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

(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 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

A downloadable pdf describing casting requirements in detail is available here: http://aliceinwonderland.sirmuse.com/AliceCasting.pdf

Musical Numbers

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

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

The original 1997 Cast (Alice's sister double-cast):

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

Additional Castings

The following casting first appeared in this article erroneously identified as the original cast. It is reposted here and is the cast^[1] of the July 2014 production mounted by the Main Street Theater of Sayreville, NJ.

Madison Mackenzie, Amy Cox, Maggie Murtha, Ruth Learn, and Emily Cowen as 5 Alices; Alexandra Lockhart and Brooke Simmons as the Cheshire Cat; Sophie Genovese-Mester as the Queen of Hearts; Chad Friscione as the Caterpillar

Productions

There have been numerous performances throughout the United States including Staten Island, New York in 1997;^[2] Valdosta, Georgia, 2007;^[3] Fort Collins, Colorado in 2008;,^[4] Flagstaff, Arizona in 2009; Middleton, Wisconsin in 2010;^[5] Wimberley, Texas in 2011;^[6] Silverdale, Washington in 2013;^[7] and Sayreville, New Jersey in 2014.^[8] The musical has also been performed internationally with productions mounted in Canada, Scotland, Great Britain,^[9] New Zealand and Australia.

References

External links

Production website: http://aliceinwonderland.sirmuse.com/index.html
http://eb.gmnews.com/news/2014-07-31/Front_Page/Girl_wonders.html
http://cnjtheater.blogspot.com/2014/06/alice-in-wonderland-at-main-street.html
YouTube video of "Queen of Hearts" production number: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGNHncjJG0g

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