Grand Opera House York. Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
Frank Wildhoorn’s Wonderland is now playing at the Grand Opera House, York, running until Saturday 11th March and touring throughout the UK until August.
This is a musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. Given a modern twist, full of heart, magic and love.
Standing outside a block of dreary flats we see Alice, Rachael Wooding, a downtrodden single mum on her 40th birthday. She is reading a letter from her ex-husband informing her he has remarried, then realises that her car has been stolen, making her late for work and resulting her in getting the sack. We meet her daughter Ellie, Naomi Morris, who appears to be the adult in their relationship, and quiet, nerdy neighbour Jack, or is it John, Stephen Webb.
When Alice utters the magic words, “I don’t want to live in the real world”, the White Rabbit appears. The 3 of them follow him down the rabbit hole, via a lift, to Wonderland. There we meet such iconic characters as the Mad Hatter, Caterpillar, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, March Hare and the Queen of Hearts, amongst others, but not quite as we remember them.
We are introduced to the Looking Glass, a portal to who you really want to be. We see Ellie turn into a petulant teenager, certainly reminded me of my teenagers and bought a smile to my face, and Jack turns into a cheesy, and I mean CHEESY, boyband singer reminiscent of the 1990’s. Webb did a fantastic cheesy job of entertaining us with easily forgettable songs along with his other boyband members, it was great fun and I loved those bits.
The Mad Hatter, Natalie McQueen, upon going through the Looking Glass plots against the Queen of Hearts, Wendi Peters, famous for Coronation Street. Peters is not actually on stage for that long but she does pack a punch with her singing, and it would have been nice to have seen her a bit more.
After a lot of madness and a bonkers story we do have a happy ending, with Alice, Ellie and Jack going back through the Looking Glass, returning home with a new outlook on life.
This is certainly a colourful show and all the cast worked very hard. There was some great singing but unfortunately for me none of the songs really stood out, and I am struggling to even recall one as I type this. Saying that it is an uplifting show and gives you a chance to escape to Wonderland for a few hours.