[sopranodespair]

I just found out that the little theatre is doing Alice in Wonderland, Jr.
If any of you have been in this show, I would like to hear what your experiece was like.
And I'd like to play Alice so if you have song suggestions and acting tips that would be great.

[ConverseSneaker]

I don't have experince with AIW Jr.(I assume the disney verision?) but I did do a different production of AIW before.

If it's disney, look at little girl disney songs(I'm thinking like the song Alice sings in the beginning of the movie, ect.) or what about The Girl I Mean to Be from the Secret Garden? That would be perfect!

Alice is a little girl about 9 or 10 years old. Highly curious, not very tactful or patient, but polite(this is during 1900's after all). She is always out of place in both worlds. In her own home, she is always being reprimanded for being imaginitive and in Wonderland she's too ordinary and normal. Wonderland's logic must frustrate her to the point where she is absolutely desperate to get home.

Hope this helps.

[Luc]

I'm in it right now.
So is eXcessDrama, for that matter.

Let's just say... it's an interesting interpretation on it. I think the weirdest things are:

a) There are three Cheshire Cats- the head, the middle, and the tail. This allows them to perform "cool tricks" that let's the body split apart and stuff... not very effective, but whatever. They're the narrators.

b) There are three Alice's- Tall Alice, Medium Alice, and Small Alice. Tall Alice has the smallest part of them all. She only appears in two scenes, I think (but there is lots of chorus work for the actress to do when she's not playing Tall Alice). Medium Alice has the biggest part- she's the "real" Alice who falls down the hole, etc. Small Alice has the second-biggest part. She's in a few scenes and songs. The Alice's don't really need to look that much alike, because they don't attempt very hard in the script to use "magic" to shrink her, etc. The Cats basically just say "Cue Medium Alice!" etc.

c) The weirdest- but by far the coolest- adaptation to this production is that it's completely jazzed up. Most of the music from the movie is in there (plus some more), but it's not the classical music anymore. It's jazzy and fun. Maybe Swing is a better classification for it. I'm not too familiar with the movie, but I know for sure that one of the songs in the production that wasn't in the movie is "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," which is probably the best song in the show. It's sung by the Caterpillar. The Caterpillar raps the first part out, and then the rest is full company, and hip-hop. So much fun. Another music change- the Tweedles do not sing about the Walrus and the Carpenter. They just do the "How D'ya Do and Shake Hands" which is an extremely annoying song, but they probably have the funniest scene in the show (maybe I'm just biased.... currently playing Tweedle-Dum, ya see). This scene and many others can be read at the official Broadway Jr. website.

The show is definitely aimed at very young kids, but the music is surprisingly challenging. Lots of three and four-part harmonies, which you wouldn't expect in a Jr. show. There are also lots of weird rhythms that will throw some of the younger cast members off.

Over-all, it's a really fun show. Not the best writing in the world, but it's still fun. One good thing about it is that there are no "stars." Medium Alice, of course, has the lead role but often switches places with Small Alice, sizing her part down a lot. The rest of the characters basically appear in one or two scenes as themselves, and then the actors join the chorus. So no one in the cast can call themselves "better" because they have a bigger part- even the chorus members hardly leave the stage.


I hope this helped a little bit. The best place for information is the Broadway Jr. site. Just google it, and it should come up quickly.

If you need anything else, just send me a PM!

[sopranodespair]

Thanks! In the little theatre, we usually have kids from ages 6-19. I'm 15 and I'm about 5'4'' (maybe slightly taller). Would I be too tall or too old to play medium-sized Alice?

[Luc]

[GlindaGirl45]

My BFFs older sister was US/ Alice in the Musical. Dont think it was AIW JR, just AIW.But she said it takes a lot of heart to play Alice, U have to go back to a time whenu were little and very curious and playful. Use that little girl inside u and let her come out!!!!!