The Broadway production coincidentally opened during the same theatrical season (1999–2000) as an off-Broadway musical with the same title and source material.

Queenie and Burrs, whose relationship is disintegrating, host a party fueled by bathtub gin, cocaine, and uninhibited sexual behavior.

The guests include fading star Dolores; Kate, Queenie's best friend and rival; Black, Kate's younger lover, who has his eye on Queenie; Jackie, a rich, "ambisextrous" kid who has his eye on everyone, regardless of gender or age; Oscar and Phil D'Armano, a gay couple/brother act; lesbian stripper Miss Madelaine True and her morphine-addicted girlfriend Sally; Black prizefighter Eddie, his white wife Mae and Mae's underaged Lolita-like sister, Nadine.

The cast included Toni Collette (making her Broadway debut) as Queenie, Mandy Patinkin as Burrs, and Yancey Arias as Black.

The four were backed by a large ensemble cast, each of whom has a featured song or key moments to take center stage.

In 2001, LaChiusa said that the role of Queenie was written for African-American actress and singer Vanessa Williams, who was replaced with Collette when the former became pregnant.

Madelaine, an "almost famous" stripper, introduces Queenie to her new girlfriend, the catatonic morphine-addicted Sally, who she met crawling outside the theatre in a drugged stupor.

The incestuously devoted D'Armono Brothers, Oscar and Phil sing a new ditty as Gold and Goldberg, two would-be producers, arrive.

Dolores, a faded star, hints to Burrs that she knows his secrets, and forces him to introduce her to Gold and Goldberg.

The Party Queenie starts a dance to raise the energy ("Black Bottom"), but Kate soon interrupts with her arrival.

Queenie and Kate trade insults and love, telling Nadine of their double-edged friendship ("Best Friend").

Eddie and Mae soon come to blows - hitting each other, as Dolores seduces Gold and Goldberg, bringing them into the bedroom.

She notices Oscar and Phil making up, and turns to find Gold and Goldberg, pants nowhere to be found, wondering what has happened to them.

Dolores appears and warns them that their promise must be kept, or terrible things will occur ("The Movin' Uptown Blues").

Burrs and Queenie come to blows as she reveals she knows about his wife ("Love Ain't Nothin'/Welcome To Her Party").

Gold and Goldberg tell him they had no intention of taking him uptown with them, and he begins to put on his vaudeville makeup.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times called it "a parade of personalities in search of a missing party .

LaChiusa has written several tuneful, witty, and character driven songs, which George C. Wolfe has expertly arranged and staged around the narrative provided by the source material; an interesting story gets told in appealing music and believable dialogue.

"[6] The Michael John LaChiusa and Andrew Lippa versions of The Wild Party are markedly different in their storylines.

Within those individual stories, broader themes such as racism, sexism, bisexuality, antisemitism, and the concept of the American Dream are included.

While Lippa takes a more abstract, non-date specific approach to his compositions and orchestrations, the LaChiusa score is both more traditional in terms of musical theatre conventions as well as more period with regard to the Roaring Twenties setting.