"Alice in Wonderland Jr." The Empress Theatre

This is Entertainment Blogcast. We are taking reviews, blogging, and promotions to the next level. We offer a variety of audio options from blogcast reviews of your event to audio promotions that can be played from mobile devices, tablets, and computers. No matter where you are, you will always have a way to hear the latest updates with all things entertainment. We also offer promotional opportunities for show sponsors or small businesses, contact us if you want to get your name out there. Per request, we have now included the written version of our reviews for all our listeners who prefer to read. I had the opportunity to check out Alice in Wonderland Jr. at the Empress Theatre in Magna, Utah. The Empress Theatre has been running the Empress Youth Theatre, or EYT, program for a couple of years now. The focus of this program is to take kids into the realm of theatre and to teach them aspects of theatre over summer vacation. They explore how to audition, sing, dance, act, do tech work, all the fun aspects of theatre. Together, they produce a show and the kids are involved in the entire process. A lot of the kids in this production were in shows with me when they were a bit younger, and they told me that they have the best time doing theatre all summer long!

 Jumping into the topic of Alice in Wonderland, let us first talk about the story. For those of you who aren’t familiar, the story follows a little girl named Alice and her adventure through a world much different than our own. The musical follows the movie with Alice discovering a little white rabbit who is very late for an important date. Alice meets the Cheshire Cat, a Mad Hatter, an angry Queen, and a full cast of colourful creatures, all of different shapes and sizes. Right as things get ugly in wonderland, Alice has woken up from a dream and realizes that Wonderland was all in her head….or was it? I went to the Saturday evening show on August 24th, during the Magna Arts Festival. There were a lot of booths out there, hopefully those in the Magna community got to enjoy the festival! The Empress Theatre requested that we only send in one review for this show, so it’ll just be me again for this instalment. The show started with 72 children entering the stage for the first number. Sasha Nugter played Alice in this production, and she portrayed Alice as a very naive girl, a little klutzy, and very chipper. This worked because it sort of brought a modern feel to Alice and I think that is what the show was aiming for. The music in the movie is remembered by anyone who listens to it, but the music of Alice In Wonderland Jr. gives off a sort of Kidz Bop feel to it. I didn’t mind the new music that was added for the show. The Empress Theatre isn’t that big of a space, and voices carry, but the music and mic levels were so loud that all the kids would be drowned out, and all dialog said during the song was lost. The program didn’t mention a sound designer, so I’m assuming that the show didn’t have one. The other technical complaint that I had was the lighting of the show. Curtis Bailey was the light designer, and I’m sorry to say this, but it was just too dark. Some of the stairs that the actors were standing on during certain scenes were not all lit, so the performers had to basically perform in the dark. The kids performed their songs well, and props go out to Michelle Davis, their Music Director, and Jamie Victor, their vocal coach for being able to get 72 kids to sing in harmony with one another. The set was one of my favorite parts of the show! Logan Gifford gave us a set that could be moved and changed to fit the individual scenes. Kids would use stumps for many different types of furniture, and the upper level of The Empress really helped when it came to scene changes. The energy of the show seemed to be that of a church sideshow or a childrens program. This was fine in a children’s theatre production, but in some situations, it seemed as if the kids were doing things only because they were told to do so. I understand that creating your own motivation comes with time, but the energy of the show would go down when you have a group of kids, where some, really know what their song is about, and then have others who were just singing for the sake of singing.

 On a more positive note, one of my favorite things with the production of Alice in wonderland Jr. was the way they would make Alice change sizes on stage. “Small Alice” was played by Mikayla Devries, who was a much younger girl, only about half the size of Sasha Nugter’s Alice. Her squeaky voice added to the illusion that she was tinier than everything around her. She did a great job and made the audience smile! The opposite “tall Alice” was played by Samuel Birge. This boy was absolutely hilarious, and nearly twice the size of the “normal Alice”. I was laughing every time he came out on stage! He really captivated the audience and made them want more. Some other memorable characters were; the White Rabbit, played by Thomas Rowe, the Twins: Dum and Dee, played by Tom Roche and Kiersten Whatcott, and the gang of flower sisters who gave us a 1950’s feel of the show, all of those girls were very talented dancers. Speaking of dancing, I have to tip my hat to Andrea Fife for her direction and choreography of the show. I’ve seen her work before, and she keeps getting better and better with every show! The show ended Act 1 with a surprise song: “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”. I think the adults enjoyed that number the most, as it took us back to when we were all young little whipper snappers. The children looked like they had the most fun with that number, and the song was so much fun with the “hippie caterpillar”, Lindsey Woodward leading the vocals!
Act 2 took us to the crazy tea party with the Mad Hatter, played by Warren Tharp, and the March Hare, played by Zachary Linnett. Both of them gave us characters that were funny and enjoyable to watch. I especially liked how they destroyed the White Rabbit’s clock! We finally reach the Queen’s castle where all of the cards are painting the roses red. Reeve Sikalis, who played The Queen of Hearts, stepped out onto stage and instantly demanded the attention of all those in the audience. She was very strong and very ill tempered. She fit the role perfectly!

Overall, the show had a couple of hiccups, but was very enjoyable! The entire production was just over an hour long, with a 10 minute intermission. The kids had so much fun and carried their energy through to the end. This was especially impressive, considering the kids had just finished a matinee performance 2 hours prior. This is a fun production, great for the entire family. The Empress Theatre will be playing Alice in Wonderland Jr. until the 9th of September; every Friday, Saturday, and Monday nights at 7:30pm. Tickets are $10, and can be purchased at the theatre, located on 9104 West 2700 South, in Magna, Utah 84044. You can also purchase tickets by calling 801-347-7373, or by going online to empresstheatre.com. Make sure that you purchase your tickets quickly because the show is selling fast! That’ll wrap it up for us this time around. Remember that if you want a review of your event or venue give us a call at (609) 616-BLOG or email us at blogcastmyshow@gmail.com. We also offer a promotional package and adverstisemnt spots for your sponsors. Whether your event be a play or a new album coming out, we want to promote you. We also encourage you to like our facebook page Entertainment Blogcast and subscribe to our blog. We are always looking for new blogcasters to join us on our shows and tell us what they think of the show we are reviewing. As always our slogan is: “Get entertainment that last, with Entertainment Blogcast.” Until next time, see ya later blogcasters.

Script Written by: Victoria Cormack
Performer(s): Jeremy Heaps

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