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1[[quoteright:182:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_1nuit_enfer003_8122.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:182:''"Burrsie, I think we're about due for a party."''[[note]]Illustration by Creator/ArtSpiegelman[[/note]]]]
3
4->''Queenie was a blonde, and her age stood still,\
5And she danced twice a day in vaudeville.''
6-->-- '''The opening lines of the poem and both musicals'''
7
8An epic poem by Joseph Moncure March, written in and about TheRoaringTwenties. In the story, two vaudeville performers, Queenie (a dancer) and Burrs (a clown) begin a lustful romance and move into a Manhattan apartment together. After a while, however, the lust wears off and Queenie decides to throw a party to shake things up. The guest list includes many colorful characters: Madelaine True, a lesbian; Dolores, a Mexican hooker; Eddie, a dim boxer and his even dimmer wife Mae; Oscar and Phil d'Armano, two flamboyantly gay brothers; Jackie, a bisexual dancer; and Nadine, a minor. Things start to get hot when Queenie's friend Kate arrives with a charmer named Black, who catches Queenie's eye and sparks Burrs' jealousy.
9
10Considered extremely racy for its time, it wasn't allowed to be published until two years after it was written, and even then with only a very limited run (750 copies). ''The Wild Party'' was adapted into a poorly-received [[TheFilmOfTheBook film]] in 1975 (which tried to work in elements of the Creator/FattyArbuckle scandal), and two [[TheMusical musicals]] in 2000, one on Broadway (by Michael John [=LaChiusa=]) and one off-Broadway (by Andrew Lippa).
11
12Lippa's version is closer in plot to March's poem and [[AdaptationDistillation keeps the focus on]] the LoveTriangle, and features modern pop/rock orchestrations. [=LaChiusa's=] departs from the original by [[AdaptationExpansion fleshing out]] the BackStory and CharacterDevelopment of the large cast, notably bringing aspects of March's poem "The Set Up" to boxer Eddie. This version incorporates many {{pastiche}}s of the music and show business of TheRoaringTwenties.
13
14Not to be confused with ''Film/TheWildParty1956'' crime film starring Creator/AnthonyQuinn, and probably unrelated to the ''Film/TheWildParty1929'' film either.
15
16----
17!!Provides examples of the following:
18* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Since the source material is a poem, the musicals have quite a lot of leeway to play around with the characters' backstories. Oddly enough, both musicals completely change some of the scant backstories the characters ''are'' given.
19** Jackie in the poem is a rebellious PreachersKid. The Lippa musical doesn’t mention his backstory at all but adds a plot point about his tongue having been cut out, while the [=LaChiusa=] version makes his father a high-class banker. Neither musical mentions his ''multiple prison terms for rape'' either, although he’s still a rapist in [=LaChiusa's=] play.
20** Mr. Black is stated to have an air of good breeding about him in the original, and he seems fairly unfamiliar with the world of the party's other guests. Neither musical stays very close to this description- Lippa's Black retains the "clueless newcomer" characterization, but he’s a nobody recently arrived from Chicago here. The [=LaChiusa=] Black is even further removed from his poem counterpart, as he’s Kate's lonely boy toy who is implied to live off the grace of whatever woman he’s seeing at the moment, making him something of a SpearCounterpart for Queenie herself.
21* AllMusicalsAreAdaptations: The 1994 reissue of the long-out-of-print poem directly inspired both [=LaChiusa=] and Lippa, resulting in the DuelingShows. In Lippa's version, the trope also occurs in-universe when the brothers d'Armano announce their newly-written musical ''Good Heavens'', which is based on Literature/TheBible.
22* AmbiguouslyBrown: Dolores claims to be Spanish although the poem says she is actually "somewhat Negro and a great deal Jew." Played by the less ambiguously brown Eartha Kitt ([=LaChiusa=]) and Kena Tangi Dorsey (Lippa).
23* AscendedExtra: Dolores commands no more focus than any other guest in the original poem, and is decidedly forgettable in the Lippa, with no featured song and only a tiny smattering of dialogue. In the [=LaChiusa=], however, she's given much more prominence and might well be considered foremost among the guests (setting aside Kate and Black). Probably it helped that the role was debuted by Eartha Kitt.
24* AttemptedRape: On the jailbait Nadine; in the poem the rapist is never named, [=LaChiusa=] makes it Jackie. (It can't be Jackie in the poem because he passes out cold immediately before the scene in question. However, in [=LaChiusa's=] version, the act comes across as... ''very much'' in-character for Jackie.)
