Based on Joseph Moncure March's 1928 narrative poem of the same name, it coincidentally made its debut off-Broadway during the same theatre season (1999–2000) as a Broadway production with the same name and source material.

It's the roaring 1920s and the beautiful, young Queenie, although she tries, cannot find a lover able to satisfy her desires – until she meets Burrs, a vaudevillian clown with a voracious appetite for women.

Despite her casual reprimand of his behavior, Queenie wants to hurt Burrs in return ("Raise the Roof").

During the chaos, Black finds himself equally as taken by Queenie as she with him - much to the chagrin of Kate ("Poor Child").

Meanwhile, in a corner of the room, Madelaine is in a drunken stupor and on the prowl for a woman with very little success ("An Old-Fashioned Love Story").

Suddenly, Mr. Black approaches Queenie and pointedly asks why she stays with an abusive brute ("Of All the Luck").

He refuses her advances and expresses his deepest, darkest feelings for Queenie - she is driving him crazy ("What Is It About Her?").

When the two lovers wake, Queenie recoils in shock; Black jumps up and attempts to tackle Burrs but fails.

Queenie, now having lost both men, questions how things managed to reach that point of loss.

The musical was performed at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in 1997 as a workshop; Kristin Chenoweth was Mae.

[1] The musical opened Off-Broadway on February 24, 2000, at the Manhattan Theatre Club and ran for 54 performances.

Directed by Gabriel Barre, choreographed by Mark Dendy, and with musical direction by Stephen Oremus, it starred Julia Murney as Queenie, Brian d'Arcy James as Burrs, Taye Diggs as Mr. Black, Idina Menzel as Kate, and Alix Korey as Madelaine True.

The musical has been staged in cities throughout the United States including Brooklyn,[4] St. Louis,[5] Chicago, Baltimore in 2011,[6] Cincinnati in 2013,[7] Memphis in 2007,[8] Valparaiso, Indiana,[9] and Reno.

Off-Center series presented a staged concert version of The Wild Party as the final production of its 2015 season, running July 15–18.

[11] With direction by Leigh Silverman and choreography by Sonya Tayeh, it featured Sutton Foster as Queenie, Steven Pasquale (who was a member of the original off-Broadway company) as Burrs, Brandon Victor Dixon as Mr. Black, Joaquina Kalukango as Kate, Miriam Shor as Madelaine True, and Ryan Andes as Eddie.

Ben Brantley of the New York Times said Lippa's score "has a jittery, wandering quality, conscientiously shifting styles and tempos as if in search of a lost chord.

The ballads... are of the high-decibel, swooning pop variety made popular by Frank Wildhorn.

... Mr. Lippa fares better with pastiches of jazz, vaudeville and gospel vintage, although these, too, suffer by comparison to the Kander-Ebb songs for Chicago.

"[13] The CurtainUp reviewer wrote: "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.

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

In Lippa's version, the plot is tightly focused on the central love triangle of Joseph Moncure March's original poem, and the cast is much smaller.

Lippa's songs are not wholly dependent on the plot of the show and can be understood (arguably better than LaChiusa's) out of context.

Stylistically, LaChiusa mimics the jazz of the era while Lippa uses a deliberately anachronistic pop-rock sound, complete with electric guitars.