Customer Reviews

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (Broadway Theatre Archive)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fantastic television performance of the Eva LeGallienne adaptation of Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, featuring the 1982 Broadway revival staging by director Kirk Browning. Richard Addinsell's lovely score highlights the production with fine performances all around, headed by Kate Burton who gives Alice a sassy, modern sensibility. LeGallienne's version (which premiered in 1933 and was first revived in 1947) throws the stories and characters of "Wonderland" and "Looking Glass" together, creating a veritable kaleidoscope of colour and whimsy.

The cast is truly impressive including - Colleen Dewhurst's manic and imposing Red Queen; the befuddled White Queen of Maureen Stapleton; Nathan Lane plays the waterlogged Mouse as a tango-dancing lothario; Kaye Ballard as the baby-beating Duchess; Geoffrey Holder as a sinuous, seductive Cheshire Cat; and Donald O'Connor as the soft-shoe Mock Turtle.

Perhaps most poignant is Richard Burton, playing the melancholy White Knight. His scene with real-life daughter Kate is very touching, and his performance of the White Knight's bittersweet "A-Sittin' on a Gate", one of the truly great songs in Addinsell's score, is a highpoint of the whole production. The actual story of Alice is bookended by a nervous young actress about to star in her very first leading role. The saga of Alice herself provides a nice counterpoint as Lewis Carroll's heroine also must face her fears if she can ever return home.

Truly a production to savour and a rare treat for all theatre and Lewis Carroll admirers.

I have studied Carroll, I have researched the 'Alice' stories, and I have even directed a successful production of the very same Eva LeGallienne script, and I was very excited to see this production available on DVD. I was hoping to see if a big budget could make sense of a theatrical script that doesn't really work. Please don't get me wrong...Ms. LeGallienne's script is by far the most true to the original stories. Ms. LeGallienne's script pulls out of the original stories only the most important characters and qualities, but the script itself still lacks the thread that creates one complete story, and unfortunately this production chops away even further by ommitting key transitional moments leaving only the major scenes.

Did I enjoy it? Absolutely! The design was gorgeous. The characters and the scenery seemed to have been lifted from the pages of Teniel's illustrations and brought to life. There were so many brilliant moments. Most notably the aloof and condescending Catepillar, the doughy-faced Dutchess, Stapleton's flighty White Queen, the academic snobbery of Humpty, and Lane's neurotic Mouse. I also have to add, I completely disagree with another reviewer's opinion of Arden's Queen of Hearts. I felt that her understated, and underplayed Queen was a brilliant choice. Remember, screaming does not an actor make. Her insincerity and aloofness is the perfect mirror image of Victorian royalty. And the insuated affair between the Knave and Queen of Hearts kept me laughing for hours! Bravo! I am also sorry to say that I was disappointed with Burton's Alice. She completely lacked the sensitivity and sensibilities of a 7 year old. She played Alice as an adult instead of Alice attempting to act as an adult.

Overall, I highly recommend this for anyone who loves 'Alice'. Despite the problems with the script, it is by far the most true adaptation of the stories, and one worth owning.

Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy of wonder and weirdness, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, has long been a favorite subject of both playwrights and screenwriters to adapt. From the all star Paramount classic of the 30's with Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle to the wild colors of the Disney cartoon, this story has been very difficult for writers to get a solid handle on. Part of the reason is the mere episodic nature of the story, as Alice flits from one wacky character to the next. This version, based on a 1984 theatre revival, is only partly successful. The costumes and sets wonderfully recall the original illustrations of John Tenniel, and Kate Burton makes for a winsome and witty Alice. Unfortunately, some of the performances seem almost too laid-back for a show that should demand high energy. For example, Eve Arden's Queen of Hearts, instead of being overtly furious and bloodthirsty in her "Off with her head" tirades, comes across as merely slightly miffed!!! It also doesn't help that James Cocoa's King of Hearts has no personality whatsoever. Andre Gregory's Mad Hatter is likewise handicapped. However, there are some performances that do convey a better spirit of the story and inject life into this production. Geoffrey Holder makes for a regal and slightly sinister Cheshire Cat. A young Nathan Lane is a wonderfully skittish Mouse, while Fritz Weaver makes for a sage Caterpillar. Donald O'Conner soft-shoes his merry way as a light-footed Mock Turtle. Bookended with a back-story concerning an actress (Ms. Burton) getting ready for her first big production, this production is both literate and a treat for the eye. However, this production misses that vital spark of energy that keeps a merely good production from being a great one. However, if you love theatre, this one is worth your time.

I first watched this when my grandmother taped it off of PBS in 1983. I watched it over and over again as a child. Not too long ago, I tried to find the tape and couldn't, so I tracked it down on a Broadway archive site. I have the VHS version, not the DVD - but would like to have the DVD also.
The sets, costumes and actors make this production very interesting. I love the costumes more than any other Alice interp. (theater or t.v. production) They look like they just jumped off of the pages of Carroll's book.
If you are an Alice in Wonderland freak like me, you will appreciate this even more!

