Alice in Wonderland Musical (1997)
Alice in Wonderland, a Musical Adventure in One Act is a 1997 musical, quasi operetta, with a script by Heather M. Dominick and Michael Sirotta, music and lyrics by Michael Sirotta, and based on the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was originally written for "Kids on Stage", a children's theatre program in Staten Island, New York, directed by the composer/lyricist and co-author.
Characters[edit]
(Note: The play script calls for five actors to portray Alice, ranging from short to tall, to accommodate Alice's size changes. Two actors are also required to portray the Cheshire cat, to accommodate the character's appearances and disappearances during dialogues. The 1997 premier production called for two actors to portray the White Rabbit. This was reduced to a single actor in subsequent productions.)
Alice - a young girl who dreams up a whole fantastical strange nonsensical world and wanders through it
Alice's Sister - Alice's older sister, much more practical and mature than Alice
Dinah - Alice's pet cat
Storytellers - four soloists who act as occasional narrators
White Rabbit - a talking rabbit with a pocket watch & trumpet who leads Alice to Wonderland in her dream
Bottles - two bottles of liquid that make you shrink when you drink them
Gingersnap - a cookie that makes you grow when eaten
Mock Turtle - a depressed fake turtle
Duck - a talking duck
Dodo - a dodo who invented the caucus race
Mouse - a mouse who knows some very dry tales
Caterpillar - a giant lazy caterpillar who lives on a mushroom
Pigeon - an angry pigeon
Duchess - the Duchess of Wonderland
Cook - the Duchess's chef
Cheshire Cat - a rather loopy, mischievous, and frustrating clever cat
Mad Hatter - a loopy hatter who is perpetually at a tea party
March Hare - a loopy hare who is perpetually at a tea party
Door mouse - an exhausted mouse who is perpetually at a tea party
Cards - 2, 5, 7, and 9 of hearts, afraid of the queen
Queen - the queen of hearts, fearsome, with a decapitation fetish
King - the king of hearts, a diminutive fellow, fearful of his wife, but fawns on her
Judge - the ruler in court
Chorus - backup singers and dancers
Casting details[edit]
A downloadable pdf describing casting requirements in detail is available here: http://aliceinwonderland.sirmuse.com/AliceCasting.pdf
Musical Numbers[edit]
Daydreams - Storytellers & Company
The White Rabbit Song - White Rabbit
Falling - Alice & chorus
Poor Little Alice - Alice, Storytellers, & chorus
Beautiful Soup - Mock Turtle, Duck, Dodo, & Mouse
Beautiful Soup Playoff - Mock Turtle
Who Are You? - Alice & Caterpillar
Pig & Pepper - Duchess, Cook, & Chorus
Coo-Coo - Cheshire Cat, Alice, & Chorus
The Tea Party - Alice, Mad Hatter, March Hare, & Dormouse
The Queen of Hearts - Queen & Chorus
Heart Attack - King, Queen, Alice, Cheshire Cat, and Chorus
Alice Awakens - Storytellers (offstage) or offstage chorus
Happy Summer Days - Alice's Sister, Alice, & Company
Coo-Coo (bows) - Company
Synopsis[edit]
Alice has lost interest in her sister's reading aloud. She begins to drift off (Daydreams).
She suddenly spots a white rabbit holding a pocket watch and complaining that he is late (The White Rabbit Song). Alice also observes that the rabbit is wearing gloves, and then notices he has dropped a piece of paper. She runs after him to return it to him, but he goes down a rabbit hole, and she falls in after him. Alice observes that she is falling - both down a rabbit hole, and asleep (Falling).
Alice awakens in a chamber and the white rabbit enters, but exits before she can give him the paper. Alice seeks to exit the room and finds a door, but it is too small. Two bottles appear, and force her to drink them, and she shrinks in size, A gingersnap shows up and recommends she eat her. Alice suddenly finds she has grown huge and begins to cry (Poor Little Alice).
The white rabbit enters again and quickly departs, dropping his gloves and fan at the sight of Alice. She retrieves them and calls after him. A mouse, duck, dodo, and mock turtle arrive, and the five of them move to dry ground. The mouse attempts and fails to dry them off with a history lecture ("dry"), so the Dodo leads them in a caucus race. (Caucus Race)
Then, upon Alice's request, a weeping Mock Turtle explains his nonsensical story (Beautiful Soup), and the Duck, Dodo, and Mouse try to comfort him by suggesting another caucus race. They all run off.
Alice wanders into the next scene reading the rabbit's paper, but is distracted by a caterpillar, who asks her to identify herself. She tells him she's now unsure about this, and attempts an explanation. (Who Are You?) The caterpillar instructs her that one side of the mushroom will make her taller, one side will make her shorter. Alice takes some pieces from all around the mushroom, and, after being taunted by a pigeon, exits the scene nibbling slightly at one of the mushroom pieces, causing her to shrink in size.
