“Curiouser and Curiouser”
I find it curiouser and curiouser that some theatre artists continue to believe that what the theatre needs now is yet another adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s mid-19th-century books
about a girl named Alice. Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland and Through
the Looking Glass have been dramatized, cinematized, musicalized, pornographied,
and adapted into or retold in every kind of performance and literature.
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| Colton Ryan, Molly Gordon. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
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| Molly Gordon, Colton Ryan. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
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| Molly Gordon, Grace McLean, and company. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
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| Company of Alice by Heart. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
Alice by Heart is
yet another in a long line of stage adaptations, some good, some bad, going
back at least as far as an 1886 West End musical pantomime, with notable later
American examples being offered by creative notables as diverse as Eva Le
Gallienne, whose Tenniel-inspired version was first seen in 1932, and, among many others, Andre Gregory, whose Grotowski-influenced rendering reflected the experimental trends of the early 1970s.
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| Molly Gordon, Colton Ryan, and company. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
Which isn’t to say Alice
by Heart doesn’t have its pleasures. The premise of its book, by Steven
Sater (Spring Awakening), doubling as
lyricist, and the aforementioned Nelson (book for Waitress),
is that, during the Blitz of 1941,
an Underground station—designed with a huge overhead clock to emphasize the theme
of time’s passing (the show itself was developed over seven years!)—has been
converted into a ward for wounded or ill young people.
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| Molly Gordon. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
This is an assorted bunch of eccentrics who are
just one step away from transmogrifying into the creatures and characters of
Alice Spencer’s (Molly Gordon) imagination. Their general youthfulness allows
for the occasional bit about blossoming sexuality, including Alice’s suddenly
blooming bosom, emphasized in one of the show’s several uses of shadow-play.
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| Noah Galvin. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
One is Alfred Hallam (Colton Ryan, who also plays the White Rabbit
and the March Hare), Alice’s “dearest friend”—and incipient love interest. Dying of tuberculosis, he's quarantined by the officious Red Cross doctor (Andrew Kober, also the King of
Hearts, Jabberwocky, and Mock Turtle) and nasty nurse (Grace McLean, also the Queen
of Hearts and Magpie). With the world outside being
blasted to smithereens, Alice wants to soothe Alfred by reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
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| Molly Gordon and company. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
Prevented by the nurse from doing so, Alice begins
reciting the story by heart, which inspires the show to morph into Alfred’s fever dream
of what he’s hearing. The dynamic cast of 12 (all but Gordon playing more than
one role) achieves this by using supposedly found objects, like a ladder,
crates, cots, sheets, tables, and chests, to offer a creatively vibrant performance.
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| Colton Ryan, Wesley Taylor, Zachary Infante, Molly Gordon. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
Thus do we meet iconic figures like the Mad Hatter (Wesley
Taylor), the Caterpillar (Heath Saunders), the Duchess (Noah Galvin), and, among
others, the Cheshire Cat (Kim Blanck). Familiar as they are, the fast-moving script
is nonetheless confusing, there’s little sense of plot progress, and the lyrics
accompanying Duncan Sheik’s driving, quickly forgotten, pop/rock-tuned, 17-song
score often muddled.
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| Noah Galvin, Zachary Infante, Mia DiLena, Wesley Taylor, Heath Saunders, Nkeki Obi Melekwe, Molly Gordon, Colton Ryan. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
There are several very clever visual moments, one being the
Caterpillar scene (there are two such creatures here) in which Alice gets a
hookah-high with the help of the ensemble formed into a multi-limbed creepy crawler, thanks
to their hands and forearms being encased in colorful, knitted
sleeves. Another is the Mock Turtle number, when the ensemble appears in khaki
British military uniforms with green metal helmets, creating a shell-like
encasement.
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| Molly Gordon, Andrew Kober, and company. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
All the performers—each of whom can dance and sing, some
with acrobatic skills—are highly talented (although their British accents come
and go, being especially gone during the songs). Gordon and Ryan have a nice
chemistry as the leads and the supporting company works very hard to bring their
offbeat roles to life.
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| Molly Gordon, Andrew Kober, Noah Galvin, Grace McLean, and company. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
The trouble is that they’ve been directed to play everything
in the broadest way, with lots of mugging, shouting, and even screaming. Some theatregoers find
this kind of histrionics funny—as if anything over the top is, by definition,
laugh-worthy. Others, though, when witnessing some of the more egregiously
exaggerated examples, may begin looking to escape via the nearest rabbit hole.
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| Molly Gordon. Photo: Deen van Meer. |
A final note: the Newman Mills is an expansive venue, much
wider than it is deep. This allows for a quite impressive setting. A consequence, however, is that it doesn’t provide full visibility for those in the closer aisle
seats, where the view is rather skewed, except for scenes directly in front of
you. So, if you have a choice, sit further back, since you’re never going to be
that far away from the stage in this relatively shallow space.
Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space/Newman Mills Theater
511 W. 52nd St., NYC
Through April 7
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