Click here to read our review of Wonderland (Tampa performance)!

Wonderland: Alice’s New Musical Adventure officially opened in Houston at the Alley Theatre on Jan. 20, following previews which began Jan. 15. It will play through Feb. 14.

The move to the Alley follows its world-premiere engagement at the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, FL, which began previews Nov. 24, opened on Dec. 5, and closed on Jan. 3.

Wonderland is an original updated musical take on the classic Lewis Carroll children’s tale, Alice in Wonderland.

The official Wonderland website describes the plot:

Wonderland is set in present-day Manhattan and a timeless Wonderland. The new musical tells the story of author Alice Cornwinkle (a descendent of Lewis Carroll’s muse Alice Liddell), who is struggling with her career and her daughter, Chloe.

Alice is a children’s book writer in Manhattan who is suffering through a creative block, estranged from her husband and alienated from her daughter. It takes a trip to a strange-yet-familiar Wonderland for her to regain her life’s balance and again find the love and everyday magic that reside in us all – if we know how to look. Wildhorn’s score taps into numerous pop styles, and Murphy’s lyrics provide both wit and wisdom.

Press notes describe Wonderland:

With a chaotic Wonderland in danger of disappearing into nothingness, only a modern-day Alice can restore balance and joy. Journey with her from NYC to a strange-yet-familiar place where she must reclaim her daughter and defeat the Queen of Hearts. In this world premiere of a new musical…you’ll crash through the Looking-Glass to an enchanting Wonderland filled with fantastic characters and astonishing visions. Wildhorn’s score taps into numerous pop styles, and Murphy’s lyrics provide both wit and wisdom as Alice learns to follow her heart.

Judy Lisi, president of the Straz, had this to say to the St. Pete Times: “One thing we learned from the Tampa process was what was clear and what was not clear to the audiences. The story line had to be worked on quite a bit.”

Director Gregory Boyd shared: “The book we have now is quite different from the book that opened in Tampa. And we’re putting in more changes, including four new songs.” In fact, at least one song was cut prior to the Houston premiere: “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love.”

Lisi explained, “It’s a cute little song, but it didn’t fit the story.” She went on to say that cutting that song was “like chopping off a finger. But the discipline is being able to pick and choose so you keep the story line.”

It is the first production from the Broadway Genesis Project at the Straz Center. According to the Wonderland website, “Broadway Genesis is intended to help create new works of American theater to play the Tampa market, and then possibly tour other performing arts centers or move to Broadway. [The Straz Center is] one of the largest and most prolific performing arts facilities in the country, will serve as lead producer for Broadway Genesis – using its facility, administrative structure and other resources.”

Judith Lisi, president of the Straz Center for Performing Arts, told the St. Pete Times that she believes that Wonderland will also be a point of pride for the community and would entice producers to bring shows to Tampa. “So many Broadway shows open first in California and we would like for them to open here,” Lisi said. “We have one of the largest and best facilities in the country and we’re only a two-hour flight from New York.”

The St. Pete Times spoke with the creators, and writes:

Wonderland is a contemporary take on the Carroll stories — Alice is a children’s book author in 21st century Manhattan — but its creators take pains to distinguish it from the source material. ‘It’s inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It’s dreaming of Alice in Wonderland. It’s sort of ending up where Alice in Wonderland drove it. But it’s not Alice in Wonderland,’ says Boyd, also co-author, with Jack Murphy, of the musical’s book.

Director Gregory Boyd is also the artistic director of Houston’s Alley Theatre; composer Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde and The Civil War) and lyricist Jack Murphy (The Civil War) wrote the catchy songs which will feel at home on your iPod. The book was penned by Jack Murphy and Gregory Boyd.

The cast of Wonderland includes Janet Dacal (In the Heights, Good Vibrations) as Alice, Julie Brooks (Fiddler on the Roof national tour) as Chloe, Tommar Wilson as the Caterpillar, Jose Llana (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) as El Gato, Karen Mason (Sunset Boulevard, Mamma Mia!) as the Queen of Hearts, Darren Ritchie (Dracula: The Musical) as Jack/White Knight, Nikki Snelson (Legally Blonde) as the Mad Hatter, and Ed Staudenmayer (Forbidden Broadway) as the Rabbit.

For more information, visit wonderlandthemusical.org, and for more information about the Texas run, visit alleytheatre.org.

Click here to read our review of Wonderland (Tampa performance)!

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