Following various elements from the classic book by C.S Lewis,
A family favourite with lots of enthusiastic, well-rehearsed songs and dances.
Most of the scenes as we follow Alice through Wonderland are accompanied by multiple singers and backing dancers all of them well rehearsed and perfectly in time. Songs make up almost the entirety of the show, with twelve numbers squeezed into the fifty minute time slot. The voices of the main singers chimed in nicely and the chorus sounded beautiful but there were a few voices of the more minor characters that could have done with a little more training.
Fans of the book or film will be entirely satisfied as all the familiar faces pop up, from the Queen of Hearts to the Mad Matter. The show jumps from one random location from the book to the next, there meeting another character who promptly bursts into a crazy song that doesn’t really relate to what’s happening at the time. Some of them are a lot of fun, especially the Mad Hatter’s and the Cheshire Cat’s, however others don’t really catch on as well despite the enthusiasm from the cast.
The cast do manage to do a lot with a mostly empty stage, bringing props on and off with them as they go. The only oddity is the large projector screen plastered at the back to provide a backdrop for the different places Alice goes in Wonderland but with the the lighting it becomes difficult to see it. This ends up being unhelpful when the characters interact with it.
It’s difficult to go really wrong with Alice in Wonderland. It’s been done in so many different ways that going back to the classics always seems to be a safe bet, though there was nothing particularly special to be seen with this rendition. A family favourite with lots of enthusiastic, well-rehearsed songs and dances, this show seems like the perfect one to take your younger children to for an afternoon off.
