Performances don’t get any more sizzlingly spellbinding than Madelyn Claire Lego’s star turn as Queenie in Jaxx Theatrical’s fabulous 4-performance-only revival of Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party.

Lego sings and acts her heart out as blonde stunner Queenie (Lego), first introduced in Joseph Moncure March’s epic poem The Wild Party, who uses her considerably powers of feminine persuasion to convince her abusive lover of seven years (Kyle Steven Stocker as Burrs) to throw what she hopes will be the wildest party in all New York.

On the guest list are in-your-face lesbian Madeline True (Natalie Reff), pro boxer Eddie (Joel Jofre) and his boop-boop-a-doop girlfriend Mae (Mary Louise Lukasiewicz), mute dancer Jackie (dance captain JD Torres Morabito), flamboyant “brothers” Oscar and Phil D’Armano (Matt Bergonzine and Brian Bogart), blowsy hooker Dolores (fight captain Julie Mai Nguyen), underage nymphet Nadine (Taylor Bailey), bigshot theater producer Sam Himmelstein (Francis Cabison), and quite a few more.

Things start out wild and get even wilder when raven-haired firecracker Kate (Whitney Vigil) arrives with her latest flame, Black (Chris Louis), and when Black and Queenie hit it off, you can be sure that something not so pretty is about to hit the fan.

Madeline goes hunting for fresh young female flesh with whom to share “a good-natured, old-fashioned lesbian love story,” the mismatched Eddie and Mae proclaim rather improbably that they are “Two Of A Kind” in yet another of Lippa’s instantly contagious tunes, partygoers revel to the dance craze called “The Juggernaut,” and the D’Armanos get the joint even more a-jumpin’ in “A Wild, Wild Party,” the last two numbers just a couple of the many that showcase Jeremy Lucas’s eclectic, high-powered choreography.

Of the seven intimate stagings I’ve now seen of Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party (not to mention five big-stage incarnations), Jaxx Theatricals’ is easily the most up-close-and-personal with the entire audience seated only inches from the action, and with Calvin Butler’s dazzling lighting design filtered through atmospheric stage haze, expect to feel as if you too are an invited guest to this wildest of nights.

Few lead roles offer as many vocal and acting challenges as Queenie, and all-around stunner Lego aces them all, belting to the high heavens in a performance that had me spellbound.

Stocker’s all-American good looks might have you fooled into thinking that Queenie won the boyfriend lottery in Burrs, but just wait till that green-eyed monster rears its ugly head and a riveting, power-piped Stocker reveals the monster beneath.

With a voice to reach the rafters, Vigil proves a veritable force of nature as a woman who’s not about to let either inhibition or Prohibition stand in the way of getting whatever she wants whenever she wants it.

A suave, silky-voiced Louis completes the quartet of principals, and just wait until all four join voices in the achingly beautiful “Poor Child” and the dramatic “Listen To Me.”

Reff (a Sapphic sensation as Madelaine), Jofre and Lukasiewicz (opposites-attract charmers as Eddie and Mae), and Bergonzie and Bogart (flamboyant scene-stealers as Oscar and Phil) provide topnotch support every step of the way.

Morabito’s Jackie reveals himself the production’s stand-out dancer in “Jackie’s Last Dance,” usually a solo showcase (which I prefer) but this time joined by Kyler Wells’s Max and Bailey’s Nadine in a pansexual pas de trois.

Nguyen’s Dolores, Cabison’s Sam, Colin Tracy in an amusing cameo as the Landlord (usually an offstage voice), and Alora Kinley in the beefed-up role of “Ringmaster” Kegs (and Detective Legs) complete the cast in tiptop fashion.

Director Lucas makes ingenious use of Tracy and Morabito’s Cinemascope set, including an upstage row of chairs often filled by cast members in flies-on-the-wall mode.

Jill Marie Burke conducts the production’s pro-caliber live orchestra composed of Brent Crayon (Burke’s fellow music director) on keys, Aric Kline on trumpet, Phil Moore on reeds, Jonathan Pintoff on bass, and Tom Zygmont on drums, with Jamie Humiston providing an expert sound design mix of amped vocals and instrumentals throughout the show.

Lucas’s costumes evoke the Roaring Twenties (in various degrees of dress and undress), while bobbed and permed wigs give the female characters appropriately 1920s looks, though because leading lady Lego sports her own blond tresses pinned up, a moment in which Burrs mistakes Mae for Queenie doesn’t make sense since the two women’s hairdos aren’t a bit alike.

Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party is produced by Lucas and Morabito. Tracy is stage manager.

A four-nights-only run seems criminally short for a production as all-around sensational as Jaxx Theatricals’ latest, making haste of the essence in securing tickets for one of its remaining performances.

Trust me. This is one Wild Party you won’t want to miss.

The Jaxx Theatre, 5432 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.
www.Showclix.com/Event/Jaxx-WildParty

–Steven Stanley
March 27, 2024
Photos: Corran Villalobo

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Tags: Andrew Lippa, Jaxx Theatricals, Los Angeles Theater Review