Review Roundup: Rep PH Presents ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Manila, Philippines, September 5, 2013--Repertory Philippines for Young Audiences (formerly Rep's Children's Theatre) celebrates 21 years via its third restaging of "Alice in Wonderland" from last month until Sunday, December 15 at Onstage, 2/F Greenbelt 1, Makati City.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, his pseudonym, Lewis Carroll, wrote the novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in 1865. In this musical theater adaptation, "Alice in Wonderland," featuring book and lyrics by Jim Eiler and music by Jeanne Bargy, is simplified and made more child friendly.

Rep's "Alice in Wonderland," directed by Joy Virata, tells the story of young Alice, based on real-life person Alice Liddell, who follows the White Rabbit into a rabbit hole and ends up in the land down under filled with larger-than-life characters and out-of-the-box situations, including Alice turning into a giant; Alice trying to beat the Red Queen of Hearts at croquet and Alice figuring out the answer to the Mad Hatter's riddle.

The production stars Dani Gana and Chaye Mogg (Alice), Nacho Tambunting, Jim Ferrer and Reb Atadero ( White Rabbit), Liesl Batucan (Duchess), Bituin Escalante and Natalie Everett (Red Queen of Hearts), Becca Coates and Janine Tolentino (Storyteller/Flora), Rachel Coates and Marie Delgado (Storytelle/Dora), Oliver Usison and Kendrick Ibasco (Walrus/King of Hearts), Nic Campos and Joel Trinidad (French Mouse/Carpenter/Mad Hatter), Onyl Torres and James Stacey (Caterpillar/March Hare), Antonio Lane and Jay Pangilinan (Mock Turtle), Reymund Domingo and Khevin Almario (Duck/Kettle), Edward Briones (Lory/Baby), Dingdong Rosales (Lory/Baby/Tweedledum), Josh Ramirez and Chino Veguillas (Dodo/Tweedledee/Doormouse), Shalee Vicencio and Gold Soon (Moon / Court Member), Ina Salonga (Tears / Court Member), Kyla Rivera (Tears / Oyster/Door), Clark Francis dela Riva and Bobby Superales (Door/ Oyster) and Bym Buhain (Door /Tweedledum).

Now let us hear what the critics had to say:

Rome Jorge, Rappler.com: When I watched the premiere of "Alice in Wonderland" last August 17, I was heartened to see that the theater was packed to the rafters. Even the step on the aisles had children and their guardians squeezing in to find a place for themselves.

Escalante and Batucan shone the brightest, effortlessly mesmerizing audiences with their powerful vocals. Their talents helped support Gana who held her own with Philippine theater's best. The refreshing origami-inspired stage design and costumes by (Raven) Ong and (Gino) Gonzales, respectively, were put in the best light flawlessly by (John) Batalla.

The greatest creative risk taken was that of integrating audience participation into the theater performance. Attempting to goad often shy Asian children to participate in a decidedly English story was met with mixed results, with children responding more emphatically to answering questions than to singing along. [Perhaps because the sing-alongs came first, it was only when the questions came along later that they had properly warmed up.]

Besides hinging the success of the performance on its young audiences, the use of audience participation broke the spell of suspended disbelief by shattering the "4th wall" and interrupted the flow of the story. Nonetheless, it still worked, albeit with mixed results.

I noticed that it were the more westernized children who were the most vocal. Perhaps by first gauging its audience for the night and learning from previous performances, this production can fine-tune how and when to elicit audience participation for even better results.

Jennifer Dugena, Pep.Ph: The entire production, performances and props are all right on the button. The perfect mix of all these elements make "Alice in Wonderland" such a captivating production.

The actors' movements are exact and perfectly timed along with the upbeat music. The bubbly energy exuded by the cast will captivate everyone's attention from beginning to end, making it difficult for audiences to turn their eyes away from the stage.

Daniella Gana, a Grade 10 student from the Chinese International School of Manila, is vibrant and amazing as Alice. Her voice brings a remarkable combination of vulnerability and strength to the character.

Singer and power-belter Bituin Escalante plays the Queen of Hearts with aplomb and the right amount of adorable creepiness.

Kids in primary education--the ideal target market of the show--will find Repertory Philippines' "Alice in Wonderland more" accessible and entertaining than any other movie based on the book. The interactive nature of the play is more than enough to engage anyone between 5 to 50 years old.

Fred Hawson, AbsCbnNews.com: It was rather tough going at the start, with the scene of Alice (Daniella Gana) and the White Rabbit (Nacho Tambunting) falling into a very deep rabbit hole seemed to have come short of its intended illusion. I was thinking maybe some wind and echo effects would have been helpful. After that however, with the much anticipated scene of Alice shrinking and growing was very imaginatively done. Now that is thinking outside the box!

While it was filled with some rather inventive visual candy, like the how the Caterpillar was formed by four different people playing separate segments of its body ("When I Become a Butterfly"), Act 1 felt rather dull, not only for me but also for my daughter, who watched with me. Those episodes involving the duck, lorry and dodo birds, and the French mouse, and the Duchess, her cook and her baby, were not too interesting for me.

Act 1 ended with a show in the Palace Music Hall. Again the numbers in this part were more miss than hit for me. I hope they can tweak this part up further in future shows, as this was only their first public performance tonight.

Despite their striking and literally shimmering costumes, the Tweedle Brothers number failed to fly. I personally found the "Walrus and Carpenter" portion not done so well (yet, I hope). The singing was not clear. The costume of the Walrus was not at par with the others. This scene was only saved by those cute oysters.

When it came to Act 2, now we're talking! It actually started with an audience sing-along ("I'm Mad, You're Mad") led by The Cheshire Cat (Nic Campos) and Alice with those LSS-inducing lyrics, "I'm mad. You're mad. We're all mad here!" Not only the kids, but everyone in the audience really followed the hand gestures too! From that sparkling start, Act 2 turned the whole show around for the better.

Photo Credit: Jory Rivera

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