Alice By Heart (PREVIEWS)

[Relevance81491]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 9:09pm

"When the madness of the world is too much to bear, we take refuge in the stories we love. Tony® and Grammy® award-winning creators of Spring Awakening, STEVEN SATER and DUNCAN SHEIK, reunite for their new musical Alice By Heart, inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and directed and co-written by JESSIE NELSON (Waitress).



In the rubble of the London Blitz of World War II, Alice Spencer’s budding teen life is turned upside down, and she and her dear friend Alfred are forced to take shelter in an underground tube station. When the ailing Alfred is quarantined, Alice encourages him to escape with her into their cherished book and journey down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.

As they travel through the tale, Alice By Heart explores the poignancy of first love, coming to terms with loss, and finding the courage to move forward. This world premiere musical encourages us all to celebrate the transformational power of the imagination, even in the harshest of times."



Early reports are appreciated as always!

[Ellie'sdad]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 10:37pm

Saw the show's workshop at Vassar this summer.  While much of the music was thrilling and the cast top-notch, the book was fatally flawed.  The show's premise layers a complex story about the WWII London blitz on top of the complexities of the two iconic Alice novels (Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass).   The result was somewhat impenetrable.  It's possible that the book has been completely and successfully overhauled, but the show has been in development for many years and there's a reason why the successful team behind Spring Awakening has not been able to bring the show to town before now - and that it is Off Broadway and not on.

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 1/30/19 at 11:28pm

I saw Sheik’s Whisper House when I was in London two years ago. I was so excited to see it because I loved his recording of the songs. Big disappointment. Songs were good. But the book was weak. Sounds like this could be a repeat of that. Hoping for the best though. I loved the revival of Spring Awakening and am still sad I missed seeing American Psycho. He def needs to be pairing up with strong book writers which is fairly obvious (who shouldn’t?).

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 12:23am

I think Alice as a property just doesn’t really lend itself to plot driven musical theatre successfully.

Liz Swados had her bizarre Alice in Concert but that worked because it didn’t try to be anything else than what Lewis Carroll’s story is: a showcase of absurdity and wordplay with no real plot.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 12:25am

Ellie'sdad said: "Saw the show's workshop at Vassar this summer. While much of the music wasthrilling and the cast top-notch, the book was fatally flawed. The show's premise layers a complex story about the WWII London blitz on top of the complexities of the two iconic Alice novels (Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass). The result was somewhat impenetrable. It's possible that the book has been completely and successfully overhauled, but the show has been in development for many years and there's a reason why the successful team behind Spring Awakening has not been able to bring the show to town before now - and that it is Off Broadway and not on."

Opening off bway means nothing. They did it for Spring Awakening, Dear Evan Hansen, Next to Normal,  Hadestown and MANY  more.  A lot could have hapoened in the 6 months since yo saw this.  

To already put a seal of disapproval on a version you havent seen is a bit ridiculous...everything takes years to get ready.

[Ellie'sdad]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 7:47am

I clearly said that it's possible that the book has been completely and successfully overhauled.  But I also know that in the many years the show has been developed, that hasn't happened.  I "disapproved" of the book from this summer, not the current show which I haven't seen.

[urnothingwithoutme]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 4:54pm

Anyone there last night? Est. running time?

[perfectliar]

Posted: 1/31/19 at 5:07pm

Someone posted on the other thread that running time is 90 minutes without intermission.

ETA: I'm going tomorrow and just got a reminder email from MTC confirming that the running time is 90 minutes.

Updated On: 1/31/19 at 05:07 PM

[Daddy Warbucks]

Posted: 2/1/19 at 9:19pm

Anyone there tonight?

[VotePeron]

Posted: 2/1/19 at 10:56pm

Yikes.

This is a prime example of how high production value cannot save deeply, deeply flawed material. This is one big dud.

