The Global Rise of Alice by Heart: Tracking New Productions from the Us to Brazil
By Chloe Bennett
The origins of the musical date back long before its Manhattan bow. Commissioned in 2012 by London’s Royal National Theatre for its Connections youth program, Alice by Heart began as a compact one-act experiment. Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, the collaborative duo behind the eight-time Tony Award-winning phenomenon Spring Awakening, reunited to tackle Lewis Carroll’s 1865 masterwork, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Rather than staging a direct adaptation, they enlisted film director and screenwriter Jessie Nelson to ground the fantasy in historical crisis.
The resulting narrative takes place during the catastrophic London Blitz of 1940. Huddled in an abandoned Underground station transformed into a makeshift triage shelter, teenager Alice Spencer faces the imminent death of her childhood friend Alfred, who is dying of tuberculosis. Alice reads Carroll’s book aloud to stop time. As the bombs rumble overhead, medical staff, shelter wardens, and displaced civilians morph into Carroll's surreal creations: the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts, and the Caterpillar. The London Blitz setting strips the Victorian tale of its decorative playfulness, turning the descent down the rabbit hole into an act of psychological resistance.
Following workshop residencies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Colorado's Theatre Aspen, the production landed at the Newman Mills Theater inside the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space in January 2019. Directed by Nelson with choreography by Rick and Jeff Kuperman, the Off-Broadway production featured a powerhouse cast including Molly Gordon as Alice and Colton Ryan as Alfred. Despite intense audience demand during its extended run through April 2019, commercial Broadway producers hesitated. The grim thematic architecture was deemed a financial liability for commercial tourists.
Chloe Bennett explores the intersection of pop culture, streaming entertainment, digital trends, and contemporary lifestyle. Her weekly commentary reaches thousands of culture enthusiasts.
