Alice By Heart (PREVIEWS) — Page 4

Agree with many people here.

Beautiful music. Great design & costumes. Amazing, inventive choreo and a great theme, but the book meant the moments didn't emotionally connect.

It would probably make the writers vomit but maybe they need a grown up Alice to chaperone us through it, so atleast it makes sense and they can keep the staging etc as is.

The show is "enhanced" (i.e. financed) by Broadway producers -one of whom I am friends with. The goal is to get to Broadway. IMO only a rave Times review can make that goal happen - which is extremely unlikely. As I posted previously, this show has been "developed" for years and I saw this version at Vassar last summer. According to the posts here, the show did not get the reworking that it needed and that those who have invested in the show deserve. Books are fixable. It is irresponsible if not downright arrogant to insist that a show works when it doesn't. To compare this to Great Comet is wrong. Great Comet was based on a passage from Tolstoy (if I remember correctly) that very few people alive have actually read. Thus it was novel. Everyone has read or seen something to do with the Alice - whether Through The Looking Glass or in Wonderland. Both of those books are thrillingly complex and Freudian. But I doubt many average theatergoers know those books and their characters intimately as opposed to a general knowledge. So, to layer these complex stories and characters with a completely arbitrary other story about the London blitz is a little crazy. Especially when very little work was done to make the two stories line-up, either character to character or story to story. That the producers have now decided to add character descriptions in the program (according to someone's report here) is a sign that they have given up - acknowledging that the story telling is disastrous, but not living up to their responsibility to do anything about it except infuriate their audience.



Finally (and thanks for your indulgence), it makes no sense to open a flawed show Off Broadway rather than workshop it and further develop it out of town. That's what regional and LORT theaters are often for. Another producorial misstep in my opinion.

Wonderland flopped on BWAY...this has no future and won't land there either is what my souces in the industry are saying.

Ellie'sdad said: "The show is "enhanced" (i.e. financed) by Broadway producers -one of whom I am friends with. The goal is to get to Broadway."

That goal isn't happening.

Ellie'sdad said: "To compare this to Great Comet is wrong. Great Comet was based on a passage from Tolstoy (if I remember correctly) that very few people alive have actually read."

I think a lot of people have read War and Peace.

Ellie'sdad said: "To compare this to Great Comet is wrong. Great Comet was based on a passage from Tolstoy (if I remember correctly) that very few people alive have actually read."

I would guess, about the same number has read both. Maybe even giving the edge to War & Peace. The Alice that most people think of is Disney cartoon ...and now MAYBE the more recent film.

IntoTheWords said: "At the end of the musical not a single person stood. Considering how cheap a standing O is, and for a musical especially, I do not think the audience is liking this piece."

When I saw, the whole crowd stood, so... there lies the issue with anecdotal evidence.

dramamama611 said: "I have found off- beay audiences are no where as quick to a standing O as bway."

We're not on the hook for as much $$$

I attended the Wednesday matinee yesterday and must say that I loved it! So much about it was absolutely fantastic that it made up for the few areas where changes could be made, if the creative team wanted. The music is fantastic! After each song, I told myself that one was my favorite. Hopefully there is a cast album release. The cast is so dedicated and really gave a top notch performance! Sets and costumes were well utilized and creative but not too the point where they took away from the cast or the material. But most importantly, the staging/choreography! WOW! Truly exceptional and inventive! I had chills at many moments by the simplest of gestures.

Certain layers of the book were harder to grasp than others, but the overall theme and plot is there and evident. Could it be cleaned up? Sure, but I do not want to see the introduction of a narrator.

I have no affiliation with Alice By Heart, just really enjoyed my afternoon spent with this show, so I wanted to add some positive remarks. I did the digital rush tickets and was front row. For those, you are very close to the stage and the stage is pretty high. You cannot see the floor of the stage but that doesn't really affect much. There are actually some really cool moments were the cast comes to the edge of the stage and you are almost face to face, very fun! For $25, definitely worth it!

Saw the show last night. I left humming music from SPRING AWAKENING but could not remember one of the songs from this show even 5 mins later...

The cast is good, the costumes and staging are excellent and during the musical numbers I enjoyed it but I also found myself confused by what was going on. Alice and Alfred had no chemistry, for a while I thought he was her brother not her boyfriend. There was an insert in the Playbill I read beforehand with info about all the characters which was helpful because I had no idea who the Duchess was or the group of birds...

I don’t think the show is terrible, at 90 mins I enjoyed it, but I don’t think the book problems can be fixed.

I saw this yesterday, and I loved it. It was absolutely gorgeously staged, and I thought the score was beautiful.

I agree with the poster who said there isn't a single weak link in the cast. Each person embodied their character perfectly, and I felt that while Molly Gordon downplayed a lot, it was purposeful and fit the character.

The staging of this show and the score was very reminiscent of Spring Awakening, which may be why I enjoyed it so much. I couldn't get over how completely synced the cast were to each other and to the story.

I didn't find it hard to follow at all, and my exposure to Alice doesn't go further than the Disney animation and the Tim Burton film. I did read the insert beforehand, so that was helpful in understanding the characters. I assume a lot has been changed since many on this board saw it in early previews because I didn't find the book to be confusing, and the songs were clever and really boosted the storyline.

That being said, the audience did seem to be a mixed bag as far as enjoyment goes, so it may just be a really polarizing show in general.

Updated On: 2/24/19 at 08:43 AM