Synopsis
Set in the roaring 1920s, The Wild Party follows Queenie, a dazzling vaudeville performer, and her lover Burrs, a violent clown whose charm has curdled into cruelty. In a bid to revive their fading relationship, the pair throw a decadent party in their Manhattan apartment. As the night unfolds and the liquor flows, the guests — an assortment of eccentric show-folk, lovers and drifters — descend into a haze of jealousy, seduction and chaos. When Queenie meets the mysterious and gentle Mr Black, tensions erupt into a tragic confrontation that ends the night in bloodshed. Andrew Lippa’s electric score blends jazz, gospel, and contemporary pop to capture the reckless energy of the Jazz Age while exploring darker themes of desire, addiction and self-destruction.
Reviews
“The Wild Party may not be the perfect musical we’ve all been looking for but it’s great fun to watch and puts enough talent on display to have warranted a longer run than it will have.”
CurtainUp
Playbill’s My Life in the Theatre
On 2 December 2025 Playbill released an interview with Brian on Youtube under their My Life in the Theatre playlist. Below is a transcript from the video about his time with The Wild Party – you can watch it here.
“The Wild Party. Oh, boy. Uh, this, another, I mean, talk about a score. That’s what I think of the first thing when I see this. I think of Andrew Lippa’s score and just, how, it’s just a gut punch. It’s just a slap in the face of amazing music. Um, you know, representing this kind of debauched, out of control, um, evening in Queenie’s house. Julia Murney, just perfect in this part, just perfect. Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel and I were, you know, kind of finished out this quartet of roles.
And I loved this part so much because it was a, it was a bit of a departure for me. It was kind of an id part. You know, just kind of Burrs is just kind of raging id and an alcoholic clown. How many times do you get to do that?
But that experience was a lot, because it was a very physical show for me. I just remember the feeling of, of, it starting and then just you having to be ready for this thing to kind of just move and not stop, which I think was the power of it I’m laughing because I’m thinking about, I think it’s Poor Child, the quartet, it’s called Poor Child. And there was a moment in the show where I would always crack, and Julia Murney would hand me before the show, she’d slip me a little, um, a little Tic Tac, that she would claim had magical powers to help me, uh, get over that crack. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. But it was her little thing of saying, I hear what’s going on. Don’t worry about it. Here’s your little pill. And I pop it in and I’d be like, noooo. Didn’t work, Julia!”