Let the Evening Rage Ahead

Despite a couple odd reviews at the beginning, most of them have been raves, some of them HUGE raves. Allow me to quote from them...

“They call themselves the bad boy of musical theatre in St. Louis and they are – this is a very adult show. . . If you like shows like Cabaret and Chicago, you’ll like The Wild Party. . . You’re going to see really good, well done adult theatre at New Line that nobody else really attempts here in St. Louis. . . It’s a good strong cast with a couple of really, really, really strong individual performances.” – Harry Hamm, KMOX-FM

“Andrew Lippa's musical adaptation of Joseph Moncure March's epic poem, The Wild Party, is a brilliant work, especially if you're anything like me, and you like your entertainment on the dark side. It's a decadent jewel gleaming with sinister possibilities, and thus, far removed from the current trend toward sunny shows with predictably happy endings. Though set in 1928, it manages to perfectly capture the current mood of cynicism that seems to have run rampant through our country over the course of the last fifteen years. New Line Theatre's current presentation of The Wild Party is a deliriously engaging experience, easily making it one of the best productions of the year so far.” – Chris Gibson, BroadwayWorld.com

“Imagine a strobe-light flashing rapidly; or a coin flipping in the air, heads becoming indistinguishable from tails as it spins. Likewise, the flashing strobe creates an effect somewhere between bright light and pure dark, as the transitions themselves become a blazing, third state of energy. So it is with Scott Miller's fantastic new production of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party… Thanks to the cast's combined expertise and with the help of director Miller, they turn in a solid-gold hit. It's almost like the American answer to Cabaret, leading us up to the edge of the Great Depression. But, like America itself, it keeps its brave face on, dancing right to the bitter end. Don't miss this excellent show.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway.com

“With so much blood and tawdriness as its inspiration, you’d think The Wild Party would celebrate the ugly side of humanity; it definitely doesn’t shy away from sin and vice and everything nice, but there’s a morality at the center of the play shining out from beneath the filth. . . By the end of the night, Queenie wonders how everything ended so poorly between her and Burrs; how did ugliness supplant their love? When was the first unkind word spoken? When was the first blow struck? When did it all turn to shit? These are the questions not just of a failed relationship, but of the end of any gilded age. The Wild Party shows you in lurid detail the dying moments of just such a relationship and an age, and it's difficult if not impossible to ask the same questions of the first decade of the 21st century when the lights come back up.” – Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times

“A large number of fine performances, spot-on, rapid-fire direction by Scott Miller and plenty of sex make the show fast-moving, highly entertaining and oh, my goodness, bawdy and naughty. In other words, while there's no real sex and no nudity, there's a great deal of simulated sex that follows a large amount of foreplay, including much kissing while groping, stroking, squeezing, rubbing and other touchy-feely stuff. Not for the children and the easily embarrassed. ” – Joe Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks

“If you like your tragicomedies with a dash of self-analysis and a heaping helping of sex, you'll want to RSVP in the affirmative to The Wild Party, produced by New Line Theatre. . . The play is a good fit for director Scott Miller and New Line, which bills itself as The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre.. . . ‘People die and parties fail,’ Queenie notes in her finale. But even though her party ended badly, The Wild Party does not, leaving its audience entertained and with enough food for thought to last until the next New Line musical.” – Nancy Fowler Larson, St. Louis Beacon

“A fascinating and absorbing show that capably showcases Lippa’s talent for interesting lyrics and lively music. New Line artistic director Scott Miller’s direction is disciplined, focused and consistent throughout, and he benefits from some exemplary technical support as well as solid portrayals by his large cast. The result is an ambitious and laudatory effort that is richly rewarding. . . The subject matter is definitely adults only material, but The Wild Party tells an interesting story in lively and engrossing fashion.” – Mark Bretz, The Ladue News

“The Wild Party takes you on a wild ride. . . In 1928, writer Joseph Moncure March sketched the New York demimonde in an epic poem, The Wild Party. He might as well have wrapped it up in a package for Scott Miller, artistic director of New Line Theatre, to open 82 years later. . . Few musicals are so graphic as this one, which is absolutely not for the family. This time, Miller has spilled everything onto his stage: bootleg, blood and other bodily fluids. From the first scene, we can almost predict the outcome. Someone’s bound to slip and get hurt.” – Judith Newmark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

We weren't sure what people would think of this tough little show we've put together. Everyone may not love it. Luckily, a whole lot of people think it's amazing!

Long Live the Musical!
Scott

We'll Keep Them Up All Night

It's only been a few days since I last posted but so much has happened! Not the least of which is that we wrestled with the AC and won! Just in time for 60 degree weather... That's okay, I'll take my victories where I can get 'em.

