WONDERLAND in identity crisis

THEATRE: Marquis Theatre, New York

DATE: 15-05-2011 (Final performance)

TIME: 14:30

WITH: Janet Dacal, Darren Ritchie, Kate Shindle, Jose Llana, E. Clayton Cornelious, Julius Anthony Rubio, Edward Staudenmayer, Karen Mason, Ryan Link, Danny Stiles, Stefan Raulston, Wilkie Ferguson, Joey Calveri, Derek Ferguson, April Berry, Heather Parcells a.o.

DIRECTOR: Gregory Boyd

Composer Frank Wildhorn has a rocky track record on Broadway. "Jekyll & Hyde" was a modest hit, but "The Civil War", "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and "Dracula" all died a quick death. His latest literary musical adaptation is based on Lewis Carroll’s "Alice in Wonderland". The show suffers from an identity crisis in all aspects of production and cannot make up its mind if it is Carroll’s tale or "The Wizard of Oz". Consequently "Wonderland" failed to find an audience and closed shortly after opening. I attended the final performance whose curtain call turned out to be the most exciting and emotional part of the show.

 Janet Dacal trying to find herself as Alice in Wonderland

This Alice (Janet Dacal) lives in the kingdom of Queens and is a schoolteacher, who aspires to writing children’s books. Our modern day heroine is separated from her husband, who suffers from low self-esteem as a result of unemployment, and lives with her young daughter Chloe (Carly Rose Sonenclar). After a hard day’s work, a rejected manuscript and bickering with mother in law, Alice falls asleep and somehow or other enters the Wonderland in her head. On the journey from Wonderland back home to Queens Alice tries ‘to find herself’’ and each eccentric character from Carroll’s tale brings her closer to this goal (through song). Eventually Alice has formed a posse – The White Rabbit (Edward Staudenmayer), White Knight (Darren Ritchie), El Gato (Jose Llana) and Caterpillar (E. Clayton Cornelious) – in her battle against the villainous Queen of Hearts (Karen Mason) and power hungry Mad Hatter (Kate Shindle). It is particularly in this aspect that the musical seems more like the tale of Oz than Wonderland.

 Jose Llana as El Gato, Dacal & company during 'Go With The Flow'

The bookwriters Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy have turned the story into a self-help morality tale, which does the production no real favours. In the ballad ‘Once More I Can See’ Alice even stares into the eyes of her daughter, who represents her younger self in Wonderland, and sings: ‘I remember every moment/When my heart was young and free/And to my surprise/I look through your eyes/And once more I can see’. How literal can you get! And again this does not sound or feel like Carroll’s tale, but it also has not transformed itself into something original and magical of its own.

 Carly Rose Sonenclar & Dacal

Wildhorn’s generic songs with pedestrian lyrics by Mr. Murphy also do not help in this regard. The tunes mimic various musical styles from classic Broadway to R&B and Latin pop, but fail to create a coherent and dramatic musical score. In fact the entire design of the show (sets, costumes, lighting, projections) reflect this and is the same grab bag of styles, which fail to gel into the creation of a magical Wonderland. Like its 21st century heroine, the show seems to be suffering from an identity crises. It wants to be all things to everybody and in effect pleases no one.

 Dashing Darren Ritchie as The White Knight and his fellow knights

Ms. Dacal (In the Heights) is fine in her first Broadway leading role, but is not given much meaty material to work with. The whole company actually is first rate, but suffer the same fate. The one cast member that did manage to single-handedly stand out for me was the precocious Sonenclar, who holds her own against the experienced adults and has a golden voice that is truly astonishing. We will undoubtedly be hearing much more from this young talent in the future.

 Karen Mason as the Queen of Hearts: 'Off With Their Heads'

Kate Shindle belting away as the Mad Hatter

Photography: Paul Kolniki

The final audience was obviously out to have a good time. There seemed to be a lot of patrons who had seen the show before, because their applause was often anticipatory. Every number also received a big hand (customary at closing shows). When the final curtain fell there were tears in the actor’s eyes, but tears of sadness quickly turned into tears of joy as Mr. Ritchie proposed to leading lady Dacal and she accepted. The crowd went nuts and in these final moments of the show there was more drama, excitement and genuine emotion, than there had been at any point in the musical. Wonderland failed to be truly wondrous, but had a wonderful fairytale ending after all. That's Broadway for ya!