Post by scarlet on May 10, 2011 23:42:20 GMT -5
The children's story that I was thinking about while at the Marquis theater was The Wizard of Oz. Which is sad, because I had really been looking forward to this modern re-working of Lewis Carroll's tale. I fell in love with the concept CD done during the Tampa original run. But it seems to me that in re-working the show between Tampa and NY, they lost the things I enjoyed. Songs I'd been humming were gone, the love story between Alice and the White Knight was pared down, and even Alice's motivation for going down the rabbit hole is changed.
Janet Dacal plays Alice, a woman separated from her husband who has just moved her daughter Chloe into an apartment in Queens. Returning to the apartment from her job as a school-teacher, she hits her head on a light fixture in the service elevator. After commiserating with her daughter about how bad things are, she lies down on Chloe's bed, her head propped on Chloe's copy of Alice in Wonderland. Suddenly, a door opens, and in runs a large white rabbit. Oddly, it's the door that should be the one leading out of the bedroom into another part of the apartment. How did the Rabbit get past Chloe and her grandmother? The Rabbit darts through the room, and Alice dashes after him. And falls "Down the Rabbit Hole". Now, I'm already having issues here. Has she fallen asleep and is dreaming? This interpretation seems reasonable, since the "Welcome to Wonderland" has her stating that she's gonna wake up screaming. Oh, that song references "Lion, Scarecrow or Tin Man", a misguided joke in my opinion, because it immediately brings Wizard of Oz (and Wicked) to mind. Not something that works in the favor of this show.
The next few scenes have a disjointed/episodic feel, and lack a coherent narrative. Alice meets the Caterpillar, El Gato (a hysterical but stereotypically Latino version of the Cheshire Cat), and then Jack, the White Knight. All three of these characters get a song, and while the Marc Anthony inspired "Go with the flow" and Boy Band knock-off "White Knight" are fun, they don't really advance the plot. The Caterpillar's "Advice from a Caterpillar" annoyed me, since this version (changed from the concept CD) feels like it consists of the question "Who Are You?" repeated way too many times.
[interjection 5-10-11: just read on playbill that the show will be closing on Sunday. sorry for the out of work actors.]
Once Alice meets up with the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, we get a bit of a narrative. The Hatter who is in charge of the "Land beyond the Looking Glass," is plotting to overthrow the Queen. Alice insinuates herself into the Queen's good graces and in revenge, the Hatter and March Hare kidnap Alice's daughter. The act 1 Finale has Alice and her band of merry characters jumping through the looking glass to save Chloe.
Act 2 has Alice and the boys trying to track Chloe down while the Hatter forwards her plot against the Queen. It also has a unneeded and annoying interlude between Alice and a "Victorian Gentlemen" who I guess is supposed to be Lewis Carroll, and an interlude between Alice and her younger self (unfortunately, played by the girl playing Chloe, who looks nothing like the adult playing Alice). Eventually, the good guys win, Alice and Chloe get back home, and Alice's husband (who looks ALOT like the White Knight), reconciles with the family....
The songs are a mixed bag, borrowing from a variety of styles as mentioned above. And again, they seem to serve more to showcase the talents of the singers instead of advancing the plot. Kate Shindle does a bravura job belting the Hatter's anthem of "I will Prevail" but I kept wondering why she had some many songs. It felt to me as though she actually had more songs than the supposed main character of Alice. And in the back of my brain, a little voice get mentioning different Wildhorn songs that the Wonderland songs resembled.
A Victorian look is attempted in the set design, but unfortunately the heavy use of projections sinks this attempt. The psychedelic lighting effect for the Rabbit Hole fall was dizzying and not in a good way. When Alice takes a sip from the bottle that says "Drink Me... responsibly" the door behind her expands on the projection screen. Now, that might have been a cool effect, but it was ruined by Alice's line of "figures, I don't get smaller, the door gets bigger." Another way that the projections didn't serve the show were by giving us the original to compare it with. Before the start of the show and at intermission, the screen shows quotes and illustrations from the original book. This raises the bar for the show to a level that it ultimately fails to reach.
Most of the cast tries their best with what they are given to work with. Kate Shindle and Karen Mason (as the Queen of Hearts) are appropriately over the top. Carly Rose Sonenclar is fun as Chloe and has a pretty good voice. Jose Llana as El Gato is fun to watch, as is Edward Studemayer as the White Rabbit. The ensemble all work hard and dance well.
