Theater review: The Wild Party

by Mary L. Clark of John Garcia's The Column

Don't judge a book by its cover.

GRAPEVINE — The well-used phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" was never more apropos than when I journeyed northwest to join The Wild Party, the musical presented by Ohlook Performing Arts Center in Grapevine. I was reminded of the phrase several times during the evening or should I say late night as this was an after hours production for the, I supposed, more mature crowd who start their evenings at 10 pm or later. This, however, was not the case but I digress.

Ohlook Performing Arts Center is located quietly behind the tourist hustle and bustle of Grapevine's Main Street. It is on the back side of those buildings, an alley way street, which sort of worked for this musical. Housed in a small metal prefabricated structure, the first question and judgment was "am I in the right place?" though the portable blinking marquee assured me that I was.

The front entrance "pavement" was actually foam sound booth-type tiles placed on very uneven ground. For the faint of balance such as I, it became a wobbly course to the outdoor lobby.

Two men at a table drinking beer and playing cards, a counter where you could get food and drink, a 50's vinyl chair here, a picnic table there – it all felt like someone's backyard BBQ.

Once up the steps I entered a small area used as side wings and then on into the theatre space with a stage about the size of my bungalow living room (please reinsert "don't judge …" here).

Seats are upholstered red dining chairs from some '70s bar or club and actually quite comfortable. The ceiling is very, very low which doesn't give much room for lighting instruments – more on that later.

The Wild Party is advertised as a Professional Production in their Late-Night Series. That and the late curtain hour might lead one to assume this would be an adult cast. However, when I opened the program, the cast was entirely late high school to recent college graduate performers save one. Not the age of adult I was expecting for such a musical. The audience too was primarily the same age group with many friends and some family of the cast and the judgment started to rise.

The Wild Party is based on an epic narrative poem written in 1928 by Joseph Moncure March. It centers on the relationship between Queenie, a vaudeville showgirl, and her lover, Burrs, a vaudevillian clown. It's a pairing marred by violent behavior and recklessness at any cost. Poet March used all the characters as a metaphor, mirroring the time in which they lived, the Roaring '20s.

For you theatre buffs, there are two musicals based on this poem, both opening in 2000. One debuted on Broadway with Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette and the other debuted off-Broadway with book and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. His musical went on to win a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and an Obie Award. This is the version Ohlook chose to produce.

Almost entirely sung, The Wild Party crosses between Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill stories of longing and despair and the musical Chicago's careless swagger. Queenie and her lover Burrs have a vaudeville act and a strange mutual attraction based on their affinity for violence with kinky sex on the side.

Bored with each other after three years, they decide to throw a "party to end all parties" for some of their pals. The assortment includes a lesbian looking for love and eyeing the only minor in the place, a "former" prostitute and her boy of the hour, a washed-up boxer and his faithful wife, two brothers with an odd affection for each other, a tongue less dancer, a hooker working a theatre producer, a drunkard and on and on. The party is an excuse for Queenie and Burrs to anger each other, to make each other jealous and maybe rekindle their very strange, very sick love. The new boy hits on Queenie, the prostitute goes for Burrs, the game is on with the spectators watching and lustfully playing along. It all climaxes in depravity and tragedy.

The many sorted, and I do mean sorted, characters of The Wild Party are people out there on the fringe, the edge of society. They are the night people, the ones you don't converse with in polite company. Burlesque singers and dancers, whores and pimps, drunkards, and low-lifes; the ones left out and left behind. They are worn out and worn down by their life choices, life experiences and by time. And that is why I will state here only once that the entire cast of The Wild Party is too young for this musical. They simply do not have the age and life experiences behind them to fully comprehend and portray the true depths of despair and depravity that these people are living. However, I again insert the "don't judge" line and am happy to do so.

There are 15 actors/singers/dancers onstage for most all the performance and, down to the smallest chorus part, each and every one believed in and played their characters purposefully. I watched carefully as each made choices as to who they were and reacted with each other through long periods of being in the background. Having 15 people in my own living room is no simple feat, much less singing and dancing intricate choreography virtually in place. There was none of that looking down at their feet with uncertainty – each stepped up and danced fearlessly, all within six feet or more from the audience.

The 21 songs in The Wild Party are not your typical "whistle up the aisle" tunes. They have that Kurt Weill push and drive that propels the audience through the narrative. There were two featured actresses in this production that belted the blues and hard jazz to make Bessie Smith herself proud. Lauren Kane as Madelaine, the woman lovin' woman looking for love, sang the comedy and sleaze factor of "An Old Fashioned Love Story" with equal aplomb. Samantha Padilla had amazing power and control with "Look at Me Now." I could tell she had more to give but kept it contained for the small space. Jeff Walters as Eddie the prizefighter and Jessica Dismuke as Mae, his ditzy wife, had a sweet duet proving they were "Two of a Kind." Michael McCray used some naivety and innocence to play Black and his tenor voice rang pure in his profession of love for Queenie with "Poor Child."

