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#26

Wonderland

Posted: 7/12/12 at 4:25pm

The score was serviceable, but the book was a hot mess. The show really flew off the rails in Act 2. I love I Am My Own Invention, but that entire scene was jarringly out of place. From what I've heard, the best incarnation of the show was the 2nd Tampa tryout version.

However I really enjoy listening to the cast recording for some reason. I think the score sounds better when it's not in the context of that horrible book.

"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

#27

Wonderland

Posted: 7/12/12 at 4:30pm

I think the score sounds better when it's not in the context of that horrible book.

Sadly, for me this is true of all of Wildhorn's shows. I love the recordings of The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War, but both are very messy on stage. I should give Wonderland a listen--it's the first of his shows I saw before hearing, and I thought it was pretty awful, but I can see how the songs would be better divorced from the book (and Janet Dacal's acting...).

#28

Wonderland

Posted: 7/12/12 at 4:43pm

I wouldn't hold my breathe about a tour any time soon - TBPAC gave up the rights to the tour, however. The show will receive its international premiere in Japan this November. Starring as the Mad Hatter is Hamada Megumi (of Japan's Wicked), who released a CD of all Wildhorn tunes recently (including Nick of Time.. interesting!).

About half of the cast recording (which is truly a terrible album, unfortunately) is what appeared on stage... The rest have lyric, or even musical stanzas changed.

The show needed a rewrite after Houston (where they still followed a 8-door-by-door concept, with Alice returning to her front door... It worked), but fast forward a year later to Tampa prior to Broadway, the writers hadn't a clue how to do scene transitions between the characters (since the door concept was gone), and were, quite frankly, confused about what should happen in Act II to get to the ending they wanted. It was the strongest version, but it was nothing to write home about. A few reviewers "improperly" (since they never actually opened) went in to review it and they weren't that good - and thus ghost writers were hired to do a drastic rewrite.

The result was a total mess on Broadway, but it wasn't as bad as many people on here say (where people tend to gang up on a show.. for good or bad). The score was a crowd pleaser - many of the songs received mid-song applause and "Finding Wonderland" is one of Broadway's better songs in the last couple of years, which I think many people would agree.

I wouldn't be surprised if a revamped version became popular - the general idea of the show is strong, if not overdone with different stories of the sort (Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, etc).

Updated On: 7/12/12 at 04:43 PM

#29

Wonderland

Posted: 7/12/12 at 4:53pm

The first act was a lot of fun. It moved well and created a cool little vision of Wonderland. Then I got back from Intermission and had no clue what the heck was going on. It went off the rails in the first five minutes of Act II and never came back.

#30

Wonderland

Posted: 7/12/12 at 4:54pm

The biggest problem is that Frank Wildhorn refuses to admit that he is only capable of writing camp. I'm convinced that it's he who is insisting these shows be played completely earnestly.

He desperately wants to be taken seriously as a composer, but all he writes is campy stuff with a pop ballad sprinkled in here and there. If he would just embrace the fact that he writes camp, his shows might be a whole lot better. Or at least a whole lot more fun.

Updated On: 7/12/12 at 04:54 PM

#31

Wonderland

Posted: 7/12/12 at 5:18pm

"Finding Wonderland" sounds like a rip off of "home" from the wiz.

#32

Wonderland

Posted: 7/12/12 at 5:22pm

I thought it was so bad that it was funny.

They all call me a troll. Ok, call me a troll. If I stand on my own, so be it.

#33

Wonderland

Posted: 7/13/12 at 9:17am

adamgreer - did not get chance to see "Bonny & Clyde" but listened to the recording and thought it was pretty good.

#34

Wonderland

Posted: 7/23/12 at 12:46am

I have been going through my old videos and audios of this little gem the past few days... I was wondering what people thought of the show's technical aspects? The set looked pretty bare bones, but I was wondering how it looked live... The projections also seem to look extremely blurry. Why would they be blurry?

"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "

#35

Wonderland

Posted: 7/23/12 at 12:57am

Some of the projections were blurry (who knows why) - the set was a bit schizophrenic. It wanted to be reminiscent of the Tenniel illustrations, but it wanted to be modern. It wanted the backdrops to set the scene, but then decided to have wacky images which added nothing to a location. (Even whacky enough were the bizarre tiny changes to some set pieces - such as flowers/grass rabbits on top of the grass wedge pieces) I don't think either of the directors knew how to work with the projections too well (back when the "Chess Match" was in the show a normal chess board was projected as a backdrop, for example).

The silver frames were stunning, and many of the original concepts (many axed over the different productions) of Sven Ortel were changed or many of my favorites were gone. "Down the Rabbit Hole" (the elevator song) received mixed reviews on here of the staging, but I thought this was particularly great projections. One of my favorite scenic designs was the Lewis Carroll scene with the clock and Chloe's projection (eventually removed), and many of the clock/"7:59" projections back when that was a plot concept.

Sven Ortel (linked below) posted some pictures of the projections from both the Broadway and Tampa World Premiere productions.
Sven Ortel's Projects

#36

Wonderland

Posted: 7/23/12 at 7:16am

The projections were quite lovely in person. Some were blurry, but it was a huge theater with a lot of vantage points. The end of Act I with the broken looking glass illusion was fantastic. I also liked the elevator. The moving show curtain with all the ink illustrations come to life was a lot of fun, too.

I thought the set was serviceable. The Mad Hatter party was as ridiculous as it needed to be. I didn't mind the green hedges as it gave Wonderland some uniformity. You could see how Alice, even as an adult, could get lost there so easily. The apartment design felt big enough for the stage but still had that cramped, struggling to get by, feel to it.

The vehicles were pretty in person. The Hatter's truck and El Gato were kind of removed from everything else and weren't particularly well designed. Same with the look of the jail cell.

My favorite visual moment in the show was I Am My Own Invention. I know the scene didn't really gel with the rest of the revised book for Broadway, but the look--the Alice ballerina, the library, the Victorian styling--was probably the most cohesive element onstage. If the show went after that angle (Alice as the struggling/displaced writer), it could have been really good.

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