Costumes range from Alice's plain shirt dress and leggings to a chess piece inspired red outfit for the Hatter and a card concoction for the Queen of Hearts. The most enjoyable costume for me was Darren Ritchie's tight tights as the White Knight. That boy can rescue me anytime.
And sadly, the White Knight will have plenty of time to rescue damsels after Sunday's final performance of a show that just didn't click with a majority of people.
Janet Dacal plays Alice, a woman separated from her husband who has just moved her daughter Chloe into an apartment in Queens. Returning to the apartment from her job as a school-teacher, she hits her head on a light fixture in the service elevator. After commiserating with her daughter about how bad things are, she lies down on Chloe's bed, her head propped on Chloe's copy of Alice in Wonderland. Suddenly, a door opens, and in runs a large white rabbit. Oddly, it's the door that should be the one leading out of the bedroom into another part of the apartment. How did the Rabbit get past Chloe and her grandmother? The Rabbit darts through the room, and Alice dashes after him. And falls "Down the Rabbit Hole". Now, I'm already having issues here. Has she fallen asleep and is dreaming? This interpretation seems reasonable, since the "Welcome to Wonderland" has her stating that she's gonna wake up screaming. Oh, that song references "Lion, Scarecrow or Tin Man", a misguided joke in my opinion, because it immediately brings Wizard of Oz (and Wicked) to mind. Not something that works in the favor of this show.
The next few scenes have a disjointed/episodic feel, and lack a coherent narrative. Alice meets the Caterpillar, El Gato (a hysterical but stereotypically Latino version of the Cheshire Cat), and then Jack, the White Knight. All three of these characters get a song, and while the Marc Anthony inspired "Go with the flow" and Boy Band knock-off "White Knight" are fun, they don't really advance the plot. The Caterpillar's "Advice from a Caterpillar" annoyed me, since this version (changed from the concept CD) feels like it consists of the question "Who Are You?" repeated way too many times.
[interjection 5-10-11: just read on playbill that the show will be closing on Sunday. sorry for the out of work actors.]
Once Alice meets up with the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, we get a bit of a narrative. The Hatter who is in charge of the "Land beyond the Looking Glass," is plotting to overthrow the Queen. Alice insinuates herself into the Queen's good graces and in revenge, the Hatter and March Hare kidnap Alice's daughter. The act 1 Finale has Alice and her band of merry characters jumping through the looking glass to save Chloe.
Act 2 has Alice and the boys trying to track Chloe down while the Hatter forwards her plot against the Queen. It also has a unneeded and annoying interlude between Alice and a "Victorian Gentlemen" who I guess is supposed to be Lewis Carroll, and an interlude between Alice and her younger self (unfortunately, played by the girl playing Chloe, who looks nothing like the adult playing Alice). Eventually, the good guys win, Alice and Chloe get back home, and Alice's husband (who looks ALOT like the White Knight), reconciles with the family....
The songs are a mixed bag, borrowing from a variety of styles as mentioned above. And again, they seem to serve more to showcase the talents of the singers instead of advancing the plot. Kate Shindle does a bravura job belting the Hatter's anthem of "I will Prevail" but I kept wondering why she had some many songs. It felt to me as though she actually had more songs than the supposed main character of Alice. And in the back of my brain, a little voice get mentioning different Wildhorn songs that the Wonderland songs resembled.
A Victorian look is attempted in the set design, but unfortunately the heavy use of projections sinks this attempt. The psychedelic lighting effect for the Rabbit Hole fall was dizzying and not in a good way. When Alice takes a sip from the bottle that says "Drink Me... responsibly" the door behind her expands on the projection screen. Now, that might have been a cool effect, but it was ruined by Alice's line of "figures, I don't get smaller, the door gets bigger." Another way that the projections didn't serve the show were by giving us the original to compare it with. Before the start of the show and at intermission, the screen shows quotes and illustrations from the original book. This raises the bar for the show to a level that it ultimately fails to reach.
Most of the cast tries their best with what they are given to work with. Kate Shindle and Karen Mason (as the Queen of Hearts) are appropriately over the top. Carly Rose Sonenclar is fun as Chloe and has a pretty good voice. Jose Llana as El Gato is fun to watch, as is Edward Studemayer as the White Rabbit. The ensemble all work hard and dance well.
Costumes range from Alice's plain shirt dress and leggings to a chess piece inspired red outfit for the Hatter and a card concoction for the Queen of Hearts. The most enjoyable costume for me was Darren Ritchie's tight tights as the White Knight. That boy can rescue me anytime.
And sadly, the White Knight will have plenty of time to rescue damsels after Sunday's final performance of a show that just didn't click with a majority of people.
