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The Music Theatre Workshop’s “The Wild Party,” a production showing this weekend, is based on

With the pop-based “Moulin Rouge” and recent box-office hit “Chicago,” it’s easy to see the audience of musical theater is changing. However, John Hall, producer and director of the UCLA Musical Workshop’s production of “The Wild Party,” shows his regard for tradition.

“The Wild Party,” which makes its West Coast Premiere in Schoenberg Hall this Friday, is based on Joseph Moncure March’s narrative poem about one night in the lives of vaudevillian losers. Andrew Lippa, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics, revives the traditional breed of musical theater which faded away in the 1980s and 1990s, an act of loyalty that Hall admires.

“The younger composers now realize the value of a good tune. That’s one of Mr. Lippa’s strengths: he can write a tune,” Hall said. “A lot of the composers today are criticized as wanna-bes. Melody has taken a backseat to the drama. I think that with this show, (Lippa) is looking for a new direction.”

However, tradition in no way necessitates being boring. The sexy musical is set during the Roaring ’20s at a party thrown by a vaudeville starlet named Queenie and her lover Burrs, an abusive clown and scoundrel.

A heated love rectangle forms between the couple, their friend Kate and her date Black, a gentleman whose upper-class shine draws attention from the rest of the sullied revelers. Stale alcohol is passed from one hand to the next and bodies writhe against each other.

The musical presents flashy, show-stopping tunes. A particularly sexy number called “Raise the Roof” drips with sensuality and a tango beat.

The anti-prohibition, pro-alcoholism song “Look at Me Now” sung by Monica Quintanilla, a third-year theater student, instills the party with a raw energy.

The chilling “Poor Child” sets a solemn mood as the four lead characters weave their voices into a sophisticated, operatic quartet. Mentally separated from the frenzied atmosphere, Queenie, Burrs, Black and Kate are able to express their angst, anger, fascination and sorrow in a song as complicated as their love lives.

Lippa’s musical arrangement is fast-paced. Because there is very little dialogue, the end of one song often directly segues into the beginning of the next, leaving the actors – as well as the audience – out of breath.

Ben Makino, the musical director for “The Wild Party,” confirms that providing instrumental music for the entire length of the play is no easy task.

“We’ll have this really hot number with only two seconds in between the next number, or it will go straight onto the next number, which is hard,” Makino said. “We have to find our levels and our balances and everything. It’s an endurance piece.”

The robust music is provided by a somewhat motley group of instruments. The jazz big-band is the core sound, but a piano is also a prominent presence in the score. With the addition of the electric guitar, which provides almost jarring but equally sensuous licks to accompany the big-band, the music shows a freedom for creativity in interpretation, departing from the Roaring ’20s jazz experience.

“It’s the way he uses (the instruments) that makes it sound more ’70s or gospel-type swing numbers,” Makino said. “(The musical) takes huge liberties.”

Because the entire cast is onstage for the majority of the play, much of the background movement is improvised by the students.

Choreographer Bill Szobody, who performed on Broadway in the original cast of Cabaret and other musicals, allowed the students to have a lot of input in the choreography.

“A lot of the background is their own stuff. I can’t totally be a dictator and tell them how to move every second. It’s sort of experimental,” Szobody said.

Lippa’s musical is one of two different versions of “The Wild Party” that premiered in 2000. The rival production of John LaChiusa differs greatly from Lippa’s rendition because LaChiusa’s version focuses more on the historical background of the time period. Its jazz-laden score is often preferred over Lippa’s signature musical numbers that include the wailing of an anachronistic electric guitar. LaChiusa’s version sets a serious tone some critics say is more reflective of 1920s Manhattan.

“I know a lot of people who’ve heard this say ‘I like it until the guitar starts sounding like Aerosmith,’ but I like that. I think it sounds cool,” Hall said.

Along with the electric guitar, Lippa is criticized for the over-abundance of show-stopping numbers in the score, which lacks the subtlety of LaChuisa’s version. However, the barrage of such powerful songs is just another element Hall accords to traditional musical theater.

“They’re meant to get applause, they’re meant to get audience reaction and meant to please immediately,” Hall said. “I’m old fashioned enough to like that.”

Performances of “The Wild Party” are tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. at Schoenberg Hall. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $10 for students and seniors.

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