The opening scene seemed promising - we briskly meet all the characters in a makeshift bunker in a London tube station in 1941, while the war rages on above. We meet Alice, who has this infuriatingly annoying obsession with forcing this dying boy to go to Wonderland with her. So, she begins to recite it from memory. One by one, the characters in the bunker become the characters of Wonderland, and we fall down the hole.

And then the show falls apart.

The book is an absolute mess - forcing it's way in between Sheik's (mostly) beautiful songs. It is extremely slow paced for a 90 minute musical, as we follow the now post-pubescent Alice through Wonderland. Every character of Wonderland gets a song, a very drawn out book scene (filled with jokes that I think only Jessie Nelson believe are funny), and a random comment about Alice having boobs, being horny, or what it means to be a woman. I genuinely could not make sense of what was happening most of the time, it felt like I had fallen down some kind of personal rabbit hole of college Musical Theatre Writing 101 hell. Make sure you refresh your Alice in Wonderland knowledge beforehand, because they make some parallels (I think?) that had me completely in the dark.

The show has a very somber/bleak tone, and insists on living in this dreary plane for the entirety. There is ZERO emotional connect with the audience, and the response was crickets most of the time. After curtain call, the cast began singing a reprise of the shows apparent anthem, and the audience just sat in a confused silence.

The good news is, the set is pretty, the choreography is imaginative, and the performers are really committed. But no amount of previews can change the issues/tone, and I can't imagine it will ever have a life after this. Maybe a cast recording, but who will want to put more money into this once reviews come out.

Updated On: 2/1/19 at 10:56 PM

[perfectliar]

Posted: 2/1/19 at 11:06pm

I was there tonight and will echo nearly everything VotePeron said. The "plot" is confusing, and yes, it kind of felt like you also needed to know the story of Alice by heart to really get what's going on. Shiek's music is truly gorgeous almost throughout, and there are some stunning sequences and performances, but it's pretty weak overall. Thank God for Noah Galvin and Natalie Walker, who embraced how bizarre this is and gave us some laughs.

I'm interested to know what others thought of Molly Gordon's performance. I found it very, very stilted and dull. About 2/3 of the way through, my mind wandered and I wondered if the show would have improved with a more engaging lead, since Gordon's weaknesses highlighted the weaknesses in the material for me.

Updated On: 2/1/19 at 11:06 PM

[annang]

Posted: 2/2/19 at 2:18am

Can someone who has seen it confirm that the runtime is actually 90 minutes? I’ve had a run of very bad luck lately with shows running longer than advertised, causing me to miss my train home. Just want to make sure that I’m planning appropriately for this one if they have underestimated or misrepresented the run time. Thanks!

Updated On: 2/2/19 at 02:18 AM

[perfectliar]

Posted: 2/2/19 at 9:36am

It was closer to an hour and 45 last night.

[perfectliar]

Posted: 2/2/19 at 11:25am

SONG LIST

West of Words - Alice, Alfred,  Tabitha & Company
Down the Hole - Company
Still - Alice & White Rabbit
Chillin' the Regrets - Caterpillars, Alice & Company
The Key Is - Alice, White Rabbit, Caterpillars & Company
So - Magpie, Eaglet, Duck, Canary, Dodo & Pigeon
Those Long Eyes - Cheshire Cat, Alice & White Rabbit
Manage Your Flamingo - Duchess & Company
Sick to Death of Alice-ness - Mad Hatter, March Hare, Dormouse & Alice
Brillig Braelig - Dr. Butridge, Alice & Company
Some Things Fall Away - Cheshire Cat
Your Shell of Grief - Mock Turtles & Alice
Another Room in Your Head - Alfred, Alice & Company
Isn't It a Trial? - Queen of Hearts & Company
Do You Think We Think You're Alice? - Company
I've Shrunk Enough - Alice & Company
Still (reprise) - Alfred & Alice
Afternoon - Alice, Alfred & Company
Winter Blooms - Alice, Cheshire Cat & Company
Down the Hole (reprise) - Company

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

Posted: 2/2/19 at 3:47pm

annang said: "Can someone who has seen it confirm that the runtime is actually 90 minutes? I’ve had a run ofvery bad luck lately with shows running longer than advertised, causing me to miss my train home. Just want to make sure that I’m planning appropriately for this one if they have underestimated or misrepresented the run time. Thanks!"