I last posted on last Monday. We had a relatively smooth Hell Week -- there was still lots of work to do, but no big crises, no last minute disasters. We needed those three run-throughs in a row with all the production elements -- two probably wouldn't have been enough -- but we were ready by Thursday night's preview. The show went great, and though I think the actors may have felt a tad shaky here and there, I was very happy. And then it got better Friday, and even better on Saturday. As with any show, the presence of the audience gives the actors that final jolt of energy. They are the final piece in the ritual of storytelling.

I can't put into words how proud I am of this show. Part of it is because it's been so incredibly difficult and we've really conquered it. But a big part is that we took this challenging and brilliant piece of art, and we assembled a big group of really talented people, and we all worked our asses off, and the end product is a thing of real beauty and real truth.

Sure, the characters are small and selfish and petty and morally ugly, but they are also tragically, fatally human. The style of the storytelling here is melodrama, but the emotions are so honest and the insights into human weakness and fear are are as truthful as theatre gets. Someone said to me that none of these characters are sympathetic. I think all four of them are. None of them are randomly cruel; all of them are desperately damaged people thrashing around in the dark, no idea how to find the light. They're all appetite and desire, but none of them really knows what they want or need. And as easily as we may condemn them for their abuses and insults, I'll bet most of us can see at least a little of ourselves in these sad characters.

For me, watching The Wild Party is like watching a play by Albee or Miller or O'Neill. It's really dark shit, but it's the spiritual/emotional equivalent of a horror story. Instead of a vampire representing our uncontrollable sexual drives, here the sexual drives are the monsters themselves, cutting the middle man out. Instead of a wolfman representing our savage animal side, in this tale the beast within needs no metaphor; he's right there on the surface. Storytelling like that allows us to explore the darker corners of our own souls in the safety of a darkened theatre.

But I think we've really freaked out some of the reviewers with the aggressiveness and intensity (and sexuality) of this show. Several of our reviews so far have been odd. Not really negative, but odd. Except for Chris Gibson, who reviews for BroadwayWorld.com, who gave us a real rave review. He really understood the piece and our approach to it. This may be one of those shows that someone people fall in love with and others are made too uncomfortable or overwhelmed by it. I think that was true of both A New Brain and Anyone Can Whistle. But that's okay.

Alison did an awesome job of finishing the polishing without me during Hell Week when I moved into the band. Luckily for me, Trish videotaped several of the last rehearsals so I could watch them later and see if there were any notes I wanted to give the cast. So even though I haven't seen the final product from the front, I have seen the last step before the final product. And I really love it! We haven't had this kind of energy in a show in a long time. It's so fluid, so confident, so organic. Almost the whole show feels choreographed. And even though it's a fairly involved story and cast of characters, the plot really seems clear.

This cast is just stupendous. One of the reasons I've been afraid of producing this show up till now is that I knew I needed a cast of sixteen really outstanding performers. There was no room in this show for anyone less than excellent. And sometimes it's hard to get that with a cast this big. But we really hit a home run. Every single actor on our stage is bringing their A game, and even though this is a monstrously difficult show, they are all up to it. And we proved it this weekend.

We blew the fucking lid off that theatre, and we'll do it again this week. :)

Long Live the Musical!
Scott

Let's Make a Scene

It used to be that if a musical didn't open on Broadway, no one would ever even hear of it. The writers might have worked on it for three years, but Broadway was the only avenue. It used to be that if a show didn't get a good New York Times review, it would have to close. And even if it did open on Broadway, if it didn't run for a good while (or have that expectation), no one would record a cast album, and people like me would still never hear of it. In other words, if a musical didn't have at least a decent Broadway run, its life ended right there in Manhattan.

Of course, this is back during the so-called "Golden Age of Musical Theatre" (I refuse to use that term without so-called in front of it), but before that, back in the 20s and 30s, nobody even saved the orchestra parts or scripts after a show closed. Musicals were literally disposable. Who'd ever want to produce Anything Goes again after 1934?

Things are so different now, almost entirely because of the information superhighway. It's a good time to run a company like New Line. We produce shows that haven't even made it to the state of New York, much less Broadway. And now with YouTube and iTunes, authors can get their work to their fans cheaply and easily, it's so much easier to get a good feel for a new show, even if you can't get to where it's playing. Every couple months, I spend a few hours on Google looking for new musicals that might be worth producing. That's how we found Love Kills, which we produced last fall. That's how we found High Fidelity and Reefer Madness. That's how we found bare, which we're producing next season.

