Wonderland | |
---|---|
Wonderland pre-broadway logo
|
|
Music | Frank Wildhorn |
Lyrics | Jack Murphy |
Book | Jack Murphy Gregory Boyd Ava Eldred (UK adaptation) |
Basis |
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass |
Productions | 2009 Tampa 2010 Houston 2011 Tampa 2011 Broadway 2012 Japan 2013 Portugal 2017 UK Tour |
Wonderland: A New Alice, formerly called Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure, is a musical with a book by Jack Murphy and Gregory Boyd, lyrics by Murphy, and music by Frank Wildhorn. The story, a contemporary version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, is set in New York City and focuses on writer Alice Cornwinkle and her 10-year-old daughter Chloe.
After various workshops and productions of the musical in Tampa, Florida and Houston, Texas, the show premiered on Broadway on April 17, 2011, closing a month later, on May 15, 2011.
Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy previously collaborated on The Civil War, Waiting For The Moon, The Count of Monte Cristo, and the unproduced musical Havana, and have written songs for Linda Eder. Gregory Boyd has directed productions of Wildhorn's Svengali (for which he penned the lyrics), Jekyll & Hyde, and The Civil War (for which he contributed lyrics and dialogue with Murphy).
Wonderland is the first production mounted by the Broadway Genesis Project, whose goal is to help create new theatre works specifically for the Tampa Bay market, after which they may be staged in other performing arts centers or move to Broadway.
Wildhorn began working on the project in the late 1990s. He initially conceived an Alice similar to the one in the 1951 Disney animated feature and envisioned his then-fiancé, Brandi Burkhardt, in the title role, but as time passed, the two ended their engagement, and the role seemed to be passed to another Wildhorn leading lady Lauren Kennedy. In 2005, Wildhorn announced that the musical would premiere in 2006 in Europe, but this did not occur. The show was workshopped starring Burkhardt in the title role in Tampa, Florida in 2007, with a presentation of four songs (these still appear in the show in some form). The project then focused on the scripts, and TBPAC agreed to make the show its first project.