A Review of ALICE at Wheelock Family Theatre

October 24, 2014
By: Ali Hutchinson, editor and publisher of Macaroni Kid Newton-Brookline

Last weekend, my son, friend, and I were guests of the Wheelock Family Theatre for their production of Alice.  We attended the Sunday afternoon performance which was scheduled to begin at 3:00pm.  The literature on the production recommends the show for children ages 6 and up, so I decided to leave my 4 year old son at home.  In hindsight, although he most likely would not have been able to follow along with the plot, the action and colorful costumes most likely would have captured his attention enough to keep him engaged. 

From the moment we sat down, my son began asking questions about the set.  "Why is there a bed momma? Is Alice going to start there?  What is the wood on the side for?  Will they be going up and down?"  It was exciting to see the sparks of imagination fly and the intrigue build as we waited for the show to begin. I could tell he was anticipating and wondering about the show. The set design was creative and multi-purpose.  Many pieces were used for different purposes in different scenes throughout the show.

WFT's closed captioning along the side wall for the entire script was not nearly as distracting as I had initially thought it might be.  As a matter of fact, it turned out to be quite helpful.  My second grader who is learning to read and who sometimes misinterprets words in songs was able to follow along with the characters as they spoke and sang.  I never heard, "what did she say"?  He was able to refer to the closed captioning and figure it out for himself.

The show itself quickly drew us in. Right from Alice's (Maritza Bostic) first song, I began to feel for her; able to identify with a time when I wanted to do anything except that which was expected of me.  I remember the feeling when my parents said, "Don't disappoint me". That feeling was evident on Alice's face.  Between the characters facial expressions, voices, and mannerisms, we all felt as if we suddenly became a part of this world; a friend of Alice's; and we were making this journey with her.

I was especially impressed with the young actress who plays Alice's cat Dinah(Julia Talbot), and then dons a puppet to take on the persona of the Cheshire Cat.  At only 14 years old, both her physical interpretation of a cat's behavior and her vocal deliverance of the lines were strikingly accurate and those realms of reality and fantasy began to collide.

Alice's interactions with the Mouse (William Gardiner) were especially endearing; displaying tender conversations and moments of what you imagine might go on between Alice and her father.  The scenes with the Duchess and Cook as well as the Tea Party with the Mad Hatter, Hare, and Dormouse infused physical comedy into the show. There was also action in the aisles at times.  A range of emotions are felt as Alice finally finds her garden, is disappointed as it no longer looks how she imagined, and then comes to a realization about growing up.  Even my 7 year old looked up at me at one point with tears in his eyes.  Even as a young theatre goer, he was able to be drawn into the lives and emotions of the characters.  It is truly a magical show when a performance can cross ages and generations and have the same effect on vastly different people with different experiences.

I have to mention that by far the best part of the show for my son was after it was over, when the cast lined up in the foyer and were available for pictures and autographs.  He was enamored!  And although we got pictures with almost all of the cast, I'll share just a couple. The cast does this after every Sunday afternoon show.

Here he is with Alice and then with a couple of the Flower Buds. If you hadn't considered going to see the show, consider it.  Alice runs on Friday nights at 7:30, Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm.  

Please note:  I was given press tickets to review this show for my readers.  All of the ideas and statements in this article are my own.  

"Alice" at Wheelock finds balance for young and old audiences

Metro Boston - 10/22/2014  -Nick Dussault

The Wheelock Family Theatre kicks off its 34th season with “Alice,” a new musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic books “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice through the Looking Glass.”

Written and directed by 24-year-old Stoneham native (and frequent Wheelock performer) Andrew Barbato, “Alice” takes the audience on a fun trip down the rabbit hole for a coming-of-age tale that’s sure to resonate with people of all ages. Barbato's script finds a sweet spot somewhere between fairy tale and the acid trippiness of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit."

Rife with humor (some of which goes right over the younger heads in the crowd), “Alice” also boasts some not-so-subtle messages including the belief that nothing is impossible, the importance of what you do for others, and the high price of perfectionism.      

While Barbato’s enthusiasm for the story is clear from the start, his narrative sometimes loses its way. In Act I you might find yourself wondering who’s who and how you got to certain places. But stick with it. By the time you get to the Mad Hatter’s tea in Act 2, everything makes sense, except, of course, the logic of the locals at the tea.

Though the music, written by Lesley DeSantis, isn’t something you’ll be singing on your way out the door, it is warm, touching and perfectly appropriate for this piece. Alice (a vocally stunning Maritza Bostic) and the Queen of Hearts (the always-impressive Leigh Barrett) share the show’s finest musical moment, a lump-in-your-throat rendition of “Paint the Roses Red.”

