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Synopsis

Wonderland is the giddy, soaring musical that plunges a new kind of Alice into a dazzling world of kaleidoscopic fantasy and romantic adventure. Returning to the strange universe of the classic “Alice in Wonderland,” we find its timeless characters have evolved with the changing times but remain as familiar and endearing as ever. These residents of the Queen of Hearts’s kingdom are now threatened by a new and madder Mad Hatter, whose dark ambition is matched only by her fearsome beauty.

Fantasy author Alice Cornwinkle is on the verge of a breakdown. Her life is a mess – she’s distracted, overwhelmed and bewildered – and it’s taking its toll. Her marriage to Jack is missing the romance it once had, her relationship with her daughter Chloe has lost its closeness, and her writing is suffering from a lack of imagination. In short, she is struggling with the same issues that plague most contemporary women.

Alice is berated by her publisher about “why the latest novel isn’t finished yet?” In addition to this humiliation, she’s late for her Family Therapy session. Again. It’s all falling apart! After the umpteenth disagreement with her soon-to-be-ex-husband Jack, she runs out of gas – figuratively, not literally – and falls asleep on her daughter’s bed, surrounded by Chloe’s “Alice in Wonderland” toys.

Her dream comes alive as a six-foot tall White Rabbit entices Chloe away with him. Alice sees this just in the nick of time, and the chase is on. She is transported via a magical elevator into an astonishing Wonderland, where the issues of her life come up in encounters with a wild and eccentric bunch of extraordinary characters.

The analytical caterpillar has a taste for jazz and leggy chorus girls; El Gato is a grinning hipster cat in a ’67 Impala. The White Rabbit is a messenger for the Queen of Hearts, and introduces Alice not only to an enchanted watch that can turn back time, but also to the White Knight, who bears an uncanny resemblance to her soon-to-be-ex, Jack.

All of the characters come together in a phantasmagoric garden at a Mad Tea Party, presided over by the villainous Mad Hatter, a woman with a very big secret, and the Queen of Hearts, a woman who is smarter than she first appears

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Although Alice tells everyone she meets in Wonderland that she’s “looking for her lost child,” it’s not until the climax that she learns that the “lost child” she’s looking for is not her daughter Chloe, but herself, and that what she needs is to see the world with the wonder and curiosity that she once had as a child.

Credits

Edwina, The Queen of Hearts: Karen Mason Chloe: Carly Rose Sonenclar Alice: Janet Dacal The White Rabbit: Edward Staudenmayer Caterpillar: E. Clayton Cornelious El Gato: Jose Llana Jack the White Knight, The Victorian Gentleman: Darren Ritchie Morris the March Hare: Danny Stiles The Mad Hatter: Kate Shindle Music by Frank Wildhorn; Lyrics by Jack Murphy; Book by Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy Supervising Music Director: Jason Howland