stage Company is also hosting FREE Art Making Workshops taking place during the first week of the run. Following the evening performance on Friday, Feb. 27, workshop participants will learn and perform a piece of The Wild Party score with assistant musical director Tara Litvack. Following the matinee on Sunday, Mar. 1, workshop participants will explore the musical’s source material, the poem The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March, eventually continuing the story with a few stanzas of their own!
Facebook: Acting Up Stage Company <https://www.facebook.com/actingupstagecompany?fref=ts>
Twitter: @ActingUpStage <https://twitter.com/ActingUpStage>
Hashtag: #TheWildParty
Photo: Cara Ricketts as Queenie. ©2015 Acting Up Stage Company.
2015-02-02
Toronto: Acting Up Stage presents the Toronto premiere of "The Wild Party" February 20-March 8