There are SO many fantastic #StageFaves announced to join Frances Ruffelle in Michael John LaChiusa's THE WILD PARTY, we hardly know where to start - Donna McKechnie, John Owen Jones, Simon Thomas, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, Tiffany Graves, Ako Mitchell, Lizzy Connolly and more. Safe to say: the rebranded The Other Palace is launching in stellar style...
Full casting has been announced for The Other Palace’s inaugural production, Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party, which receives its first major London production at The Other Palace.
Joining the previously announced Frances Ruffelle as Queenie are John Owen-Jones as Burrs, Simon Thomas as Black, Donna McKechnie as Dolores, Dex Lee as Jackie, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as Kate, Ako Mitchell as Eddie, Gloria Obianyo and Genesis Lynea as The D’armano Bros, Melanie Bright as Sally, Lizzy Connolly as Mae, Steven Serlin as Gold, Sebastian Torkia as Goldberg, Bronté Barbé as Nadine and Tiffany Graves as Madelaine.
Simon Thomas, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and John Owen Jones
The Wild Party has music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa and book by George C. Wolfe and Michael John LaChiusa. It will be directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie (In the Heights, Strictly Ballroom the Musical) with musical direction by Theo Jamieson (Funny Girl, West End), set and costume design by Soutra Gilmour (Dr Faustus, Urinetown, The Commitments, West End) and lighting design by Richard Howell. It will be presented by Paul Taylor-Mills by arrangement with R&H Theatricals Europe.
Set against a backdrop of Manhattan decadence and 1920's excess, The Wild Party tells the story of Queenie and Burrs, a Vaudeville showgirl and a Vaudeville clown whose relationship is marked by vicious behaviour and recklessness. In an attempt to salvage their toxic union, they decide to throw a party to end all parties. The guests are a vivid collection of the unruly and the undone: a cocaine-sniffing bisexual playboy; a washed-up boxer; a diva of indeterminate age; a fresh-faced ingénue; and a handsome 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. But when midnight debauchery turns into tragedy, the revellers must sober up and face reality. After all, no party lasts forever.
Based on Joseph Moncure March’s narrative poem of the same title, The Wild Party originally opened on Broadway in 2000 with a cast including Toni Collette, Mandy Patinkin and Eartha Kitt. The production received seven Tony Award nominations and a Grammy Award nomination for its composer and lyricist Michael John LaChiusa. LaChiusa is one of the most prolific writers for the American musical stage, with works including Hello Again (1994), Marie Christine (1999), The Wild Party (2000) and See What I Wanna See (2005). He was nominated for Tony Awards for his score and book for Marie Christine and for his books for The Wild Party and Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
