| QUOTE |
| 'Wonderland' musical to launch in Tampa, with eye on Broadway By John Fleming, Times Performing Arts Critic In Print: Thursday, March 5, 2009 Well, when one's lost, I suppose it's good advice to stay where you are until someone finds you. But who'd ever think to look for me here? — Alice in Wonderland TAMPA — Alice, we have a new question for you: Who would think to look in Tampa for Broadway's next big musical production? The answer, so hopes the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, is the theater-going public. The center will announce today that Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure will open on Dec. 5 and run through Jan. 3, 2010, with the expectation that it would then transfer to Broadway. It's a prestigious, potentially profitable deal for an institution to premiere a show that makes it to Broadway, especially if it goes on to become a hit. New York theater producers would like to have a Florida venue for tryouts. TBPAC, with its large Broadway series subscription base and first-rate technical facilities, could be a good launching pad. "We want the center to be a place where productions for Broadway will be developed," said Judith Lisi, president of TBPAC, which is producing the show through its Broadway Genesis Project. "I'm hoping our audience will be excited to see new work." Wonderland is an adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic, with music by Frank Wildhorn. Set in Manhattan, it tells the story of author Alice Cornwinkle, who is struggling with her career and her daughter, Chloe. "The essence of our version of this story is about the child within, and what happens if you lose the child within," said Wildhorn in a promotional video provided by TBPAC. "Here's a title that is just screaming to be done, but done in a new way.'' Lisi, who likens the show's potential appeal to young women to that of the smash Wicked, first saw performances of several numbers from Wildhorn's show in 2007. Then called Alice, it was workshopped at the Broadway Theatre Project, the program held every summer at the University of South Florida. "I think this is a show that could do some pretty wonderful things," said Debra McWaters, artistic director of the project. "The story is just as clever as can be, and Frank's got some killer music. I think Frank has broken into a place that he hasn't been before with this score." |