Aubin Wise also delivers a standout performance as the White Queen, while Alexandra Nader shines in her stellar turn as the Cook. Russell Garrett finds the perfect amount of mad for the Mad Hatter and Jenna Lea Scott shines as the Frog Footman.

Matthew Lazure’s set (which feels like it could work in a Tim Burton film) is the perfect backdrop for “Alice” while Scott Clyve’s lighting design greatly enhances the magic of Barbato’s impressive debut production.

 

Wheelock Family Theatre's ALICE Appeals to the Little Ones

BWW Reviews : by Nancy Grossman

 

 

Wheelock Family Theatre opens its 34th season with Alice, a musical reimagining of Lewis Carroll's classics, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. WFT veteran Andrew Barbato wrote the adaptation and directs the production featuring a garden of flower buds played by children who may one day follow in his footsteps, as well as some perennials on local theater stages who deserve to have more than a few bouquets tossed their way. From seedlings to adolescents to full-grown, the vibrant members of this ensemble are all ready to embark on the journey with Alice, down the rabbit hole and wherever it may lead.

Alice is set in two worlds: the real world (circa 1900) of a young girl waking up on her 13th birthday, and the fantasy world she escapes to in search of her dreams. Her excursion is a little like that of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, as she encounters strange beings in a strange land and learns that most of your dreams can be fulfilled from the comfort of your own bed. Feeling misunderstood by her strict mother (Leigh Barrett, in fine voice) and older sister (Jennifer Elizabeth Smith), Alice (the delightful Maritza Bostic) skips out on her birthday party in an effort to hold on to her childhood just a little bit longer. Enthralled by the notoriously tardy White Rabbit (a hare-brained Stephen Benson), Alice follows him, the first of many risky choices she'll make on this important day.

Adapting from two of Carroll's works required Barbato to pick and choose the segments of the stories that he thought would be the most compelling. Among the familiar tropes are Alice growing and shrinking to try to get through a door; the Tea Party with the Mad Hatter (Russell Garrett), the Dormouse (Merle Perkins), and the March Hare (Jane Bernhard) telling Alice there's no room for her at their long table; and the Queen of Hearts (Barrett in all her regal glory) demanding that all of the roses in her garden be painted red. Barbato bookends Alice's trip with adventures on the high seas with Mouse (William Gardiner), giving her an opportunity to find some skills she didn't know she possessed, and introduces the lesser-known beautiful White Queen (Aubin Wise) who acts as a supportive spirit guide to the young girl. Alice starts out looking for an escape, but learns that you can always keep your childhood dreams, even if letting go is part of growing up.

Despite the selective process that leaves the show at about two hours (plus intermission), Alice could benefit from some judicious editing. There's a plethora of life lessons to be taught, but in act one the pace feels frenetic, one scene and musical number tumbling into the next in order to get them all in. There are seventeen songs before intermission (and another ten in the second act), making it hard to distinguish or remember many. I'm not sure that every character has to have a song. For example, out of nowhere, the Frog Footman (Jenna Lea Scott) sings about being lonely and, although Scott sings it beautifully, it's one that could go. The Tea Party trio does a cute little song and dance, but not until the conclusion of their overly-long scene at the top of act two. If some of the book segments could be cut, the flow of the remaining scenes and existing songs might improve.

The eclectic score includes, among other genres, bluesy and gospel music, as well as a sea shanty. Musical Director Robert L. Rucinski conducts a four-piece orchestra, sitting in at the piano himself, and they handle the load well. The singers are never over-powered, but (note to sound designer Roger J. Moore) there were a few instances when actors started speaking before their mics kicked in at the Saturday matinee performance I attended. The ensemble is loaded with vocal talent, but Wise and Robin Long (Duchess) deserve special mention, as does the harmonic pairing of Dashiell Evett (Tweedle Dee) and Noah Virgile (Tweedle Dum). The designers - Matthew T. Lazure (set), Scott Clyve (lighting), Marjorie Lusignan (props) - create a wonderful playground, and Lisa Simpson's costumes resonate in both worlds of the play.

Despite its flaws, there is much to recommend Alice and more than a little credit lands on the shoulders of Bostic. Although we know she's a recent college graduate, she makes us believe that she's a thirteen year old girl and, more importantly, reminds us to believe in ourselves and our dreams. There were lots of little ones in the audience and the show seemed to hold their attention, although it didn't always hold mine. For me, there wasn't quite enough wonder and magic as a percentage of the whole play, which is why I think that less might be so much more.

