Musical Review— Michael John LaChiusa’s “The Wild Party” at Encores

The Wild Party

Music and Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa  

Book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe; based on the poem by Joseph Moncure March  

Directed by Lili-Anne Brown; choreographed by Katie Spelman  

Performances March 18–29, 2026

New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street, NYC

nycitycenter.org

The cast of The Wild Party (photo: Joan Marcus)

Joseph Moncure March’s 1928 poem The Wild Party is a strange choice as the basis for a musical—but two shows based on March’s poem both premiered within months of each other in the 1999–2000 season: Andrew Lippa’s off-Broadway version and Michael John LaChiusa’s Broadway version. City Center’s Encores—which has been bringing back obscure and neglected musicals for 30 years—tackled Lippa’s version in 2015 with a game but miscast Sutton Foster as the heroine Queenie and Broadway stalwart Stephen Pasquale (most recently onstage in Encores’ High Spirits last month) as her lover Burrs. This time, Encores does LaChiusa’s adaptation: perfectly cast and energetically staged by director Lili-Anne Brown and choreographer Katie Spelman, its two hours are a frantically entertaining journey into hell.

The Wild Party centers on the volatile relationship between vaudeville dancer Queenie and her lover Burrs, a clown who performs in blackface. Always at each other’s throats, literally and figuratively, they decide to host a party in their Manhattan apartment one evening. Among the array of friends, acquaintances, hangers-on and other theater people, Queenie has invited Kate, her best friend who is a famous name now and with whom she has always had an explosive relationship. Kate has brought her latest beau, the strapping Black, which sets up a night filled with jealousy, recriminations, sex, drugs, music and—fatally—more. 

The book by composer and lyricist LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe (who directed the original Broadway production) presents this evening of debauchery as a series of blackout sketches for Queenie, Burrs and their guests, who all get showstopping spotlights in the midst of arguing, drinking, drugging or pairing off for trysts. These increasingly dark scenes are certainly arresting, but there’s little dramatic arc to the whole thing—instead, it’s a parade of desperate characters acting desperately, and a little of The Wild Party goes a long way. 

Despite that, the acting, staging and music making at City Center are peerless. Mary Mitchell Campbell conducts the superb Encores Orchestra, which gives LaChiusa’s alternately jazzy and dissonant score a full, sumptuous sound. Director Brown and choreographer Spelman make great use of their terrifically agile cast, which includes a legend in Tonya Pinkins—the original Kate on Broadway—who, as fading star Dolores, kills it in her two solo turns, “Moving Uptown” and “When It Ends.”

Then there’s the sublime trio at the heart of the show. Jordan Danica is a quietly insinuating Burrs, Adrienne Warren is a powerhouse Kate, and Jasmine Amy Rogers is a spectacular Queenie, singing, dancing and acting up a storm. If this staging transfers to Broadway, at a minimum Danica, Warren and Rogers should go with it.