Alice arrives at a doorway where a clatter of sound suggestive of a noisy argument are emanating from within. Alice has knocked but cannot gain entry. A Cheshire cat appears, explaining that the Duchess and Cook are putting the baby to bed and that he will ponder the dilemma of Alice's entry. The White rabbit appears with an invitation for the Duchess from the Queen, inviting her to play Croquet. Alice returns his gloves and fan but not his paper. The rabbit's door knock succeeds in getting a response from the cook and the duchess who receive the invitation while sprinkling a sneezing baby with pepper. In a rush to depart for the Palace, they charge Alice ("Mary Ann") to watch the baby with instructions for its care. (Pig & Pepper) Alice hastily discards the baby after discovering it was really a pig and quickly departs.
Alice has gone astray in a forest. The Cheshire cat appears and teases her with verbal puns and oxymorons, then explains that the difficulties she is encountering are a result of the general insanity that passes for normalcy in Wonderland. (Coo-coo). Then he shows her the way to the house of the March Hare: go left, or go right.
Alice arrives at the house of the March Hare where a tea party is in progress, Informed there is no room for her at an almost empty table set for many guests, she endures the rudeness and insults of the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and a door mouse. She storms off, incredulous that the way to the palace is through the large tree that is pointed out to her by the door mouse (The Tea Party).
Arriving at the tree, she meets up with the Cheshire cat again, who arranges Alice's transportation to the palace. Alice spots four playing cards - numbers 2, 3, 5, and 9 - who are painting a rose bush red because they planted a rose bush of the wrong color and could lose their heads for it. They quarrel over assigning blame for the error, but are interrupted by the White Rabbit's heralding the Queen of Heart's arrival (The Queen of Hearts). Spotting Alice, the queen invites her to join the croquet game, which Alice ultimately wins, a grave mistake.
There is a trial. Witnesses are summoned whose testimony is nonsense. The duchess reads the rabbit's paper (the Jabberwocky poem), which she had taken from Alice. The apparently squeamish Queen collapses in a faint, and the king calls for Alice's head. As the entourage descends upon Alice (Heart Attack), the Cheshire cat reminds her of the two mushroom pieces, advising her to eat them both. The Wonderland characters scatter like a pack of cards thrown into the air, Alice awakens from her daydream and finds herself again with Dinah and her sister on the river bank. Alice departs for Tea leaving her sister to sing to the audience the final anthem cherishing the dreams of childhood, eventually joined by the company in its refrain (Happy Summer Days).
Original cast[edit]
Alice #1 - - Christine Stawitz
Alice #2 - - Angela Locantore
Alice #3 - - Jeoma Jemie
Alice #4 - - Cara Liander
Alice #5 - - Fallon Randazzo
Alice’s Older Sister - - Eva Foust/Elizabeth Geoghegan
Bottle #1 & Card #2 - - Marisa Flanagan
Bottle #2 - - Mariel Monteagudo
Caterpillar - -Jason Kellett
Cheshire Cat #1 - - Laura Corno
Cheshire Cat #2 - - Sean Brandt
Cook - - Lehana Graham
Dinah, the cat - - Amee Palisay
DoDo & Card #5 - - Nduka Jemie
Door Mouse - - Lisa Ragusa
Duchess - - Nadia Nikolic
Duck & Card #3 - - Lindsey Brusco
King - - Dennis Hogan
Mad Hatter - - Danny Lane
March Hare - - Taryn Holly
Mock Turtle - - Christina Manolakis
Mouse - - Marcea Jones
Queen of Hearts - - Allison Guzowski
Rabbit #1 - - Nenna Jemie
Rabbit #2 - - Adrienne Albanese
Yummy Currant† & Baby - - Christina Locantore
†name changed to "Ginger Snap" in subsequent productions
Productions[edit]
Performances in the United States have included Staten Island, New York in 1997;[1] Fort Collins, Colorado in 2008;[2] Middleton, Wisconsin in 2010;[3] Wimberley, Texas in 2011;[4] Silverdale, Washington in 2013;[5] and Sayreville, New Jersey in 2014.[6] It was performed in 2012 in Wellington, Shropshire in the UK.[7]
References[edit]
- ↑ http://msirt.com/SiegelAliceReview97.jpg
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120506010135/http://fortcollinschildrenstheatre.org/galleries
- ↑ "Alice in Wonderland".
- ↑ "upcoming: alice in wonderland, a musical, emilyann theatre, wimberley, June 3-26".
- ↑ "Alice In Wonderland". Archived from the original on 2013-03-19.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
- ↑ "'Alice in Wonderland' at Main Street Theatre".
- ↑ http://www.belfreytheatre.com/2012/07/20/alice-in-wonderland/
External links[edit]
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