Evolution of WONDERLAND Artwork

[philly03]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 1:35am

I remember they did this for Ragtime, too. Not sure if it's an every show thing, but this the evolution of the current WONDERLAND Art campaign:


dventures in Communicating a New Alice

[Anakela]

Posted: 11/27/10 at 11:41pm

I like the "storybook" one, with the writing on the apple. But I still want a windowcard of the old school Wonderland artwork, with the heart hanging off of the title.

[Kad]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 12:07am

Too bad the new poster doesn't reflect the Mad Hatter as seen in the show... a woman.

[philly03]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 12:44am

I agree Anakela... The original artwork was really neat looking, but I don't think it really reflected the show besides the NY aspect, and the extra tagline "Follow Your Heart" didn't even fit in the show!

[Boq101]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 4:40am

I don't think any of those posters caught my eye in any way. The whole table setting is really awkward to me, I feel like I'd remember that awkward poster in my head but not what it was about.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 4:50am

Too bad the artwork doesn't reflect the score is a turd.

[Boq101]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 8:39am

Well Mildred if they put Wildhorn's name anywhere on the poster it's a fair indication the score is turd-ish at best.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 9:02am

Well Mildred if they put Wildhorn's name anywhere on the poster it's a fair indication the score is turd-ish at best.

What I want to know is who keeps giving him money to put up these turds. He's had 3 absolute bombs on Broadway since Jekyll and Hyde 13 years ago, and I think it's pretty well-known that THAT didn't even recoup. The Scarlet Pimpernel was closed, revised, and reopened THREE TIMES and still sucked.

Wonderland doesn't look too promising either, artistically or financially. People aren't going to snap tickets to it just because it's vaguely associated with the original Alice in Wonderland. (Most) people aren't that dumb.

But of course, if in the time before its Broadway bow it is so dramatically revised that it becomes an artistic masterpiece, wins the Tony, and runs longer than Phantom, then I'll eat my hat. Until then, I'm not expecting much.

[Boq101]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 9:26am

Someone up here somewhere likes his music.

My guess is that someone is deaf.

[philly03]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 11:26am

Y'all be haters....

Frank has plenty of producers and plenty of people who ask him to write shows. He was asked by producers in South Korea to write a show called "Tears of Heaven" which will debut early in 2011.

The fact that SP had the opportunity to be revised 3 times should show everyone that he has dedicated producers... not to mention that and Jekyll & HYDE had tons and widely notorious fans.

PiraguaGuy2, after seeing it in Tampa last year, plenty of people were disappointed. I'm sure plenty of people are going in thinking it's the Burton film ("New Alice") or a twist of the original story.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 11:38am

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, I like the cards the best.

I have no idea how well that represents the current incarnation of the show, though.
Updated On: 11/28/10 at 11:38 AM

[romgitsean]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 11:38am

Either way if it's new Tim Burton Alice or this Alice, it's still awful. I'm sorry, philly. You're not gonna win this.

[timote316]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 11:39am

People are absolutely going to think this is more or less a "rip off" of the Burton ALICE film... if only because it is the exact same idea. Just a "stigma" (dunno if that's the best word choice, but whatever) that the show is going to have to get over.

On topic... I love these 'evolution of artwork' things the Times does. I'd actually venture to say I love all of the pictured ones for Wonderland.

[perfectliar]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 12:04pm

The apple and the cards are the two best there. I don't know why they went with the reflection as the final artwork, considering the Mad Hatter is a woman in the show and a man on the poster. Weird.

[philly03]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 1:51pm

The cards were my favourite of the new art.

I imagine they picked the one they did for a few reasons: The old logo was the NYC/rabbit silhoutte, and IF (which I'm in no way even suggesting) this becomes an international hit they'll pull a Les Mis and do the different city skylines.

Also, if the Hatter was a woman in the poster, I doubt people would understand - it's an adult Alice versus .. who? Another woman??

[bjh2114]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 1:59pm

I like the deck of cards the best by far.

[perfectliar]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 2:24pm

Well that's my point exactly, philly... it doesn't make sense to show the Hatter on the poster at all if it's either 1) anachronistic or 2) confusing to the viewer. They should have chosen one of the other (better) options.

[gvanover]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 2:33pm

I agree that the majority of his works should be tossed in the "Why even bother?" category, but CAMILLE CLAUDEL is a real beauty. I think what has helped him (and even Lloyd Webber) are EXCELLENT orchestrators.

[wdwfreak]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 2:34pm

The "Down the Rabbit Hole" artwork reminds me of the recent Ragtime revival poster.

[philly03]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 3:07pm

While I agree orchestrators like Jonathan Tunick made something like "Napoleon"'s music atleast some what interesting, and Lloyd Webber's extra full sound helps his music, Frank has had the opposite:

Kim Scharnberg (or Jeremy Roberts) do the majority of orchestrating, but look at the disaster that DRACULA, the musical was with a 6 piece band that used over half of synthesizers... I don't think orchestrators necessarily help Frank's shows.

Ironically, Jonathan Tunick did the orchestrations for the simplestic Camille Claudel..!

[jennafan]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 3:32pm

philly03,

I know you are doing your best to get people into this show, but sadly I feel it is going to bomb, big time.

The cast is very talented, but I just think critics are going to slam it. I don't think people are going to want to see it. The last thing I want to see is another Bway show fail, but this one just sounds awful. The artwork, costums, clips, songs, nothing really works.

While I love Janet Dacal, she just doesn't fit the role people know and love, Alice.

I don't even know how this got to Broadway.

[jennafan]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 3:35pm

philly03,

Before you say that we just haven't seen the show yet, it looks to me like a lot of people on this board don't WANT to see it. Not just on this thread, but almost everyone mentioning this show.

Sadly, shows fail because people don't want to see them, not really because people see them and don't like them. Unless the critics love it, I would be very worried.


Updated On: 11/28/10 at 03:35 PM

[philly03]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 5:58pm

I agree with you on Dacal. The people expecting the movies will be confused. I've always been in support of ax-ing her, i'm hoping her time in In the Heights as the leading role gave her some ability to have some star power. She was totally overshadowed by Darren Ritchie and Nikki Snelson.

The critics will most likely slam it, if not for Wildhorn alone. First time producers always tend to push ahead despite the reviews (many suspected Tale of Two Cities to fold over night, if not a week given the economic climate to boot!).

Artwork of a show has nothing to do with it besides selling value when you look at the posters. People raved about "The Addams Family" art, and look how great that show was. Plenty have had bad art work and been good - people were split on the Ragtime revival art, that got Time #1 Musical of the Year.

Costumes, etc tend to change after a world premiere. The musical went from a $3-5 Mil budget (including the move from Tampa to Houston) to now a $13 MIL production with script rewrites (Projections won't be used as much). Do I think the book will be any better? Probably not, but I'm wiling to give it a shot.

I'm fine if people don't want to see a show - I don't need to convince them, but pre-judging something like dance sequences you think look corny... because they're SUPPOSED to be corny but you don't understand because you don't know the show makes no sense.

People did this to Tale of Two Cities as well - people on this board didn't just not want to see it, they had to make sure it would fail all together. Again - you don't want to see it, then don't... but there's no need to trash something based on a world premiere that didn't have an endless budget, and was intended to be changed after! But again.. I'm not expecting this to be some mega-hit. I've said it before, the show had major potential and last year's presentation showed it no longer has all of that going for it anymore.