25* BadGirlSong: "Queenie was a Blonde" and "Look at Me Now" (for Kate) in the Lippa version. The [=LaChiusa=] has its own "Queenie was a Blonde", as well as, much later on, "Lowdown-Down" -- which obviously doesn't serve to introduce Queenie and is much gentler than most songs of this type, but establishes exactly what she thinks about her own lifestyle.
26* BigApplesauce: Only in New York would you see a party quite like this.
27* [[BrotherSisterIncest Brother-Brother Incest]]: The Brothers d'Armano. Depends on the production; they may be NotBloodSiblings, but rather [[UnrelatedBrothers "brothers"]][[note]]a non-wrestling example[[/note]] in their show business act.
28* BSODSong: Both musicals end with a song in which a shocked Queenie attempts to deal with the fact of [[spoiler:Burrs' death]]. Lippa's "How Did We Come to This?" finds her at least coherent enough to deliver a damning indictment of this shallow life she and her friends have chosen, whereas the finale reprise of [=LaChiusa's=] "This Is What It Is" is a moment of absolute stunned horror, barely even melodic.
29* ButLiquorIsQuicker
30* CampGay: Again, the Brothers d'Armano. And Jackie certainly qualifies as Camp Bisexual in the original and [=LaChiusa=] (not so much in the Lippa, where he's portrayed as mute.)
31* CeilingBanger: The neighbor.
32* CompositeCharacter: Sally, Madelaine True's blissed-out lover in the [=LaChiusa=] version. Marche's poem mentions a Sally as an afterthought among the guests, of whom we know only that she's accompanying a man who goes by [[MealTicket Butter]] [[CountryMouse and Eggs]], and that she was in the chorus of a musical. Later on, March describes another girl who sits "White:/Aloof:/Like stone", staring into the distance without a motion or a word, whom Madelaine True unsuccessfully approaches. It seems [=LaChiusa=] modelled his Sally after this character while borrowing the name from the other guest, which also makes this a very minor case of PromotedToLoveInterest.
33* CrazyJealousGuy: Burrs.
34* CrowdSong: Lippa's has a few, such as "The Juggernaut" and "A Wild, Wild Party".
35* DarkReprise: From [=LaChiusa's=] version:
36** "Queenie was a Blonde" is first given a sensational, falsely enthusiastic reprise immediately after [[spoiler:Burrs' death]], but then Queenie's solo reiteration -- tearful, confused and alone -- qualifies as a proper DarkReprise.
37** "Marie Is Tricky" appears first as Burr's vaudeville act; then it gets nasty when it returns in "[[SanitySlippageSong How Many Women in the World]]".
38** The jaunty, fun tune "Dry", which introduces most of the guests, is reprised once by the menacing Burrs in "Gin", then by the entire company to hectic, desperate effect in "Wild".
39** Queenie's number "Welcome to My Party" is explicitly recalled by Burrs' spiteful, incisive "Welcome to Her Party" near the end.
40** During the aforementioned "Wild", you can hear Jackie repeat a line from his IAmSong, "Breezin' Through Another Day": "S'long as I keep a free hand...!" This is after he has seduced Oscar d'Armano and caused strife between the two brothers.
41** "Uptown", the d'Armano brothers' first ditty, is also reprised during "Wild" -- no lyrics are repeated, but Oscar feigns cheerily playing through the chord progression while Phil explodes at him for his infidelity.
42** And "Eddie & Mae" is ''also'' given a DarkReprise during "Wild" as the husband and wife fly into a screaming match. Yeah... "Wild" is a pretty dense number.
43** "A Little Mmm" deserves mention for being just about the only reprised song that ''isn't'' darker the second time around. It's more somber, but when the brothers d'Armano tenderly return to this melody during an interlude in "Golden Boy", it's because they're coming around to forgiveness and reconciliation.
44** "The Lights of Broadway", though it doesn't emerge as a full-fledged song until near the end of the show, was first divulged during Nadine's introduction in "Welcome to My Party". It's a bright, shiny, saccharine Broadway showtune par excellence... and when we hear her sing it in full, the sixteen-year-old girl is (according to the original production's staging) sitting on a bed snorting coke with DepravedBisexual Jackie at his most wolfishly charming. That visual makes the entire number ''way'' more uncomfortable and foreboding.
45** And finally, "How Many Women in the World?" comes back for a brief reprise during the climax: slow, dark, and heavy with the intent to kill.
46* DepravedBisexual: Jackie in the poem is a convicted rapist, and in the [=LaChiusa=] musical he attempts to rape Mae's inebriated teenage sister.
47* DestructiveRomance: Queenie and Burrs' relationship is telegraphed as this virtually from the start, no matter which of the three versions you're looking at.
