Photo caption: Samantha Luck as ‘Queenie’ and Caleb Barton as ‘Black’… in Andrew Lipps’s ‘The Wild Party’ at PSCA.
When Andrew Lippa’s ‘The Wild Party’ opens at Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts on Friday, June 13 at 7pm, it won’t be easing you into the summer theater season — it’ll be shaking the walls with jazz, gin, and emotional fireworks.
And yes, the date is Friday the 13th. Consider it a warning…or an invitation.
<a href=”https://ci.ovationtix.com/36033/production/1234127″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”><strong>Buy Tickets for ‘The Wild Party'</strong></a>
Staged by Thingamajig’s 2025 Summer Repertory Company, the same ensemble that is delighting audiences with this season’s ‘Something Rotten’, this production trades Elizabethan slapstick for something far smokier and more dangerous. But the commitment to sharp storytelling and stellar performance remains unchanged.
At the center of this roaring bacchanal is Samantha Luck as Queenie, a vaudeville performer with a taste for danger, and Trevor Brown as Burrs, her volatile partner whose love curdles into something darker. Seeking distraction (or perhaps destruction) they host a party in their Manhattan apartment. As the night unfolds, so do betrayals, temptations, and the arrival of a mysterious outsider, Black (played by Caleb Barton) who turns more than just Queenie’s head.
Adapted from Joseph Moncure March’s infamous 1928 poem, ‘The Wild Party’ is equal parts glitter and grit. Lippa’s score doesn’t mimic the Jazz Age it grabs it by the collar and makes it sweat. The music is bold and unrelenting, veering from smoky ballads to full-throttle ensemble numbers with the kind of energy that’s built to thrill.
This is not a show that plays it safe. But it is a show that plays it big. And for audiences who crave theater with teeth, drama that dances on the edge, ‘The Wild Party delivers.
A note for patrons: this is an R-rated production featuring adult themes, stylized violence, sexual content, and strong language. But its purpose isn’t to shock, only to illuminate.
Behind the sequins and shadows is a story about people grasping for connection in a world that won’t slow down.
So yes, come to the party. But don’t expect a tidy night of laughs and light jazz. This is a show that swings between seduction and consequence, beauty and danger, ecstasy and ache. It’s bold. It’s theatrical. And it just might leave you thinking long after the music stops. Come curious. Leave changed.
Andrew Lippa’s ‘The Wild Party’.
Directed and Choreographed by Pia Wyatt at PSCA through August.
<a href=”https://ci.ovationtix.com/36033/production/1234127″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”><strong>Buy Tickets for ‘The Wild Party'</strong></a>