May 2010 Music Review by Joe Stead
Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure
For the better half of the 20th Century, theatre and pop music were one in the same thing. Songwriters such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart were all Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths at heart, but their incredible outpouring of lyrics and melodies also had a life beyond Times Square. In fact, many of the greatest songs ever written originated in the theatre and went on to fame over radio airwaves, on turntables and jukeboxes, as well as film and television in the homes of ordinary people who might never hear them in their original contexts. With the advent of rock and roll in the late 1950's and early 60's, all that changed. Popular taste was often in stark contrast to the conventional taste of traditional Broadway music, which over the decades has become increasingly elitist. Even Broadway's attempts to assimilate pop and rock sounds have had mixed results. How many of us will be humming tunes from "Legally Blonde," "In the Heights" or even "Billy Elliot"?
Frank Wildhorn is one composer who has attempted to bridge the gap between today's popular music and traditional musical theatre. He has a classical taste in literate subject matter ranging from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Jekyll and Hyde" to "The Scarlet Pimpernel," "The Count of Monte Cristo" and his latest work-in-progress, "Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure". The latter, which was commissioned and produced last year in Tampa, Florida and last seen earlier this year in Houston, Texas, is now available in a Sony Masterworks CD "concept album" that to its favor eschews big name pop stars in favor of its World Premiere stage cast. These are all accomplished theatre pro's who are also able to cross over into the pop style Wildhorn favors.
Lewis
Carroll's fantastical journeys with young Alice in Wonderland and
through the Looking-Glass have inspired a wide and eclectic range of
artists from the traditional to the avant garde. These have
included the family friendly Disney cartoon, the dark and demented
vision of film Director Tim Burton, and the distinctive physical
style of Chicago's own Lookingglass Theatre Company, which even took
its name from Carroll. The new Wildhorn musical is
"Wonderland" through the prism of "American Idol".
At first, the score sounds to have little in common with Alice's adventures down the rabbit hole, although a lyrical reference to author Lewis Carroll soon reveals the connection. The heroine is apparently a descendent of he real Alice namesake, a contemporary single mother juggling career and family in 21st Century Manhattan. All of the fantasy characters have a contemporary spin as well, including a White Knight who sings lead with a boy band and provides a romantic interest for Alice, a jazzy Caterpillar and a Mad Hatter who from the production shots appears to be channeling Cyndi Lauper on crack.
How this all works in telling the story on stage I will have to leave for a future review, although I will say the CD has at least whetted my appetite to see the finished results in a theatre. The CD is a bit of a mixed bag. Based on a cursory first listen, the score has a hip, up to date style and sensibility and a generally bland delivery wherein the songs all sound fairly routine and generic. An exception is the remarkable Broadway and Cabaret veteran Karen Mason, whose silky voice I would pay to hear sing a farm report. Mason, a frequent and welcome visitor to the Windy City, unfortunately has only one track as the Queen of Hearts, but it's a delectable one.
As a purely aural experience, I have a feeling this "Wonderland" may appeal to a mostly younger listenership, and to that extent I give Wildhorn and his collaborators a sincere tip of my hat. The lyrics by Jack Murphy are all in the modern vernacular and not particularly artful. Wildhorn's score is lively and pleasant enough, but displays his oft criticized habit of writing for the pop charts rather than characters. Of course, the same charges have been leveled at Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber and even Irving Berlin, all of whom left their indelible imprints on the musical theatre art form.
According to the show's web site, the journey has just begun, and one wishes it Godspeed. Who knows? Perhaps "Wonderland" will eventually cross over into the kind of commercial mainstream success that made "The Wiz" such a delight two and a half decades ago. I am all in favor of efforts to develop and nurture new talent and new ways of looking at old subject matter. I can only hope that as this musical journey continues, its creators learn to better integrate character and storytelling with the contemporary sound. For more information on Composer Frank Wildhorn, visit www.frankwildhorn.com. For interviews, video clips and future performance dates, please visit www.wonderlandthemusical.org. For information on the complete Sony Masterworks catalogue, visit www.sonymasterworks.com.
About Joe Stead
Joe
Stead has enjoyed a lifelong passion for the theatre, which has
involved acting, directing, producing, designing and reviewing for
the past twenty-five years. He served as founder, producer and
Artistic Director of Curtain Up Productions in Baltimore, Maryland
and Four Star Players in Tampa, Florida. Favorite productions
have included "Life With Father," "Deathtrap,"
"The Odd Couple," "The Miracle Worker,"
"Brighton Beach Memoirs," "You're A Good Man, Charlie
Brown" and "Godspell". He has also performed
leading roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Pippin,"
"The Phantom of the Opera," "The Front Page," and
most recently as Hucklebee in "The Fantasticks" for
Waukegan Community Players. Joe holds a degree in Commercial
Art from Tampa Technical Institute. As a critic, he has
reviewed everything from Broadway to community theatre and major
regional theatres throughout the United States including the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C., Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey,
Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and the Asolo Theatre in
Sarasota, Florida.
Since 1998, he has been a proud resident of Chicago, the greatest theatre city in America. He served for two years as Theatre Editor for College News and Central Newspapers. He created the website Steadstyle Chicago in 2000 to showcase the city's outstanding and diverse theatre scene. Joe was proud to serve alongside a distinguished panel of theatre professionals as a judge for two seasons of Speaking Ring Theatre's "Vitality" Festival of original short plays. His most fulfilling role, in addition to reviewer and all-around theatre fanatic, was as director of the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Actors Workshop (now Redtwist) Theatre, which was nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Award Citations and won for Best Actor (Peter Oyloe).