Anyone going to see Wonderland this week?- Page 2

[dramadude]

Posted: 3/21/11 at 11:13pm

After hearing the concept recording, I'm really looking forward to seeing this tomorrow. I'm sure it needs work, but I'll make sure to post a review after I see it Tuesday night.

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 3/21/11 at 11:14pm

"Together the two of them have no chemistry,"

I find that horrible considering that Janet and Darren are a couple in real life.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 3/21/11 at 11:36pm

Yikes. So it sounds like I should try to get out of the ticket I have for it...

[maxximumvolume]

Posted: 3/21/11 at 11:58pm

bwayfan, why not just go and form your own opinion? Only one person has posted a negative review. That's not to say there won't be more, but life is full of diversity and a diversity of opinions. To allow one man to decide what you should or should not see PARTICULARLY because you already have another ticket is being a follower, plain and simple. Go. Enjoy life. Be free. Don't listen to others. Be yourself!

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:03am

Ok, so this was really, really bad. Which, come on, we all expected, but I was hoping it would be a lot more campy than it turned out being.

There is one great Into the Light/Prince of Central Park moment, and it happens near the top of the show which gave me hope that the rest would follow suit. Unfortunately it slipped into boring, pointless and metaphysical(?). The camp part was Alice enters Wonderland for the first time and the entire cast comes out in identical Alice outfits! The proceed to sing a ridiculous song with equally ludicrous choreography. (Remember that brilliant choreography at Encores this weekend from Alex Sanchez?) I was laughing and couldn't believe what was happening.

The book is so dumb. There is no conflict. There is no plot. There are jokes like Alice saying, "Wow I guess we're not in Maspeth anymore." She meets up with Lewis Carroll to sing about, well something, and then gets to meet her younger self to sing about something else.

Like adamgreer mentioned the only person who understands that the show is camp is Kate Shindle. She commits to the material and is the only person to make an impression. Janet Dacal barely registers, not that she's given anything to do. Why doesn't she have a big I want song once in Wonderland?

The musical tries to be a combination of Wizard of Oz and The Wiz. The Mad Hatter is now villain (Wicked Witch) who has enslaved the people in her side of Wonderland. Alice must free them a la "Brand New Day." She meets the Caterpillar (Scarecrow), El Gato (Tin Man) and White Rabbit (Cowardly Lion). They aid her on the journey. There's also some cardboard love interest with the White Knight (he went to Night School!), but who really cares at this point.

Special mention needs to go to the hideous lighting, possibly some of the most garish I've ever seen in Broadway production. The costumes are also ugly, and the projections are actually worse than the ones used in the last Guys and Dolls revival.

I wanted to love it for campy and bad it could have been, but walked out yawning and scratching my head.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:06am

No joke, these reviews make me want to RUN to see this show.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:10am

How could I forget that moment when Alice enters Wonderland and is greeted by a chorus of women (and men!) dressed up as the "traditional" Alice in the blue dress with the white apron? And the brilliant lyrics that followed...

Welcome to Wonderland!
This is your new address!
You're here for more or less!

Spoiler follows...


How 3rd grade was it that the entire thing was "just a dream"????
Updated On: 3/22/11 at 12:10 AM

[Trish2]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:12am

Isn't this show choreographed by LA choreographer, Marguerite Derricks (FAME) ?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:21am

Jordan you should run to see it before it closes!

There are so many cringe and groan worthy moments it's worth seeing (for free or cheap).

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:35am

Well the choreography certainly looked like something Debbie Allen would have pulled out in about 1989 so that makes sense.

I dont have much to add (the others hit the nail on the head) but i personally thought it made Spiderman look like Showboat.

A mess of a show that probably was a lot better in its first draft.

A real problem is that Alice in Wonderland is not a plot driven story and as such will never be compelling on stage- and adding journey elements makes it instantly derivative of the Wizard of Oz and other already well explpited childrens books.

The concept of Wonderland being a sort of mirrored land of alter ego is actually interesting and perhaps could have been the basis for a compelling, more sophisticated narrative but what we end up with is a hodge podge of unsatisfying vignettes that in their attempt to be hip and relevant convey none of the wit and whimsy of Lewis Carrolls story.

The other really bizarre camp setpiece is this totally weird running joke about Grandma's (Karen Mason) soup .

Updated On: 3/22/11 at 12:35 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:36am

So the question is - Is the show fixable in it's current state?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:42am

How did I forget about the soup! Lol it was so random, but Karen Mason mentions at the beginning she made some soup and Chloe, Alice's daughter, mentions that she, "doesn't like wet food." The continue to bring up eating the soup throughout!

And SPOILER Kate has a great camp line near the end when she tells Alice "I am your ALTER EGO!!!" Hilarity.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:42am

^No, there's nothing salvageable.

Yeah, WTF was up with the soup? Even at the end, Alice decides, "Let's all go eat Grandma's soup.", like it has some real importance to the plot. Updated On: 3/22/11 at 12:42 AM

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:47am

So is it up there with In Your Life?