As I think I've mentioned here before, there are two shows called The Wild Party, both based on the same poem, both running in New York the same season, one on Broadway and the other off Broadway. (We're doing Andrew Lippa's off Broadway show.) Neither one had a particularly long run, but both got cast albums (in both cases, I think, based on the reputation and track record of the composers). The Broadway production ran sixty-eight performances; our version ran fifty-four. Twenty-five years ago, I probably wouldn't have even known about these shows.

But the joy of New Line and companies like ours is that those shows no longer die when they close in New York (or if they close before New York). If they're good, they'll be produced all over the country. The writers won't make fistfuls of dollars, but their work will be seen and appreciated. It will continue to live and communicate.

Sunday, we had our sitzprobe, the one and only rehearsal where the band and the cast get to work through the score once, without the distractions of production elements. Considering the massive complexity of the score, the rehearsal went surprisingly smoothly. And I realized while I was playing this beautiful, quirky, sophisticated, and intensely dramatic music that this was a mammoth undertaking for Andrew Lippa. He has written an almost entirely sung-through show that flirts with being a jazz opera from time to time. The music is lush and emotional and expansive, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes ironic, sometimes full-throated romantic. This is a piece of art on a scale with Sweeney Todd, Next to Normal, and Ragtime. It has power and muscle. And these days, it doesn't matter that it didn't run in New York very long.

We are all so proud of this show. We're so proud that we've conquered this artistic mountain, but more than that, that we will get to share with all of you this incredible, truthful piece of art. We're proud that we trust St. Louis audiences enough to bring them challenging, complex, adult theatre. With every single New Line show, St. Louis proves us right.

I don't know if I'll have the energy to blog again before we open this week, but if not, I hope to see you at the show. This is one of those experiences that will stay with me for a very long time -- you can't work on a piece of art this good and not be changed by it -- and I think it might do the same for you.

Long Live the Musical!
Scott

Time to Have Some Fun!

As of Saturday, we will be into Hell Week. A lighting cue-to-cue rehearsal Saturday, the sitzprobe (first rehearsal with the band) Sunday, run-throughs on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Today's our last day off for a while.

But this past week has been so cool. The show has really found itself, its style, the way it moves. Usually at this point I'd be watching run-throughs, taking notes, polishing things, solving the small problems that still remain. But I'm playing keyboard for this show, so I can't do that. Luckily, Alison, our assistant director, is a genius at polishing. She and I have directed together before and we always fall into the natural roles of me being the big picture person and her being the detail person.

Also, this time, our stage manager Trish has videotaped some of our rehearsals, so I can watch them later and take some notes. Although you certainly lose something watching live performance on video, it has the unexpected advantage of the pause button... makes it much easier to take notes...

The show itself is positively racing forward. Every rehearsal seems so much better than the last now. I think we're finally to the point where the cast is really comfortable with 90% of the score (which is a hell of a feat, let me tell you), and that means that the majority of their focus is now solidly on character, emotion, relationships, backstory, and the story's ever-changing emotional chess games.

Although I didn't do it consciously, I notice now that because there's so much music in the show (it's almost a jazz opera), my instinct was to essentially choreograph the entire show. I didn't realize I was doing that, but almost all the staging is tied to music cues, and it's very expressive, non-naturalistic, sometimes even abstract staging. And I think it really fits and compliments Robin's amazing choreography. I'm happy to report, now that I've seen the show running on all cylinders, that my instincts were really right. I'm not sure exactly how the original production moved but our production sure works.

There's already such energy onstage, such life. The actors have really filled in the colors and shadows, and this is a cast with outstanding instincts when it comes to the balance and composition of the stage. And it looks to me like they all fully understand the style of the piece now, the size of it, the rowdiness and vulgarity of it, and the deep, profound emotion of it. The cast has become this wonderfully quirky "orchestra" in the way they all work together, work off each other, listen to each other, feed off each other. It's a real joy to watch.

And we still have three more run-throughs, so it's only gonna get better!

And holy shit -- did I mention the ending! Even on an unpainted set, under work lights, the end of this show is already so powerful. When I played the last note last night, there was this silence for a few seconds before anyone said anything. I think we were all a little surprised at the force and emotion of that finale.

I love this cast and I love our production. I can't wait to share it with our audience.

