Author’s Note
This is a post I initially penned last year, but never quite got around to finishing because, well, there was no way anyone could see it as the production had closed and there are usually a number of years between when it’s produced again. However, now you can stream it via the WTTW website!
Those around me know I’m a curmudgeon when it comes to ALICE IN WONDERLAND. It’s not because I believe Lewis Carroll’s story is overrated trash best left in the past. That would be foolish. It is a brilliant foundational text; a complex piece that entertains and enlightens no matter your age.
However, I do feel that referencing ALICE hallmarks are often used as an artistic crutch. Someone slaps a ‘DRINK ME’ tag into a work or mentions ‘rabbit hole’ and it’s meant as a wink and then all of the sudden the work takes on a deeper meaning without having to imbue your own.
So, last year when I read that Chicago’s LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE was reviving their signature take on ALICE IN WONDERLAND — LOOKINGGLASS ALICE — I reluctantly resigned myself to attending, albeit to their final performance on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was surrounded by painted-up wide-eyed youths and then I remembered that oh, right, ALICE IN WONDERLAND is first and foremost a cautionary tale for youths, one that’s mostly been reappropriated by adults for the reasons listed above.
Like I said: I am a curmudgeon.
If you aren’t familiar with LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE, it’s a relatively small but celebrated Tony-award winning theatre. It can accommodate a few hundred folks and is located in downtown Chicago, in the infamous Chicago Water Tower, part-and-parcel of the legacy of the Great Chicago Fire that razed most of the city. However, the limestone-constructed Water Tower survived.
LOOKINGGLASS is a theater-in-the-round in a maximal way; they don’t constrain themselves to the main floor, but frequently utilize the entire space, weaving their way through the audience to the rafters before sinking into the subterranean basement.
As you might suspect by the name, LOOKINGGLASS ALICE is “one of their signature shows”, and what a show it is. Not only is it extraordinarily physical and features numerous upbeat songs, it is often very melancholy, even when reveling in acrobatics and circus spectacle and elaborate, inventively whimsical costumes.
There’s one scene where Alice ascends before going down the rabbit hole and the actor grabs and grapples through three tiers of rope, all swinging and twisting and twirling and contorting herself while singing at the same time. It is jaw-dropping and intensely emotion and satisfyingly effective.
While the production traffics in a lot of expertly crafted kid-pleasing numbers that some might find abrasive and somewhat puerile — such as ones from TweedleDee/TweedleDumb and The Caterpillar — those numbers serve to heighten the reflective bits.
One personal note: there’s a scene where the White Night is talking to Alice. He removes his elaborate helmet and hands it a front-row audience member. For that final performance, I just happened to be that audience member.
After three months of very sweaty performances, it was very fragrant. Also, it was very warm.
The White Knight exits the scene and doesn’t return for some time and when he does, he climbs onto an extremely tall unicycle, riding around the stage all while talking at Alice.
After holding the helmet for a good ten or fifteen minutes, I wondered whether it was a production error because, again: final performance, Sunday afternoon. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen performers flub a line or miss a mark or be visibly hungover during the last show.
You can find out for yourself whether it was or was not an error, and you don’t even have to visit Chicago or even leave your house to do so! Our local PBS station WTTW aired a finely produced live-with-audience production of LOOKINGGLASS ALICE that was recorded last year. You can stream it at the WTTW site!