I remember watching this on PBS when I was a kid and I was so excited to see this on DVD. It's a great production with a great cast. I like that the play features both Alice in Wonderland AND Through the Looking Glass. As a Lewis Carroll fan I was happy to see how closely the play follows the books.

The play is based on two books by Lewis Carroll "Alice's Adventures Underground" and "Through the Looking-glass." There have been several presentations, each with it own strength or weakness. This is a 1993 TV presentation of which you can see that lots of time and energy went in to it,

We go through the story at light speed only to slow down for a few badly placed songs. This presentation should be an embarrassment to everyone involved. However if you did not know any better a log of Lewis Carroll's humor and way with words comes through. There is a little television trickery that actually helps the presentation.

You would think with such a great cast that it could not fail:
Kate Burton as Alice (at 26 years old)
Austin Pendleton as White Rabbit
Richard Burton as White Knight
James Coco as King of Hearts
Tony Cummings as Knave of Hearts
Alan Weeks as Tweedledee
André De Shields as Tweedledum
Eve Arden as Queen of Hearts
Maureen Stapleton as White Queen
Colleen Dewhurst as Red Queen
Andre Gregory as Mad Hatter
Geoffrey Holder as Cheshire Cat
Zeljko Ivanek as March Hare
Nathan Lane as Mouse
Donald O'Connor as Mock Turtle
Swen Swenson as Gryphon
Fritz Weaver as Caterpillar
Richard Woods as Humpty-Dumpty

Bottom line this presentation takes an effort to get trough.

Best of Henry Kuttner

The Last Mimzy (Widescreen Infinifilm Edition)

this version of alice in wonderland was not so great. the only good thing in this version was the girl you played alice. thats pretty much it. if you have not seen this movie then i recommend you don't.

I still have the 1947 RCA cast recording of the original LaGallienne production, transferred from 78 RPM discs to a CD. It has never been reissued in any other format even as a historical document/ The sound is adequate and perhaps better than I can hear in my worn copy). In an earlier review of this DVD, another friend of Alice writes: "Richard Addinsell's lovely score highlights the production with fine performances all around." When I owned this DVD, I found Addinsell's indeed lovely score to have been badly reorchestrated and generally cheapened in presentation and performance.

Since I have known this adaptation of the Alice books since childhood and can recite and sing most of the original from memory, I was greatly saddened and disappointed by the 1982 reduction and adaptation. I currently own eight DVD or Blue-Ray versions (ranging from pleasantly adequate to brilliant) of Alice, but this is not among them. I sold my copy after watching it several times and trying to find something to like in it. Well, yes, the stage setting is well done. That's it. Beyond that, I rank it along with the cheap cartoon versions made for children's TV as neither witty nor wonderful. Both members of the Burton family miss the mark, she by her adult manner and papa by his gross overacting.

Lacking any availability of a recording of LaGallienne's production as she conceived it, I rejoice in the wit, wonder, and calculated Victorian wackiness of Jonathan Miller's 1967 adaptation (with Peter Sellers, John Gielgud, and Peter Cook, among other superb British actors) for the BBC available on DVD Alice in Wonderland. I recommend it to any who are interested in or fascinated by Lewis Carroll's Alice books. I note also that in the early 1950s there was what I recall as a quite faithful presentation of the 1947 production as adapted for television's Hallmark Hall of Fame - but of course those were the days of kinoscope and as far as I know no visual or aural record remains of that broadcast.

I am a HUGE Nathan Lane fan. The only reason I bought this was for Nathan Lane and he (and the rest of the cast) is fantastic! The woman who played Alice (whos name for some reason I can't remember) isn't good. Nathan Lane is the highlight. Very good and a must have for any theatre or Nathan Lane fan.

This particular "Alice" has a long history. It started as a hit play in the early '40s, was resurrected in the late '70s with Kate Burton in the title role, and then ported to Great Performances on PBS - the latter of which is what we have here on DVD. Presumably it worked a little better on stage, and probably a little better in the '40s, too. Sadly, it runs through both "Alice" stories in a breakneck 90 minutes' time, and much of the acting is truly lamentable - some of the actors are so bad, I actually thought that might be an intentional joke, as with Austin Pendleton's monotonistic White Rabbit! Probably the best of them are Donald O'Connor - the only one of the lot who can actually sing! - as the Mock Turtle, Geoffrey Holder as the Cheshire Cat, and Richard Burton as the White Knight. The tea party crew is fairly good as well. The rest...well, the sooner forgotten about, the better.

Despite the acting, the sets and costumes are gorgeous - they're mostly made (with the exception of the Cat) to look like Tenniel woodcuts. That makes it quite a visual treat, if nothing else. This isn't the worst "Alice" I've seen, but it's not very high on my list. Still, it has enough good points it's probably worth a rental on a rainy week...just don't expect anything too incredible.