ALICE - a new musical

Edge Media 10/20/14 - Kilian Melloy

Has any children's book sparked so much interest, and so many re-interpretations across so many forms of media, as Lewis Carroll's 1965 novel "Alice in Wonderland" and its sequel, published six years later, "Through the Looking-Glass?"

The first film adaptation hit screens in 1903; since then there have been multiple Cineplex and television versions of the story, with a forthcoming follow-up to the 2010 Tim Burton big-screen version now in production.

On stage, the first musical version of "Alice in Wonderland' went up in 1886; two operas, a ballet, and a musical with song by Tom Waits (!!) all followed.

Now, Boston's own Andrew Barbato has chimed in with his own musical, titled -- as was the Tom Waits-involved project -- "Alice." The world premiere of the new "Alice" is ongoing now through Nov. 16 at the Wheelock Family Theatre. The thumbnail review is this: As with so many Wheelock productions, you can (and ought to) take the kids to this one. And you don't want to miss it.

Barbato has clearly scrutinized Carroll's books, but he's not slavish to them. There's a shift in emphasis, away from Lewis Carroll's political satire and onto the question... or problem... of time -- or, rather, a human awareness of time's passage, something that children scarcely register but that weighs ever more heavily on adults.

This Alice (played by Maritza Bostic) faces her thirteenth birthday with more than a trace of apprehension. Her mother (Leigh Barrett), a laced-up Victorian sort, experts Alice to behave as a proper young lady and entertain the guests at her party with a piano recital. Alice isn't so sure about going from child to young woman instantaneously, and as a function of the calendar; she determines to run away. Cue the white rabbit (Stephen Benson), the plunge down the rabbit hole, the Cheshire Cat (Julia Talbot), and all manner of elixirs that expand the mind, enlarge and shrink the body, and make doorways of opportunity into splendid gardens (or tragic wastelands) either possible or not.

Seen from a child's perspective, the world of adults is unfathomably arbitrary, not to mention inexplicably convoluted and obscure. Barbato holds on to that sense of things being askew, but streamlines the narrative so that the Cheshire Cat puts in more than a cameo appearance (she's actually more of a guide in this version) and Alice's goal -- to find her way into the fabulous garden of the Queen of Hearts (Barrett, doing nicely symbolic double duty), by way of the Queen's fancy party -- is more easily traced.

Familiar episodes abound, but they have been given a different twist to fit into the new thematic thrust. Tweedle Dee (Dashielle Evett) and Tweedle Dum (Noah Virgile) appear as brothers reluctantly compelled by their masculine pride to settle differences by means of combat -- even though, like Alice, they seem to want to hold on to childhood a bit longer.

A murine boatman (William Gardiner) ferries Alice around, the Caterpillar (Elbert Joseph) lounges on a staircase in an imaginatively staged manner, the Frog Footman (Jenna Lea Scott), armed with twisty logic, guards the gateway into what might be considered domesticity and motherhood, and -- of course, because this just wouldn't be Alice or Wonderland without it -- the Mad Hatter (Russell Garrrett) and March Hare (Jane Bernhard) host their tea party, narcoleptic Dormouse (Merle Perkins) their eternal guest.

But always there's the underlying sense that Alice is slowly coming to terms with impending adulthood; after all, she can run away from home, but she cannot escape the clock, and its ticking follows her at every turn.

That's not the play's only audible element. This is, after all, a musical, and Barbato proves to be a talented songwriter. He's prepared about 30 songs for this play; they fit the material as well as the script, with its carefully judged tweaks to the source material, does. In an early song, Alice and her mother both lament that they need "Another Person's Life"; while shipboard with the mouse at the helm, Mouse and Alice engage in a duet called "Sea As Our Guide," a deft shorthand evoking the act of faith that growing up is in and of itself.

When the terrifying Queen of Hearts -- lopper of heads, erratic tyrant and ultimate mother figure -- finally grants Alice entree to her garden, the two duet on "Paint the Roses Red," a paean to transformation that touches upon fertile physicality as much as on intellectual maturation.

In one way, this "Alice" is a generally faithful adaptation, despite some quite striking departures; in another, however, it's an updated re-imagining that speaks to a 21st century audience while identifying new elements of universal appeal. No need to update the character -- Alice is still a little Victorian girl, and it would have been crass to re-cast her as a contemporary American.

What's fresh and exciting is how the play understands that even plugged-in, tech-savvy modern children, their iPhones and other devices in hand, speak the timeless language of children and view the world from a stature different from that of adults -- a stature in flux, allowing the world to be in flux, also.