ARTS, CULTURE & LIVING
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ILLUSTRATION BY ELLA JIPESCU
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Page 35 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, July 12, 2012
July 12, 2012
SQ page 35
Secret Theatre will perform the bawdy cult classic ‘Wild Party’ Joseph Moncure March, the show’s story, set the following year and told mostly in song, focuses on Queenie, a dancer in vaudeville, and her volatile relationship with a theater clown named Burrs. Queenie laments her situation and, to get even with her often abusive lover, decides to throw a party at which she will humiliate him in front of all the guests. And what a sordid lot they are! Among them are a hooker, a couple of flamboyant brothers who just happen to be composers, a boxer, a mute male dancer and a lesbian on the prowl. As the show (and the party) continue, tensions mount, jealousies are aroused, characters hallucinate, fights break out and a fatal gunshot is fired. “It’s an interesting study of people,” Turney said, “I’ve been a fan forever. It’s always been on my to-do list.”
The cast includes six members of the Actors’ Equity Association, the professional actors’ union, and several performers with Broadway and regional credits. At rehearsal Turney seemed pleased with the way the show was shaping up. “We’ve been building a better and better group around us,” she said of The Secret Theatre, to which she has been attached for the past two years, as an actress and, with increasing frequency, as a director. A resident of Sunnyside, Turney said the theater’s goal is to produce shows that are “closer and closer to Broadway” level. “We get a lot of new, talented people,” she said, many of them transplants who make their New York debuts at the theater. Continued page continued ononpage 39
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by Mark Lord Leave the kids and grandma at home! This summer, The Secret Theatre, tucked unobtrusively behind a former loading dock under the elevated train in Long Island City, continues its growing tradition of bringing to the public dark, rarely seen musicals that have developed cult followings since their original mountings. "The Wild Party," with book, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, opens July 12 for a two-week run, giving devotees a rare opportunity to revisit the show and newcomers the chance to become acquainted with its seedy denizens. “The show is hardly ever done” and it has a large fan base, director Taryn Turney said, mentioning that it is intended for “a very mature audience.” Based upon a 1928 poem of the same name by