The History: Alice in Wonderland The Musical

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Research

Alice in Wonderland was first performed as a muscial between 1841-1893 by Henry Saville Clark. The music was produced by Walter Slaughter and Aubrey Hopwwod. The musical was based upon Lewis Carroll's books; 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass.' With the permission of Carroll, Saville created "A musical dream play in two acts"  and it achieved a lot of popularity. Caroll's only request was to retain the old tunes in the parodies, such as "Bonny Dundee"

"The pantomime opened on 23 December 1886 at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London. Phoebe Carlo played Alice. The Theatre wrote in its review, "Alice in Wonderland will not appeal to the children alone. ... Mr. Savile Clark has done wonders. ... The play is beautifully mounted, and splendidly acted, Miss Phœbe Carlo being very successful as the little heroine... she played in a delightful and thoroughly artistic fashion, and in this respect she was closely followed by a tiny mite, Miss Dorothy D'Alcort, who plays first the Dormouse. ... Mr. Edgar Bruce, Mr. Walter Slaughter (who has written some charming music for the piece), and Mr. Savile Clark, all deserve unstinted praise." The piece was frequently revived over the next four decades."

Act I, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", is in two scenes: "A Forest in Autumn" and "A Glade in Wonderland".^[7] Act II, "Through the Looking Glass", consists of four scenes: "Through the Looking Glass"; "The Garden of Live Flowers"; "A Sea-Shore"; and "The Banqueting Hall – The Forest Again."^[7] A review in The Theatre summarised the story as follows:
The story runs glibly, opening with a chorus of fairies surrounding Alice asleep in a chair beneath a tree, from there we progress splendidly, making a new acquaintance with all our old friends, the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, the duchess with her Baby, the Cook with her reckless use of pepper, the Cheshire Cat with his remarkable smile, the Hatter, the Hare, and the Dormouse, who have their perpetual tea party, and treat Alice to conundrums and unconventional rudeness. Then comes a long and brilliant procession, which should fill Alice's heart with awe, if not with admiration, but our heroine is nothing daunted by this large crowd. "Why, they're only a pack of cards," she says, "I needn't be afraid of them?" and so she answers the sanguinary-minded queen of Hearts, in a reckless manner, and refuses to see heads knocked off in such profusion. She then dances with the Cards in a graceful gavotte, and afterwards protects her old friend, the Cheshire Cat, from an undeserved execution. The Gryphon and Mock Turtle then appear, and Alice receives some hints as to a sea education, and the first act of the dream play for children ends with the trial of the Knave of Hearts for eating the tarts, in which Alice's verdict of acquittal is unanimously passed.

 

In the second act, Mr. Savile Clarke takes us to another book, Through the Looking-glass, and Alice is introduced to the chessmen and Chorus, who dance stiffly for her delectation, then the Red Queen gives her some advice after she has spoken to the live flowers, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee appear. She soon makes friends with these massive twins, and pleads hard when they determine to have a mortal combat, but all to no purpose, and so after she has witnessed the greedy Carpenter and Walrus devour their daily portion of oysters, she assists in arming Tweedledum and Tweedledee for the fray. The arrival of a Crow sends the warriors to speedy flight, and Humpty Dumpty appears on his wall, and so the play goes on until we see Alice once more asleep in her chair, and hear her wake to say, "Oh! I've had such a curious dream!"^[6] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_(musical)]

Alice in Wonderland
Original Poster

Music:  Walter Slaughter

Lyrics:  Lewis Carroll, H. Saville Clark,

              and Aubrey Hopwood

Book:    H.Saville Clark

              Lewis Caroll's novels

Basis:    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

               and Through the Looking Glass

               1886 West End

              West End revivals in 1888,

Productions: 1898, 1900, 1910, 1914,

                     1915, 1916, 1921, and 1927

              

        

1898 revival: "

Miss Rose Hersee in Alice in

Wonderland talking to the

White Rabbit"

Performing our audition

When performing our audition, Paris and I considered the following:

• Costumes
• Scenery
• Choreography
• Character and attitude

COSTUMES
We studied the video carefully at the costumes that Sharpay and Ryan wore. I was a representation of Sharpay and Paris of Ryan. We saw how flambouyant and over the top Sharpay's dress was, so we picked a colour scheme-green and decided to accesorise ourselves to look as crazy as our characters.