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:47am

I really didn't want to see this in the first place, and there are many more shows I'd much rather see, but I ended up getting roped into this as a part of a group thing. I'm honestly very strongly considering ditching the group to see something else...if it's this bad, I'd rather see something like War Horse or People in the Picture that I wouldn't otherwise.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:49am

What a huge, bumbling, horrifying mess.

In his complete overhaul of the book (which seems to have made an even bigger mess of things,) Rupert Holmes goes for a self-deprecating and pop culture savvy tone that is completely at odds with everything else on stage. As others have said, with the exception of Kate Shindle, none of the actors embrace the camp quality of the material, and it makes it all only look even worse.

The narrative inconsistencies are far too bountiful to name. From what I understand, Alice used to be a writer struggling with balancing her career and her family, which at least made sense on a few levels- it gives you a reason as to why her marriage has failed, establishes a significant problem in her relationship with her daughter, and gives her something to "learn" in her journey. In this new version, she's a middle school teacher who has put her dream of being a writer on the back-burner. There isn't even an attempt to explain the problems with her family life until the final scene, so you're left completely confused from the get go as to why she has anything at stake. Her character arc is completely non-existent.

I won't even get started on the score. Beyond the sound levels being completely off to an almost inaudible degree, there's not one tuneful number to be had. Wildhorn's attempts at shoe-horning in songs from every possible musical genre are blatantly obvious, and he continues his trend of writing bland, non-specific numbers that have no textual basis within the story he's trying to tell. The opening number on the demo recording, "Worst Day of My Life," sounded upbeat, high energy, and fun, but it's been re-tooled to be sung as a soft lullaby by the daughter on her bed about how her parent's divorce is affecting her. If Alice is our main character, why are we spending so much time right out of the gate learning about her daughter's problems instead of her own? It's interspersed with a lot of weird dialogue cuts, and it starts the show off at a deathly slow pace from which it never recovers.

I agree with those who are saying that Janet Dacal doesn't really have "it," but she's in the midst of such a huge disaster that she's not even close to being part of the problem. The staging (if possible) is even worse than the book. Who thought it was a good idea to have the big effect where Alice actually descends to Wonderland involve her simply standing in an archway and swaying from side to side? Are you kidding me? For those that are curious, they've also overhauled the look of Alice from the previous versions. The hideous dress Dacal is wearing in all the press shots is gone, and she now sports an over-sized top cinched at the waste with a belt, along with leather pants (or tights? I couldn't tell) and boots.

I can't see this lasting at all. The audience's confusion and dismay was quite palpable. Just a jarring failure in every possible way.

Updated On: 3/22/11 at 12:49 AM

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:49am

^If it helps at all, by a week from tomorrow I will have seen both Wonderland and Warhorse and would be happy to report back if it would help you make your decision. I'm sure there are others on this site who have already seen both or will before me.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:52am

OMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD

I NEED TO SEE THIS IMMEDIATELY!!!! God, I wish I wasn't seeing stupid PRISCILLA tomorrow night!!!

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:54am

bwayfan7000, when is your ticket for?

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:54am

It sounds like I have no decision to even make. If I can get out of my ticket to this, I will. I also have the option of seeing Earnest (which is being recorded) or American Idiot (which I've already seen). I'd rather see none of these options and just...anything else.

(PS, sorry to have threadjacked)

Updated On: 3/22/11 at 12:54 AM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 12:57am

No its not on par with In My Life because that show was never boring

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 1:00am

My ticket is April 16th (Saturday) at the matinee.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 1:01am

Michael Bennett hit the nail on the head- I have seen far worse shows that have at least managed to be entertaining.

WONDERLAND somehow accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of being both horrific in quality and utterly unwatchable. You would think there'd at least be sheer entertainment value in watching a trainwreck of such epic proportions, but there isn't.

Updated On: 3/22/11 at 01:01 AM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 1:27am

If you are choosing between War Horse or this by all means go to War Horse.

Michael Bennett and somethingwicked are right in that you can't compare this to an In My Life or Raggedy Ann. Those types of flops are always entertaining, even if a mess. Wonderland manages to be mind-numbingly boring most of the time, despite the fact it's a train wreck you think you could make fun of.

Just wanted to add about the book that there is A LOT of product placement. Dacal has a line about being lost in Wonderland where she says, "I wish I had an iphone, droid or blackberry...anything with GPS!" Another character driving a vehicle across the stage says to his passenger, "Don't worry. We're like All State. You're in good hands." There were many other examples I can't remember now, but will post them if they come to me!

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/22/11 at 1:35am

I wanted to add how bizzare it was that Alice doesn't even ultimately save her daughter in Wonderland, which is what you're led to believe she's fighting for the whole time. The other characters do all the work for her, and then they say, "You got your daughter back. Be happy and go," and she's gone.

In fact, am I wrong in recalling that the two of them don't even have a scene together in Wonderland until they inexplicably rise out of the platform together in that big number where the guards go from good to bad in three seconds as they're rescued? This is not counting the scene where the daughter is actually "young Alice."

To attempt to make sense of it is moot, I guess, but... man.

Updated On: 3/22/11 at 01:35 AM