This production had dual casts in principal roles. In the interest of fairness to all, we reviewed both casts. Alan Shepley reviewed the Sugar Cast and Allison Thomas reviewed the Tea Cast.
Sugar Cast
I saw the Sugar cast performing Adelaide Youth Theatre’s production of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland”. Co-Directors (both stage and MD) Holly Abbott and Zara Blight have, to their collective credit, successfully wrangled a large AYT cast. Likewise co- Choreographers Amelia Tyler and Alexia Lakatos have provided the right direction and tuition for movement. The result, for this talented production team of four is a tuneful, energetic and colourful performance of a timeless Alice and her dreamlike adventures in a fantasy land chock-full of wondrous characters. From the minute the White Rabbit came bounding down the aisle the audience knew they were in for a fun show.
Milla Ilic injected her Alice with a liberal dose of confidence and energy that was instantly transmitted to her audience. Her alter sized namesakes “Small”(Adele Binns) and tall (Estelle Anderson) both acquitted themselves to perfection in their many transitions. The Mad Hatter (Noah Magourilos) and his equally crazy companion (Elaynah Magourilos) both vied for attention in the silliness stakes! Their teaparty rendition with the chorus of “Unbirthday Party” was appropriately good raucous fun. The name challenged duo of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (Patrick Green and Olive Maycock respectively) added a touch of slapstick comedy with their knockabout antics. The Caterpillar (Nemanja Ilic) was the epitome of boldness within a package that was both “cool dude” and Alice’s wise counsellor with the ultimate question “Who are you really?” The Caterpillar’s metamorphosis is a metaphor for the theme of Alice striving to discover her real identity.
Cheshire Cats three (Josh Curtis, Olive Kennedy and Samantha Perryman) act as the chorus for Alice’s adventures and their chiming, grinning commentary was consistently delivered. Josh, in particular, demonstrated a little extra comic relish but all three worked well together in both character and voice. A nice little ensemble. The Dodo bird (Zuri Khabwari) lent her voice good and true to the song “Ocean of Tears” and The Flowers of the Golden Afternoon quintet (Sophia Genery, Abby Baptiste, Ayla Sharp, Tessa Richards and Paetyn Slater) were a sassy, chiding and teasing little group. Poor Alice! It’s so hard trying to fit in if you are seen as an outsider. Khushi Choudhari was a fearsome Queen of Hearts and very nearly allowed herself to become a poor loser in a game of “Simon Says” (which really captured the audience’s attention!) Leo Sinclair as her King was the obvious appeaser and peacemaker in that royal household!
Whilst I have made a passing reference to the White Rabbit may I say that Jonathon Siow’s interpretation of his character, his clear diction along with his excellent timing (no pun intended!) made him a well deserved standout performer in this cast. Well done. I cannot name everybody but I need to say that as an ensemble the play worked a treat. It was evident via the concentration of everybody on stage that you all knew what to do and how your contribution was so important to produce such a pleasing end result. Costuming was great, dance moves were well executed and movement of furniture on and off stage was handled smoothly and efficiently.
The Arts Theatre was pretty much full to capacity for the performance I saw and the audience, almost entirely made up of small children, was completely engaged during the performance. Their quiet immersed attention was a barometer on gauging the success of the show. AYT can feel justifiably pleased with this school holiday offering of “Alice in Wonderland”. It was very entertaining.
Tea Cast
Adelaide Youth Theatre’s production of this Disney musical highlighted the main characters and the best parts of the well-known story to a nearly full Arts Theatre at the Saturday matinee of the Tea cast.
Alice’s multiple clever disappearances when she ate the mushroom and reappeared as bigger or smaller, was a key to her query, “Who am I?”
The three Alices were charmingly played by three performers. Reese Holt played Alice. She was a little drowned out by the orchestra in her first song. However, her voice was stronger afterwards, in singing and speaking. Bethany Swift as Small Alice was cute and animated. Tall Alice was played by Elliemay Patterson with aplomb.
Eliza Jackson was the frantic, ever tardy White Rabbit, running through the audience and around the stage. “I’m late, I’m late for a very important date,” was sung in her strong voice.
Zoe Van Pamelen as Mad Hatter and Austin Sammut as the March Hare were colourful and very expressive, especially when they sang and danced and performed “The Unbirthday Song”.
We loved the huge velvet pants of Chelsea Collins as Tweedle Dee and Bailey Wilkinson as Tweedle Dum. (Or was it vice versa?) as they tumbled comically across the stage,
The triple red striped Cheshire cats, Jade Sammut, Eleni Schulze and Alyssa D’Angelo, provided a cheeky narration of the action at times.
The Flowers definitely showed their snotty, aloof attitude well. Sophia Genery was Rose in both casts. However, Marie Fong was Tigerlily, Julia Yan was Petunia, Estelle Holler was Daisy, and Amelia Street was Violet and they performed well as individuals in an exclusive group who rejected and bullied poor Alice.
Rex Broomhall was the gorgeous iridescent Caterpillar who turned into a butterfly and flapped his beautiful wings afterwards.
Last but not, of course, least, the Queen and King of Hearts, Keira Wubbolts and Edward McEwen, were suitably royal and regal. She was loud and demanding, and he was quietly supportive.
The cast was a total of 55 young, multi talented people who sang and danced and enjoyed performing for a rapturous audience. Well done to all involved.
