I didn't get to see Encores' version with Sutton Foster, Steven Pasquale, Brandon Victor Dixon and Joaquina Kalukango in 2015. Or the West End revival in 2019. But I caught the original 2000 Off-Broadway production a couple of times at Manhattan Theater Club. What a great and energetic cast! Brian d'Arcy James, Idina Menzel, Julia Murney, Taye Diggs and Alix Korey. I've never forget Korey bringing down the house with ''An Old-Fashioned Love Story'' or James raising the roof with ''Let Me Drown.'' Plus, Michael Gibson's rousing orchestrations.
But above all, Andrew Lippa's sensational score, which (to me) is one of the most terrifically tuneful ones of the 2000s.
Other songs I enjoyed: ''A Wild, Wild Party,'' ''Raise the Roof,'' ''What Is It About Her?'' and ''How Did We Come to This?''
I wish Lippa's show moved to Broadway for the Tony attention it deserved. Oh, well. We've always got the cast album. ''What a Party,'' indeed. |
