Alice in Wonderland (musical)


Alice in Wonderland is a musical pantomime by Henry Savile Clarke, Walter Slaughter and Aubrey Hopwood, based on Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The piece, billed as "A musical dream play in two acts", achieved considerable popularity. At Carroll's request, Slaughter retained 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 Clarke 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, and Mr. Savile Clarke, all deserve unstinted praise." The piece was frequently revived over the next four decades.

Synopsis

Act I, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", is in two scenes: "A Forest in Autumn" and "A Glade in Wonderland". 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." A review in The Theatre summarised the story as follows:

Subsequent productions

The musical was frequently revived during West End Christmas seasons during the four decades after its premiere. London productions were mounted at the Globe Theatre in 1888, with Isa Bowman as Alice; the Opera Comique in 1898; the Vaudeville Theatre in 1900, with some new additional music by Slaughter; the Camberwell Theatre in 1902; the Savoy Theatre in 1908 produced by William Greet; the Savoy in 1910; the Wimbledon Theatre in 1914; the Savoy in 1914; the Duke of York's Theatre in 1915; the Savoy in 1916; the Garrick Theatre in 1921; and the Savoy in 1927.
Adult actors who appeared along with the mainly juvenile casts included Irene Vanbrugh as the Knave of Hearts ; Ellaline Terriss as Alice and Seymour Hicks as the Hatter ; Marie Studholme as Alice ; Dan Leno ; and C. Hayden Coffin as the Hatter.