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.
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| 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 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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