Gil Hates Everything

“The Wild Party” is a long poem from 1928 by Joseph Moncure March, scandalous at the time. It was filmed in 1975 (badly, it seems) and then, slightly randomly, it was adapted as a musical twice in the same year (1999), once by Michael John Lachiusa and once, the version we have here, by Andrew Lippa. There’s no point summarizing the plot, as instead you can just read the poem: here’s how it starts (not all of it, unless it ends really very abruptly).

Back? OK, so you can see from the text that this is a pretty serious chunk of text, which allegedly inspired William S. Burroughs to become a writer. It drips with atmosphere. It also drips with being in the public domain, hence the two simultaneous musical versions. I’ve seen the LaChiusa version in Vancouver (it was awesome, although it had serious sound problems which fortunately for once didn’t affect me at all as I was right at the front). Both versions make heavy use of the poet’s original words – well wouldn’t you, when they’re that good – but their plots are mildly different at the end.

So, how does this one sound like? Well, it sounds like “Chicago” got locked in the apartment all night with a lot of gin, and you should take that as a recommendation. It’s more mainstream than LaChiusa’s, with a bunch of songs you could conceivably extract and use as standalones: it’s also somewhat less discordant, although it does okay on that score. If you think this version sounds weird then don’t go near the other one! But I think I prefer the LaChiusa version in the end; this one pulls back from the edge a couple of times, whereas the LaChiusa version doesn’t hesitate to go barrelling right over.

Short review, because I’m kinda busy and because I would just basically encourage you to listen to both versions and probably to go see either if you get the chance. The LaChiusa version gets nine out of ten, this one gets eight. Witness the fitness of effective adaptations of super-strong source material :)

(originally published 2009)