The provocative musical “The Wild Party” will make its first Bay Area appearance in Memorial Auditorium tonight as the Ram’s Head Theatrical Society kicks off its annual spring production.

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Jason Chuang

Lauren Hayes '08 portrays Queenie, the "sexually ambitious" character from Ram's Head latest production, "The Wild Party."

Director Merritt Forrest Baer ‘07 called award-winning composer Andrew Lippa’s score “seductively written, both deeply complex and compellingly sensual.”

Ram’s Head Theatrical Society sorted through 1,500 musicals before selecting “The Wild Party.”

“The show is rarely produced due to its musical and technical complexity, but Ram’s Head decided to embrace this challenge and has taken student theatre at Stanford to the next level,” Producer Cindy Prieto ‘07 wrote in an email to The Daily.

The production staff began working on the show last spring, and cast auditions were held in early January. While they said the play has been laborious and time consuming, the cast and crew said the show’s production has been rewarding.

“It takes an incredible amount of work from many people in order to put on a professional production of as high quality as ‘The Wild Party,’” Prieto said. “In fact, much of the cast and staff spent their spring breaks in MemAud building one of the most impressive sets the Stanford campus has ever seen — various parts of the set actually move mechanically during the show.”

Ram’s Head also improved the acoustics of Memorial Auditorium by installing their own $10,000 sound system.

“Overall we have stretched the budget to make this the most spectacular musical presented at Stanford,” Prieto said.

Hundreds of tickets have already been sold, and Ram’s Head expects hundreds more to go before the last show, according to Prieto.

“Since few people had heard of ‘The Wild Party’ before now, these great sales figures are a testament to how many people have heard about and are excited by the show,” she said.

Tonight’s show will begin at 8:00 p.m. It will also run tomorrow and from Apr. 19 to 21.