Review: WONDERLAND, New Wimbledon Theatre

Billed as a new musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's beloved books, Wonderland sees Alice as a deflated and disappointed 40 year old, living in a grimy tower block with her teenage daughter Ellie. Upon the unexplained appearance of a white rabbit, they descend, via the tower block lift, into Wonderland with their neighbour Jack

The central themes of identity and changing yourself are nothing new, but the narrative arc is awkward and clunky. The group finds Wonderland ruled by the tyrannical Queen of Hearts, who cuts off heads and eats jam tarts. The loss of heads does not actually kill the characters; they are allowed to be on a permanent tea break and so it seems odd that this is a threat or that the Queen of Hearts is any kind of true tyrant.

The Mad Hatter morphs into the new baddie after going through the looking glass, making all the characters to work in her hat factory and plotting to overthrow the Queen. The problem is that the Hatter lacks any real menace and this plot device is unconvincing.

The character of Alice is simply annoying. Simpering and pathetic, all she wants is a man to rescue her from her boring and unexciting life. Her redemption lies in recognising that her relationship with her daughter is important and that she hooks up with the downstairs neighbour. It's hardly the stuff of inspiration. The story would have been much stronger if it has concentrated on Alice's relationship with her daughter alone. The love interest is demeaning and unnecessary.

The other issue is that the production feels like a disjointed series of set pieces, rather than a cohesive story, especially in the first half. Alice's meeting with Kavi Ushe's Caterpillar is well done, with Ushe bringing in a louche lounge singer attitude with fantastic flairs and glittery cummerbund.

The excellent Kerry Ellis, best known for her role as Elphaba in the original cast of Wicked, is somewhat wasted as Alice. Her opening song "Worst Day" is a witty rendition of her terrible life, but there is not much else to showcase her voice. It's a pity that she is playing such a simpering and unlikable character.

Natalie McQueen gets much better opportunities to shine as The Mad Hatter. Despite the lack of depth in the character, she is by far the most interesting person on stage; bouncing around with manic energy. Her belting rendition of "I Will Prevail" is fantastic.

Wendi Peters is excellent in the role of Queen of Hearts; shrill, bossy and with a surprisingly strong singing voice. Her rendition of "Off With Their Heads" is one of the highlights of the show. She has an infectious and vivacious energy that the audience loves, even though she is effectively a 'baddie'. It seems a missed opportunity to have her on stage so little.

There are also some wasted chances with other characters; Dominic Owen's Cheshire Cat is very underused and the Dormouse and Tweedle Dum and Dee barely get a look in. These are iconic and totally magical characters, with so much potential for madcap interpretation, but they lack any kind of enchantment and magic.

Overall, Frank Wildhorn's music has some good melodies, but the songs are not sufficiently memorable and Alice's duet with White Rabbit "I Am My Own Invention" is supposed to be inspirational and uplifting, but is simply bland.

Andrew Riley's set design is not fantastical enough and suggests that Wonderland consists of little more than a few underground tunnels and some hedging. Nick Richings' lighting design creates much more atmosphere and Grace Smart's costumes are suitably bold and colourful.

Overall, despite some very strong performances, Wonderland is not quite wonderful enough.

Wonderland is at New Wimbledon Theatre until 6 May and then touring

Photo Credit: Paul Coltas

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