SCENERY
Although we knew we wouldn't have scenery for our audition, we thought about what kind of props we could use to enhance our performance: We liked the idea of using a ladder like Sharpay and ryan to signify reaching for the top. We also liked the idea of using hats as props, since Ryan loves them so much, we could have choreographed a routine with the hats, or have Ryan doing a solo.

CHOREOGRPAHY
We decided that we want the choreogrpahy to be very cheesy and relate to most of the words in the song, such as, 'slip and slide' etc. We used the choreography in the video as our inspiration and recylced it to interpret it in the way we felt about the song.

CHARACTER AND ATTITUDE
As I was going to be representing Sharpay, I had to study her role and how she comes across to all the other characters in the film. She is a very confident and big headed person who thinks a lot of herself, and this is how I had to act whilst performing the song. She likes to take centre stage all the time, and be the centre of attention. Her character is dominant throughout the film.

Sharpay and Ryan

SHARPAY

• Bossy
• Demanding
• Patronising
• Has to have total control
• Loves drama and performing
• Wealthy
• Spoilt
• Popular

RYAN

• Dim-witted
• Famous for his hats
• Submissive towards Sharpay
• Likeable
• Loves drama and baseball
• Wealthy

Preparing for an audition

Now that we have learnt to sing and dance at the same time, I need to apply all the skills that I have learnt to my audition.
I have decided to do a duet with Paris. We've decided that we are going to sing 'Bop to the top' by Sharpay and Ryan from 'High School Musical'.
We specifically chose this song because it's fun and cheesy and energectic, and it kind of reflects our personalities.


The purpose of this performance in the film is to act as an audition. Sharpay and Ryan are furious when they realise how good the new girl is at singing, and find out that she is entering the school musical with Wildcats popular Captain troy Bolton. Sharpay and Ryan are determined to perform at the school musical, and be the stars of the show. However they don't like the idea of other people wanting to perform at the show as they feel threatened by them. The song 'Bop to the Top' is their way of expressing how they feel, and their determination to reach the top and be the best.

Performing a Song

Now that we have learnt the words and have sang to 'All that Jazz', we have a feel to the song in terms of what the message is, and what genre it and how it makes us feel.
The message that I obtain from this song is seduction.-Sexy and classy. I think it makes you feel important because you are a female, and the woman's voice in the song can be coarse at times and very bold and imperative throughout the song.

Our task for the next few weeks is to get into small groups and choreograph sections of the song that our groups will sing. My group has been selected to choreograph the first verse of the song and in doing so combine the singing with the dancing.

All That Jazz

Throughout the weeks, our class has been rehearsing the song, 'All that Jazz' from the musical 'Chicago.'
It has been a challenge for me because, it has helped me understand how to read music sheets: In this song there is a main singer and then back up vocals whose lyrics are also on the music sheet, so it is important that when we are reharsing we are concentrating to sing the song correctly and get the full effect.
The last part of the song is the most confusing because all the vocals are fused together singing different lyrics at the same time, and it's hard to sing and know what lines you are singing without being distracted from all the other vocals.

Vocal Warm Up Exercises

At the beginning of every class, we take part in various singing exercises to warm up the throat and to use our breath as a way of controlling how long we can hold a note. It is essential that we do these techniques to ensure that our vocal chords are well stretched and prepared to take on the challenging singing exercises that lay ahead.


These are a few examples of some of the exercises that we engage in:
-Breathing in for 4, holding for 4 and releasing for 8 through a ee or aaaa sound
-The balloon exercise; sucking in air like a balloon and releasing as long as you can. (This exercise is all about learning to control your breath)
-Be Banana exercise (singing different notes)
-Tongue twister exercises
-Scale singing
-Lip Trill
-Humming


These exercises are fun and educational, and have helped me learn the importance of these warm ups. They have helped me how to use my voice to its best potential.