Long Live the Musical!
Scott

Filling Up with Frenzy

With any show we work on, we will always find parallels to our world today -- our politics, our social issues, our culture. That's what good art does. In The Wild Party, we can see both rabid, self-involved consumption, which mirrors our very recent fiscal and political history; and we can also see a stark morality tale about the dangers of allowing the death of civility in our society, which again mirrors these crazy combative times in America. When Burrs calls Queenie a lazy slut, it's not hard to also hear Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist or Sarah Palin declaring that Obama "pals around with terrorists. "

I was watching the Southern Republican Leadership Conference over the weekend, and with The Wild Party swimming around in my head 24-7, I saw new parallels. I had talked to the cast earlier in our process about the weird acting tightrope the show requires of them -- these characters are very real, not cartoons, not caricatures; but at the same time, they are people who "perform" much of their daily lives. They are the kind of people who wear a conscious persona, who show us a personality that is not their real self. We all know people like that. People who "perform" being artsy and colorful, who "perform" being sophisticated or worldly wise, who "perform" being outrageous. It's an act, designed to leave a particular impression or elicit a particular response.

And some of the speakers at the Republican conference were very much like that. It's always been so fascinating to me that the people who love Sarah Palin primarily love her because she's so "authentic." And yet the people who hate Sarah Palin (and I admit to being in that group) primarily hate her because she's such a phony, dropping her G's, sprinkling her speeches with "you betchas," lies, and winks. How can there be such completely opposite perceptions of one woman?

I think it all goes back to my long-held and still developing theory that all American politics are about the 1950s versus the 1960s. Republicans want to return to the entirely fictional America of 1950s television, which they seem to remember as real even though it isn't (maybe because their real lives are performances as much as anything on TV is); and Democrats want to finish the work begun in the 1960s in the realm of social justice (work that is far more in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ than any position the supposedly Christian Republicans hold).

Thinking back to my childhood (I was born in 1964), I remember that almost all social interaction was a performance back then. There was always a layer of polite bullshit on top of everything. People rarely said what they meant. People were afraid to talk about sex, politics, religion. There was this overlay of civility but that overlay was largely bullshit, and it prevented real communication between people. (If you're younger than me, watch Mad Men for a really good look at what I'm talking about.)

And because the price tag for success in the 50s (in business, politics, and social circles) pretty much required that layer of performance, and because the Republicans fetishize the 50s, I think many conservatives today wish that protective layer of bullshit would return -- so we'd never again have to talk about sex, about gays, about women's rights, about the poor, about the morality of torture, about the priest abuse scandals, about America's flaws...

And because Palin demonstrates that retro kind of performance in everything she says and does, the Right fetishizes her and the Left finds her intolerable. The Right loves that she talks in the vaguest possible terms about "values" (because much of the Right also prefers big, abstract sound bites to actual issues), and the Left hears nothing from her but smarmy bullshit. In her speech this weekend, she repeated that her ideal foreign policy is "We win, you lose." That's a policy? She thinks a really potent political argument is "How's that hopey changey thing workin' out for ya?" (Actually, Sister Sarah, it's workin' out pretty good so far.) And before you have to ask, the answer is No. Sarah Palin is not smarter than a fifth grader.

But the content of what Palin says is not what matters to her legions of fans. It's her manner, her folksiness, her need to write notes on her hand to remember her central beliefs, her catch-phrases that they love. Her speeches don't require anything of her audience; they just reinforce and comfort. Because the 1950s weren't about content; they were about performance, about fitting in, about being "an organization man."

Many of the characters in The Wild Party are similar to Palin, Beck, et al. in that they perform themselves for the world. Though in the Manhattan demi-monde of 1928, it's for different reasons. In this context, it's about being colorful, about being more daring than the next guy, about being a social and moral adventurer, about being "thoroughly modern." But just as it does now, that constant performing can be destructive. It treats truth and reality as lesser values. It doesn't matter to Sarah Palin that President Obama didn't actually "pal around with terrorists" -- the impact of the statement was more important than its content. Likewise, it doesn't matter to Queenie (until it's too late) that she is destroying the man she supposedly loves.

While most of America now prizes authenticity above almost anything else (thanks to the 60s and rock & roll), a small slice of Americans are so terrified of no longer controlling our culture that they have retreated to the social performance and bullshit of their beloved 1950s. And perhaps more than the disagreement over actual issues, it's this cultural divide over the basic idea of how we talk to each other that seems most dangerous. If the people with the two competing visions for our country can't talk to each other, then where do we go from here?

We see in The Wild Party what happens when two people who have had an emotional commitment to each other can no longer talk to each other or even hear each other.

And even though Andrew Lippa wrote The Wild Party in the late 1990s, his work is truthful enough and universal enough to offer us a lesson for these times -- a complete breakdown in communication leads to nothing but darkness.

"How did we come to this?"

Long Live the Musical!
Scott