The role of Queenie is a tour de force as the actress is onstage for the larger portion of the show whether belting songs down front, carousing in bed, or playing touchy feely with the guests in the back. Stephanie Hall brought all her credited musical theatre experience, packed it all into a tight ball and delivered a slam dunk performance. Her commanding, no, demanding stage presence walloped the audience at close range from her first song to her exit out the door. Hall's vocal quality ran from belter alto to operatic soprano with such ease. She tackled the overly se*ual nature of Queenie with nerve – not easy on a proscenium or thrust stage much less six feet from the front row. Actually, she could have gone further down the sleaze road Queenie was on but that is more a director's call than an actor's.

Burrs, as played by Jeff Wells, is one strange character. A clown by trade, he seems to take great relish in his brutality toward Queenie, his guests and himself. A classic co-dependent, Burrs has no concept of the hatred he spews all the while wondering why he isn't loved. Wells comes a tad bit closer to the appropriate age for Burrs. The drunken scheming to make Queenie jealous through to his wanton abandonment in "Let Me Drown" shows Wells' understanding of Burrs' frailty. He played the sad clown skillfully then clicked into shuddering creepiness with a mere glance of his eye. I did have confusion with some of Wells' choices. Burrs is a brutal man who can go off with a look or a word and that quality simply was not pursued. The boredom after the couple's initial lust was there but if violence and kinky sex is what attracted Queenie and Burrs to each other, that volatile spark of heat was absent. Again, this was possibly more a director's choice.

Across the board, that was my main conflict with this production and the cast I saw (there is some double casting). If a theatre is going to choose material such as The Wild Party, then you have to make the decision to go all the way with the subject. There can be no holding back, even with youthful actors, and I deeply felt the holding back. Director Jill Blalock Lord chose this musical, chose these actors yet held the content at arm's length. I give huge credit to her for taking these 15 actors as far as she did – each realized their character's importance and performed admirably with what could have been difficult material for them. Stripping down to corsets, garters or less; plenty of fondling and groping; couples in se*ual positions and, while not X-rated, isn't easy.

It was from the two main characters that so much was missing. Queenie and Burrs are down and out performers who love the brutality because it makes them feel something. Queenie even says it in "Maybe I Like It This Way." Director Lord did not push that feeling to the max. It was danced around, given a brief brutal punch, danced around some more so that the end song, "How Did It Come to This?" was underscored and anti-climatic. By then the musical felt too long and Queenie's final exit was meaningless.

I had a huge problem with the costuming of Queenie. Here is this hard life, hard drinking woman living in a one room walkup with old, cheap furniture and she's decked all in virginal white and Queenie is no virgin. She had impeccably coiffed hair, a brand new corset, panties and dressing gown, pristine hose and shoes. No way could she afford any of that. She's worn down and worn out from Burrs, from drink and from life. She should have looked it. Most of the costumes by Jill Blalock Lord and Beth van Amerongen were a good attempt at the 1920's with some hits (Dolores amazing Art Deco bronze gown) to some misses (modern dresses trying to look flapper, a man's suit made out of shiny pillow fabric?).

The set construction by Matthew Lord and Dinny McGuire was simple enough: papered walls, a back window with escape balcony. Except for the Art Deco vanity without mirror, there was little attempt to recreate the time period. A twin metal bed, a side table and chair, an upright piano, a contemporary pine buffet table loaded with bottle and odd glasses comprised the flat. A platform bathroom complete with footed tub, toilet and curtain made an interesting locale for tat-a tats and confrontations. There was a large, modernist painting of a reclining nude over the bed that the theater is auctioning off as a fundraiser.

Lighting was pretty non-existent, leaving several scenes, songs, and one final dance beautifully choreographed and danced by Ken Bell in such diminished light I prayed for the spotlight to save the day but it too was inefficient. It tended to illuminate the back of audience's heads more than the actors. More light instruments please.

Choreography by Pamela Langton was intricate and pleasurable to watch considering the space conflicts she encountered. My hat goes off to the band – yes, they had a live band – under the musical direction of James McQuillen. They performed in the far left aisle of the seats, behind a half wall. While they did overpower some of the songs, especially in the beginning, the theatre space is so small they would have had to play outside or behind the set's back wall to mute them appropriately.

Ohlook Creative Arts Center has performed some difficult musicals on the same tiny stage and, with The Wild Party, they have again achieved the seemingly impossible. Take away the locale, the building, the minuscule space, and you still are left with a solid production with several spectacular performances worthy of the time and effort to see. Ohlook's demeanor is very loose and very informal. Apparently you can bring your own beer and it magically appears at intermission though some went out to their cars. While I do not condone drinking and driving, a bit of alcohol seemed completely fitting for The Wild Party.

Theatre is all about thinking outside the box. Ohlook Creative Arts Center is definitely a theatre outside the box. It is that outside thinking that produces musicals like The Wild Party. I urge anyone in the metroplex to also think and then go outside their theatre "norms" to take a late-night chance. The book's cover was judged but the inside was an unexpected surprise.