Voices soar but staging stalls in Blank Canvas’ ‘The Wild Party’ Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, International Association of Theatre Critics “Some love is fire: some love is rust/But the fiercest, cleanest love is lust.” So begins Joseph Moncure March’s seedy, Jazz Age narrative poem “The Wild Party,” on which Andrew Lippa’s lyrical musical of the same name is based. Both lure you into a prohibition-era world that reeks of cheap perfume, gin-saturated sweat, and raging pheromones. The dark and ominous musical, whose 2000 Off-Broadway run garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Obie awards, does so with a brilliant and boozy score. It is currently on display at Blank Canvas Theatre. Like the characters themselves, the music is diverse and often dissonant (think Fosse meets Brecht), offers complex and dramatic key-changes, and has moments that approach atonality which foreshadow the strong likelihood that things will not end well for anyone. It is the performance of this music that is Blank Canvas’ strength and salvation, for the show’s staging does much to undermine this production. For more of this review, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.