A party has been raging in New York City for over a hundred years. It is where The High and The Low come to meet. Power brokers and whores, suits and artists, the wealthy and the destitute. Some on the rise, some on the fall, and all of them desperately needing to transact with the other.
Cocktails come in and out of fashion but envy, greed, lust and ambition are always on the menu.
The venue has changed over time - Café Society, The Onyx on 52nd St, CBGB, Danceteria, The Limelight and that nameless club in Bushwick where I lost my wallet and a sizeable amount of dignity are but a few of the places it has been hosted.
Joseph Moncure March attended many such events in the early 1920s and wrote about them in his epic poem “The Wild Party”.
This heavily adapted version takes as many liberties as you would expect from a bunch of reprobates like New York-based multi-hyphenate Kenyon Phillips and his theatrical music ensemble Roma!
Enjoy.
Photo: Nadia Itani
Roma! : The Wild Party (on Bandcamp)
Joseph Moncure March: The Wild Party (text)