Archive for September 2014

Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party

wild_party_at_the_footlight_club_jp

Here’s a show that I did over two years ago (that’s me looking all angry in the upper left of the image) based on a Jazz Age poem about.. well, a wild party. The poem was “rediscovered” by Art Spiegelman (of Maus fame) who illustrated a new edition right at the time it became public domain. Famously, two different productions were then presented in NYC, one on Broadway and another Off Broadway. This was the Off Broadway version, with book, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa.

I got to play one half of the dysfunctional couple who served as host, a violent, abusive and drunken Vaudeville clown (literally a clown — I smeared face paint on while face down in a bathtub in one scene). I loved it. I don’t often get to portray the villain of a piece (such as it is — everyone’s pretty awful), and I ate it up.

Behind the scenes I of course conceived some drinks for our own wild parties. It was only my second time out experimenting with themed cocktails of my own, so I was still getting my footing, but going back now and tasting some of the results I wasn’t altogether displeased (though I admit to a couple of tweaks and, “What was I thinking there?”).

“We’ll be having a wild, wild party!” we sang. I was doing my part to contribute!