Shows rarely misrepresent run times in my experience. During previews run time can vary from night to night, not just because of new material being put in but because the cast get more comfortable, is able to make transitions quicker etc. 

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 2/3/19 at 11:31am

Oh boy. This show is a hot, hot mess.

The good:

This theatre is gorgeous and very comfortable, especially row F, which probably has the best seats in the house. Huge Broadway type stage and great sound and lighting systems.

The set and production values are top notch.

The lighting is beautiful.

The staging is frenetic, but very creative.

The bad:

Everything else.

With the exception of a few songs, the music is atonal, and extremely ballad heavy. Most songs will be forgotten the second the band stops playing. Few numbers got applause, and even then, it was tepid applause.

Jamming the Alice tales into a story about a doomed relationship during the Blitz could have worked, I guess, but this is a very confusing mash up that barely makes any sense. If your only exposure to Alice is the Disney film, you might want to educate yourself on the book because many of the characters will be unfamiliar to you. Who the hell is The Dutchess, for example?

So we go in and out of Wonderland as Alice attempts to tell the stories to a group of young people holed up in a tunnel as bombs explode outside. Her relationship with a boy with TB should be heartbreaking, but the nature of their relationship is never made fully clear, and frankly, the two of them have so little chemistry together that by the end, the house is full of dry eyes when the opposite should be true.

It’s all just a big colorful mess, and it boggles the mind that with all the worthy new plays and musicals out there, this thing is what they would pick as the premiere production in this shiny new space.

The running time is definitely an hour and forty five minutes, not 90, and that is with very litttle audience respons.

And oh yeah: They have a bar, but no liquor license yet, and trust me, if ever there was a show where a cocktail or two would come in handy, this is it.

[Hamilfan2]

Posted: 2/3/19 at 11:37am

I have to agree with what others on this thread have said. The music, staging and performances are all really strong but the book and the show as a whole just don’t work.

I also found the performance of Molly Gordon to be quite wooden, and while she does have a lovely voice I think her performance (given that it is the central performance) is one of the reasons this show does not work. That being said all of the esemble performances are stellar, with special praise to Noah Galvin, Wes Taylor and Natalie Walker (who is playing Grace Mclean’s role for the first week or so of performances).

I also found Colton Ryan’s character to be captivating, and I think the parallel drawn between a sick person literally running out of time and the white rabbit is quite inspired. Unfortunately some of the other modern parallels feel less so. Wes Taylor’s soldier driven mad from the war as a parrallel to the Mad Hatter is an intriguing idea, but ultimately not explored as much as it probably could’ve been. His modern character mostly just resorts to running around asking to have a Tea Party (get it? Because he’s the mad hatter). The rest just kind of make passing remarks about their characters, like the caterpillar who just has a pipe and the Cheshire Cat who just stands on a ladder playing with yarn for seemingly no reason other than to show she is the Cheshire Cat stand in.

I think that’s the fatal flaw of this show. You have this one storyline with the “modern” characters (I put modern in quotes because this is WWII so it’s not really modern, but it is updated for a new time period), each of whom serve as modern analogies for the characters of Alice in Wonderland. Than you have an actual literal retelling of Alice in Wonderland. If they had just chosen one of those I think the show could work, but trying to balance both is just impossible. This is also reflected in the costume design of the show, which sometimes features makeshift costumes made of materials you would actually find in a bunker and other times the costumes seemingly come out of nowhere and feel wildly fanciful and out of place.

