Script and score reviews: Wonderland the Musical

The School Musicals Company has been publishing primary school-friendly musical scripts and scores for some years now, and this musical represents their first collaboration with Kate Belcher, who has adapted Lewis Carroll's much-loved text for the stage. Like all the company's books, the resource contains a wealth of extra material alongside the script and score. As well as a CD of the 11 songs, scene-change music and sound effects, there is a character breakdown which shows how many lines each speaking part carries; guidance for staging; tips on performance for the songs; notes on costume, makeup and props; on adapting the text for smaller or larger casts; and advice for teachers on auditions, including suggested excerpts and songs to set for students to audition with.

The play itself admirably tells the whole story of Alice in Wonderland – the fall down the rabbit hole; the bottle and cake marked ‘Drink me’ and ‘Eat me’ the Caucus Race; the caterpillar; the Mad Hatter's tea party; the Duchess; croquet with the Queen of Hearts; and the trial. It's extremely ambitious – with meaty scenes and the potential for quite spectacular set and costume design. I'm instinctively concerned about length – knowing how school productions can stretch, and how difficult it can be to get students to pick up cues or to do scene-changes with urgency. This is quite apart from the visual challenges of depicting such moments as Alice falling down the rabbit hole, or shrinking. There are suggested solutions to these aspects, but still, this is not what one might call an easy-option show.

There is lots, however, to commend it: the writing is fun, with plenty for all students to do. It has potential for a huge cast, and could be a full-school production (there are 8 Alices alone), with scope for very creative design and direction. The songs are melodically interesting and rhythmically great fun for ensemble singing, with witty lyrics.

I only wish that Alice's first entrance wasn't ‘looking at her smartphone’ and that her initial encounter with the White Rabbit didn't need to be a phone call on that device. Somehow, for me, the mundanity of this all-too-prevalent form of interaction detracted from the magic and escapism of Wonderland, rather than augmenting it.