Wonderland: Sunderland Empire

MUCH of the Empire is looking wondrous these days following a recent refurbishment. But this new musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s dream-dystopia has mangled the original, reducing an ephemeral, richly surreal classic into a plate of tired old jam tarts.

It’s been updated. This means Alice is a middle-aged divorcee who enjoys a fragile relationship with reality and it’s not just her who disappears down the Rabbit lift, but her daughter and drippy neighbour Jack (Stephen Webb) as well. So, potential love interest, in a story which is not about love. First of many problems. This lacks the darkness, the grotesque Englishness, the petulant humour of the original. Even the names of the new characters have been seemingly introduced at random. If Alice must have a Saffy-like daughter, could she not at least be called Dinah?

The set looks good enough – a huge spiralling rabbit hole and some large pieces of set – the iconic tea table, a curiously enticing looking (and speaking) glass. They’ve gone a bit laser-crazy with the lighting. But the remainder neither pays effective homage to the original, nor offers a coherent rewriting.

Our Mad Hatter starts off vaguely wacky and unfortunately gets much more stage time than the imperious Queen of Hearts (Wendi Peters). Peters is a gorgeously domineering stage presence and channels a very welcome sense of the original – until endless lines about jam tarts.

Frank Wildhorn’s score is slick, glossy, memorable – some of these feel like numbers which will enjoy a life beyond this show. But ultimately, they have tried to do a Wicked on Alice, but what they have created is a curious mess.

* Runs until Saturday, February 4. Box Office: atgtickets.com/sunderland or 0844-871-3022

Sarah Scott