Alice By Heart (PREVIEWS) — Page 5

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

I saw this yesterday and absolutely loved it! I was going in with lower expectations after reading some responses on here, but I think that it absolutely worked. Like many have said, the music and staging reminded me a lot of Spring Awakening (which is one of my favorite shows) and was beautifully executed. I think the story flowed in a way that made sense, and really dealt with it's overarching themes while tying into Alice in Wonderland quite well. That being said, it had it's very strange moments, to the point of making me uncomfortable - but Alice in Wonderland is a very strange book, so I think these made a lot of sense.

The only criticisms I had were that I think that the script could have been cleaned up a bit - some of the dialogue did not feel necessary. And some of the accents definitely need some work.

While I see why it would be a very polarizing show, I am surprised so many people on here thought it was awful!

Opening Night is tomorrow

Anyone attending the opening tonight? What is the final run time of the show?

Sometimes I think what is always at the root of why Alice adaptations fail is the creatives clearly don’t understand what the books are.

They were written to be diversions from patronizing books for children that had harpy messages and morals. It’s an exploration of nonsense and the imagination. But at the same time they explore the imagination in a way that is so specific to Victorian England.

Sure, it’s interpretable, but Wildhorn, Tim Burton, And now this group they keep forcing their own ideas of what this book is.

The reason why Into the Woods works is because there IS something to subvert about those fairy tales.

Alice was written to be subversive. It doesn’t even really have a plot. So to subvert it again cancels out the essence. And no adaptations except maybe the Disney film from the 50s has ever really understood that.

Updated On: 2/27/19 at 03:17 AM

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "
Sometimes I think what is always at the root of why Alice adaptations fail is the creatives clearly don’t understand what the books are.

They were written to be diversions from patronizing books for children that had harpy messages and morals. It’s an exploration of nonsense and the imagination. But at the same time they explore the imagination in a way that is so specific to Victorian England.

Sure, it’s interpretable, but Wildhorn, Tim Burton, And now this group they keep forcing their own ideas of what this book is.

The reason why Into the Woods works is because there IS something to subvert about those fairy tales.

Alice was written to be subversive. It doesn’t even really have a plot. So to subvert it again cancels out the essence. And no adaptations except maybe the Disney film from the 50s has ever really understood that."

I think Elizabeth Swados' musical adaptation is actually the best in terms of capturing the spirit of the books. It's delightful nonsense, without trying to force a point of view onto the source.

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BwayGeek2 said: "I don't think it's going to turn me off from seeing the show, but I've definitely moved to cautious now."

What would it take to make you not want to go?! heh

Hamilfan2 said: "this is clearly a blatant misrepresentation using bit quotes taken out of context from throughout the review."

So standard operating procedure?

Has anyone done the in person rush? When did you go and how early?

I caught Alice By Heart a few weeks ago and I'm also in the pro camp. Yes, the story is disjointed, and I see how that could be very polarizing. But the metaphor of war as an upside down place like Wonderland really worked for me, and I left moved by the story. Grace McLean in particular was a highlight. I thought the score was lovely and I'm hoping for a cast recording.

I saw this last night and I'm not sure why people have panned it so much. It wasn't exactly what I would consider to be great, but it wasn't offensively bad. There were several redeeming aspects including the choreography and set were pretty interesting. Certain performers were quite good, I thought Grace McLean was great, Noah Galvin was entertaining, the Caterpillar. I actually thought Molly Gordon was one of the better performers as well. I find Colton Ryan's singing to be...subpar and it amazes me that he continues to get some pretty plum roles, but maybe it was just an off night for him.

Yes, the story line/book needs some work, I suppose it could be a little confusing if you're completely unfamiliar with Lewis Carroll and Alice. I thought the music was okay, but somewhat unmemorable. I guess I had a mixed review, but it was pretty far from a complete disaster that I was expecting after reading this thread.

Oh man. I wanted to love this so much. I went in on Tuesday having read absolutely nothing about it... no reviews, no message boards, no word of mouth. And I usually find things to like in shows that others pan.

I did think the music was lovely. I wasn't crazy about one of the voices, but I'll listen to Spring Awakening all day and this was clearly reminiscent, so I was a fan. If they recorded it, I'd surely buy it as there are some songs I definitely want to hear again.

But count me as someone who couldn't wait for it to be over. What an absolute mess. I actually felt bad for the actors who were clearly giving it their all (and had to deal with very tepid applause at the end, ouch), but it's hard to make sense of something that (deliberately?) doesn't make any sense. Might as well have been in a different language for the amount of time I knew what was going on. So much of it read as bad children's theatre...or a bad production of Godspell... or character exercises in an acting class. (And did I hear a totally anachronistic "henny" from the Duchess in drag? Wtf?) I was doing a lot of cringing. What a shame, because it really had so much potential. Oh well.

Saw this last night and really hated it. Disjointed, insane, repetitive. I understand that to some extent those words could describe the book, but this was just a complete misfire all around. The only numbers I came close to enjoying were the Mad Hatter's and the Queen's, but the Hatter's seems to be gesturing at some comment on PTSD (?). Also, for some reason the Duchess make multiple fart jokes, and one of the birds runs out of his number because he has to pee.

The costumes were ingenious, but other than that, the horror. The horror.

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