48* DistantDuet: In the Lippa version. Burrs' "What Is It About Her?" begins as a solo number, then Queenie joins in with a continuation of her immediately preceding "Maybe I Like It This Way", and by the end, they're both passing the "...About Her?" melody back and forth. They're meant to be in separate rooms the whole time.
49* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The story ends with Burrs dead and Black fleeing.]]
50* DuelingShows: Both musicals opened in New York in 2000 within two months of each other, and neither was very successful: the Broadway version lasted 68 performances, while the off-Broadway version lasted 54.
51* DumbBlonde: Mae, in all versions (though she proves to have a mean streak in [=LaChiusa's=]).
52* TheElevenOClockNumber: Dolores has "When It Ends" in the [=LaChiusa=]; Queenie has "How Did We Come to This?" in the Lippa
53* EnsembleCast: makes both musicals very popular with university theatre programs.
54* FieryRedhead: Kate's introduction in the poem describes her as a beautiful, but dangerous and capricious redhead who loves parties, dirty jokes, and men.
55* FriendshipSong: "Best Friend" in the [=LaChiusa=] version, for Queenie & Kate, is the most [[VitriolicBestBuds vitriolic]] instance of this trope imaginable.
56* GrievousBottleyHarm: Black smashes a bottle over Eddie's head to knock him out when the boxer goes berserk (which is predicated by the AttemptedRape on Nadine in the poem, and by Burrs attacking Mae after mistaking her for Queenie in the Lippa).
57* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Kate is an ''intense'' partier, guzzling both liquor and cocaine depending on the version. The Lippa version lends itself to a more manic, out-of-control interpretation of this trope, while the [=LaChiusa=] suggests a darker version, the type whose claws come out after a few drinks.
58* TheHeroSucksSong: The scathing "Welcome to Her Party" in the [=LaChiusa=] (by Burrs, on Queenie). Also, to a lesser extent, "Black is a Moocher" (by Kate, on Black): Kate admits that she does like/want/need Black for what he is, but what he is in her eyes is nothing but an amateur gigolo.
59* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Eddie and Mae.
60* IAmGreatSong: Lippa's Kate absolutely chews it up with both of her solo numbers, "Look at Me Now" and "The Life of the Party". A few of [=LaChiusa's=] characters also take time to express in song how awesome they are, particularly Jackie ("Breezin' Through Another Day") and Dolores ("Movin' Uptown").
61* ICallHimMrHappy: One of the guests in Lippa's version is quick to correct Dolores about the proper name for his penis.
62-->'''Dolores:''' It's called ''Good Heavens!''\
63'''Man:''' Dolores, I'm a very, very busy producer.\
64'''Dolores:''' You gotta give 'em a chance!\
65'''Man:''' Well, can they write a tune? Can they inspire a nation? Y'know, "c'mon kid, c'mon kid, Alexander's Ragtime Band..." Now there's a great tune for ya. Can they touch [[Music/IrvingBerlin Irving?]]\
66'''Dolores:''' ''[putting her hand on his crotch]'' I can touch Irving.\
67'''Man:''' ...His name's George.
68* [[IfICantHaveYou If I Can't Have Him]]: "...''then nobody will''." (Sung by Kate at the end of [=LaChiusa's=] "Black is a Moocher".)
69* IWantSong: Lippa's "Out of the Blue" lays out Queenie's problems, desires, and by the end, her plan to crush Burrs emotionally at the party.
70* ListSong: [=LaChiusa's=] "Dry" is a fast-paced number that introduces most of the guests while they clamor for alcohol by singing "Don't give me no [insert poor substitute for alcohol here]". The following is a list of things the guests would prefer that you not give them any of: seltzer, water, lemon, grape juice, root beer, Jell-O, coffee.
71* LoveDodecahedron: Queenie/Burrs/Black is the LoveTriangle whose violent resolution makes up the climax of all versions of the story. However, in all versions (especially Lippa's), Kate also intervenes with designs upon Burrs, forming a Love Square. Meanwhile, in both the original poem and [=LaChiusa's=] version, Jackie tries to lure Oscar d'Armano away from Phil, and [=LaChiusa=] also puts in some allusions to funny business between Kate and Eddie, to the anger of his wife Mae. But both of these [[BetaCouple Beta Couples]] tenderly reunite over the course of the song "Golden Boy".
72* MadnessMakeover: [=LaChiusa=] has Burrs drunkenly apply his BlackFace makeup during "How Many Women in the World" as he prepares to MurderTheHypotenuse.
73** Lippa's version also has Burrs applying his clown makeup as part of his SanitySlippage, although in this case it happens at the beginning of "Let Me Drown" in an attempt to make it look like he's enjoying himself.
74* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber: "Wild" in [=LaChiusa's=] musical. Good god. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee2Xk-6h7X4 See for yourself.]]
75* MinstrelShows: [=LaChiusa=] makes Burrs a comedic minstrel performer rather than a traditional MonsterClown.
76* MonsterClown: Burrs. Amusingly, Art Spiegelman depicts Burrs with a long face and rather pointed jaw, like [[ComicBook/TheJoker another]] comic-book monster clown.
77* MurderTheHypotenuse: Burrs tries to, [[spoiler: but Black is the one who succeeds.]]
78* APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy: What the party eventually turns into.
79* PreachersKid: In the poem, Jackie is the son of a preacher who was disowned by his father for being too much trouble. Neither musical uses this backstory, with the Lippa not talking about his past at all and the [=LaChiusa=] changing his estranged father to a wealthy banker.
80* QuarrelingSong: "Make Me Happy" from the Lippa qualifies as long as you're willing to categorize a musical shouting match between a crazed gunman and his two frantically pleading would-be victims as a "quarrel".
81* RaceLift: March's poem only specifies color in the case of Dolores (see AmbiguouslyBrown above), and Creator/ArtSpiegelman's illustrations -- which directly inspired both musical composers -- depicts the rest of the characters as white. However, in adapting Eddie, [=LaChiusa=] worked in elements from another narrative poem by March, "The Set-Up", with the result being that his Eddie is specifically black (premiered by Norm Lewis). Some allusions in Oscar and Phil's songs from the [=LaChiusa=] suggest black New York City culture as well, and indeed the show premiered with black actors in those roles: Nathan Lee Graham and Michael [=McElroy=]. Also, it happens that both the [=LaChiusa=] and Lippa productions cast nonwhite Blacks (Yancey Arias and Taye Diggs, respectively); while the original [=LaChiusa=] Kate, Tonya Pinkins, is also black. (Neither of these two characters was specifically written for any color in either version, though.)
82* RepriseMedley: As listed above under DarkReprise, "Wild" brings back quite a few earlier tunes, with a thick syrup of ''bitterness and rage'' to hold them all together.
83* SanitySlippageSong: In the Lippa musical, it's Burrs' drunkenness and jealousy-induced "Make Me Happy," which serves as the show's climax. [=LaChiusa=]'s "How Many Women in the World", though not occupying the same place in the narrative structure, similarly charts Burrs' descent into incoherent rage.
84* SidekickSong: Kate's songs in either version could qualify, but she's more of a full-fledged main character than a sidekick to Queenie. The Lippa numbers "An Old-Fashioned Love Story" and "Two of a Kind" are structurally the most similar to Sidekick Songs, being goofy, plot-irrelevant little asides for Madelaine True and Eddie & Mae, respectively. Because the [=LaChiusa=] musical is designed to distribute focus much more across the secondary characters and sustain little plot threads for them across the duration of the performance, there aren't really any qualifiers for a Sidekick Song there.
85* TheSpeechless: In Lippa's version, Jackie has no tongue.
86* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: Lippa's Burrs pulls one of these in "Make Me Happy" while threatening Black and Queenie with a gun:
87-->We've got a situation:\
88Shit or get off the pot!\
89Whaddaya say? You wanna give her away\
90Or do you wanna get—\
91On your knees?
92* TitleDrop: In both musicals. [=LaChiusa=]'s version has a song called "Wild Party", and Lippa's has one called "A Wild, Wild Party."
93* UnexpectedVirgin: In the Lippa version, Black implies this in "Come With Me" when he is about to have sex with Queenie:
94-->Always knew that this day would arrive
95* VitriolicBestBuds: Queenie and Kate are a particularly bitter case, especially in [=LaChiusa's=] duet "Best Friend."
96* TheVoiceless: [=LaChiusa's=] Sally is practically catatonic for most of the party, only to deliver the devastating MinorCharacterMajorSong "After Midnight Dies" as a soliloquy.
97* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Dolores, especially in [=LaChiusa's=] version. Neither the original poem nor Lippa's adaptation draws this out much, but in the [=LaChiusa=], she's obsessed with regaining her former fame and adoration, as expressed in "Moving Uptown". She later goes so far as to seduce the producers Gold & Goldberg in order to gain influence with them.
98* WimpFight / CatFight: The Brothers d'Armano in the poem, after Jackie gives Phil a kiss.
99* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: Gold and Goldberg in "The Movin' Uptown Blues." It's implied they started in Yiddish theatre and want to expand to broader vaudeville audiences.

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