I am intrigued by the concept of a show in which the hole Alice goes down is a makeshift bunker in a London Tube Station where along the way she meets a wide array of character just as she does in the book, only this time they are new interpretations of the characters, recontectualized as archetypes of the time period. I am also intrigued by the idea of a production of Alice in Wonderland that is styled so the set and costumes evoke the WWII era and a makeshift bunker in the London Tube. I would enjoy both of those shows, but I would not enjoy them together.

I did ultimately like the message the show leaves you with, and I would still say it is worth seeing just for the music and the staging. But this is not a show that is going to be blow up and become the next Hamilton. It has been in the works for 9 years now and is still nowhere near where it should be. The books needs to be more or less thrown out and completely overhauled to have any chance of success. I do hope we get a cast recording though because I did love the music for the most part.

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 2:42pm

A song from the show was posted: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/duncan-sheik-steven-sater-musical-alice-by-heart-afternoon-song-789890/

According to Perfectliar's song list, it's the third to last song in the show.

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 2:53pm

I mean that song....at least record a concept album. If the show doesn't work then fine, but I'm sure the score is really beautiful judging from that song. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 3:18pm

perfectliar said: "I'm interested to know what others thought of Molly Gordon's performance. I found it very, very stilted and dull. About 2/3 of the way through, my mind wandered and I wondered if the show would have improved with a more engaging lead, since Gordon's weaknesses highlighted the weaknesses in the material for me."

I just remembered Molly Gordon is Jessie Nelson’s daughter.... nepotism much? 

[macnyc]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 3:50pm

I wish I had waited for early reactions before buying my tickets to Alice!!!

By the way, I was over at the new MCC theater the other night to see The Light (I highly recommend this, amazing acting), and it is indeed a wonderful space. It was in the smaller theater, of course, and it was beautiful and had good sight lines.

The location is a bit out of the way, though, unless you live in Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, or the Upper West Side. Not many restaurants either, but I think that will change.

 

 

Updated On: 2/5/19 at 03:50 PM

[Ellie'sdad]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 5:20pm

I was reading the comments about the MCC production and, unfortunately, they line up pretty exactly with my comments re: the Vassar workshop last summer.  I was hoping that the script would get over-hauled and the show tightly focused, but it seems that didn't happen.  As I posted originally, the grafting of one complex story onto another complex story renders both stories incomprehensible - and, of course, any drama and any entertainment gets drained away.  Why this originating concept of somehow retelling Alice with parallel characters during the London Blitz seemed attractive at all is mystifying.  Mystifying too is that none of the creatives and none of the producers stepped up and said - "Guys, this isn't working and this beautiful music deserves a story that can work."  I guess when you are working with someone like Duncan Sheik it's difficult to stand up and tell the truth.  But for the sake of everyone, that's a producer's job.  Oh well...

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 8:53pm

Matt Rogers said: "With the exception of a few songs, the music is atonal, and extremely ballad heavy. Most songs will be forgotten the second the band stops playing."

Sounds like Duncan Sheik. I was very tempted with the affordable tickets but I'm glad I decided to skip this one. It sounded like a bad concept for a show and by all reports, they haven't been able to make the two stories mesh.

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 9:43pm

macnyc said: "I wish I had waited for early reactions before buying my tickets to Alice!!!"

I feel your pain. I bought my ticket for Superhero before previews started after loving the video of I’ll Save The Girl. Now I’m seeing the meh reports. I’m still going for the best. I’ll likely not see Choir Boy next week because Superhero took its place. 

I love Sheik’s show scores, but he needs a strong book writer and he so often does not get one. I say that based on loving the revival of Spring Awakening and being so disappointed in Whisper House (but loving the music) when I saw it in London two years ago. I also love the cast recording of American Psycho although I missed seeing the polarizing stage production. 

[LuPita2]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 10:08pm

I was really looking forward to this show.  The music is beautiful, the theater is so nice, but everything else was just a huge mess. Molly is very boring as the lead, she gives nothing in her performance. I found it confusing, as did several people that were around me. I hope they make a cast recording, that is all I can hope for regarding this show.