Orchestrations: Michael Gibson, Music Director: Stephen Oremus, Director: Gabriel Barre

The Wild Party opened February 24, 2000 at the Manhattan Theatre Club City Center Stage I and played for 88 performances.

The booklet contains extensive information about the production team. There are 2 two-pages pictures, 9 big and 4 medium, all in black and white. It's very nice to get those pictures, very nice and meaningful of the show's story and style. Again, thanks to RCA Victor for a very nice booklet, containing the full lyrics.
There is also a 1 page text by Clifford Lee Johnson III (Director of Musical Theatre Program) about the show, and a one page and a half synopsis by Gabriel Barre (Director).

It was a very big surprise for me to know that two authors had had the idea of writing a musical based on the same text. The difficulty of the exercise now is to give an opinion on Andrew Lippa's version once I've been listening a lot to LaChiusa's version... I'll try to be as objective as I can but as an introduction, I'll say that I consider both recordings as very good.

First of all, I generally prefer this version's music, closer to what I consider should be a 'musical' score (that's a particularly personal opinion!). A little less crazy, with a greater variety of styles, generally more entertaining than LaChiusa's version, I give my vote to this recording. About performers, vocally I do prefer this version's performers. That's again a difficult point to discuss because each performers set has its advantages. Maybe LaChiusa's version does not provide means for the singers to show how good they are. On the other hand, LaChiusa's version makes them go further in behaving as the crazy people they play, so it's probably a better actor performance than Lippa's version, closer to the characters, even vocally, making renditions more funny but less 'vocally clean'. As I am more interested in vocal performances, I do prefer this version. But that's a very close challenge and it's possible that one day I'll reconsider that opinion. At least, what I can say is that both versions are very enjoyable, and worth having. Considering one better than the other is only a matter of taste and of what one may look for in musicals.

About noticeable songs, I was very impressed by Poor Child, which is a gem and wonderfully rendered by Taye Diggs, and Raise the Roof for the high entertaining pleasure it brings. By the way, most of this recording songs are great.