A Brilliant Glass-Half-Full Spectacle – ALICE IN WONDERLAND at LT

The anticipation of seeing Alice in Wonderland had me giddy—the characters, the wordplay, the wonder, and, not to be forgotten in such a fabulous list, young Alice herself; after all, Wonderland represents the inner-workings of her child-mind. At least that’s the publicized theory behind this production: Jungian psychology. 

Photo (stolen from facebook) Credit: Raymond Rivera
Leeward Theatre, director Betty Burdick, and designers John Signor, Donald J. Ranney, Jr., Sarah Whitehead, Mark Kalani Imaizumi, Chelsea Campbell, Cocoa Chandelier, and Johathan Reyn present a landscape of enchantment inhabited by brilliantly decorated characters. The spectacle of colorful set pieces, props, costumes, makeup and lighting combine with musical notes of tantalizingly mysterious charm to draw the viewer deep down the rabbit hole.

Alice, played by Tina Uyeno, alternates regularly between practiced and polished wonder, contempt, and gladness, all delivered with singsong intonation. She treats the role with exaggerated monotony rather than the boundless imagination and honesty of true childhood—a regrettable trap in which to fall because the entire world of the play depends upon her interaction for vitality and continuity.

There are moments of captivating delight on this episodic journey as well as moments of awkwardness. The show is in fact a musical, with many key characters breaking into songs of varying styles, like punk rock, jazz, and rap. This would work well if there were some compelling indication that Alice’s psyche gives birth to each moment, each character, each song, each episode—but that’s a hard sell. The production could benefit from a few more signals or patterns for our puzzle-loving brains to put it all together, especially from Alice.
                       
The show boasts creative choreography, with bodies flipping, climbing, and bouncing in multiple directions. Torsos and limbs become parts of the set. The flower garden, with a cluster of giggling Daisies, an unflappable Tiger Lily (Jasmine Kaleihiwa Dunlap), a sassy Rose (Kehaulani Brown), and shimmying Larkspurs (Jaime Bradner and Rachael Souza), sets the imagination free in its delicately balanced simplicity. For this moment of the play, talking flowers live. Wonderland exists. The actors and the characters fit together as one, each component neither too bold nor too bland. And, they’re having fun. It’s obvious that these flowers/actors enjoy every line, laugh, and lilt of petal. Enjoyment tends to be infectious, especially from stage to audience. 

Other actors find comparable success at filling their flamboyant roles because they exhibit similar symptoms of uninhibited playfulness. Leeward veterans Reb Beau Allen (Mad Hatter) and Shawn Anthony Thomsen (Mock Turtle) are crowd favorites for precisely this quality.

There are a number of endearing elements to this production, such as the Oyster chorus (where each member’s head is a pearl), the Tea Party scene (with a sexy March Hare—Melissa Kenigton—and an adorably drowsy Dormouse—Michelle Umipeg), the comic Gryphon (Shaiden Nagai), and Alice’s encounter with the Red Queen (Andrea Valencia), whose tender yet domineering ways did seem like a projection of Alice’s psyche. Plus, the whole thing is modernized, with TV screens projecting iPhone-style text messages to define particular words, like queer, for instance. 

Leeward’s Alice ambitiously creates one of the most awesome and extravagant versions of Wonderland this side of the looking glass, a design-team-gone-wild world. For those of us with certain high hopes and expectations when it comes to one of the most beloved made up places of all time, this Wonderland will likely confound, amaze, enervate, and please.

NOVEMBER 9-10, 15-17, 2012  8PM
NOVEMBER 11, 2012 4PM
$23 Adults
$20 Students, Seniors, Military
$15 under 12
Receive $5 off listed price when you purchase in advance!


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