http://broadwayworld.com/article/Mason_Sne...nouced_20090811


"The principal cast in this world premiere musical includes Julie Brooks (Fiddler on the Roof national tour) as Chloe, Janet Dacal (In the Heights, Good Vibrations) as Alice, EuGene Fleming (Fosse) as The caterpillar, Jose Llana (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) as El Gato, Karen Mason (Sunset Boulevard, Mamma Mia!) as the Queen of Hearts, Darren Ritchie (Dracula: The Musical) as Jack/White Knight, Nikki Snelson (Legally Blonde) as the Mad Hatter and Ed Staudenmayer (Forbidden Broadway) as the Rabbit.

The ensemble includes Tad Wilson, who will also take on the featured role of the Jabberwock, along with Grady Bowman, Sae La Chin, Dan Domenech, Mallauri Esquibel, Lori Eure, Derek Ferguson, Wilkie Ferguson, Ashley Galvan, Laura Karklina, Autumn Hurlburt, Rachel Markarian, Mary Mossberg, Julius Anthony Rubio, Melinda Sullivan, Chelsea Traille and Danny Stiles.

This entire company, along with the recently announced creative team, will begin rehearsals in Tampa on Oct. 12."

I'm actually glad that Darren Ritchie is back! Not necessarily happy about ALL of it, but it's not as bad as I thought. Just not as great as the possibilities with that workshop cast back in March! (Kennedy/Silverman/Murney/etc.)

More @ The Link

I just came across that article too. It points to a blog post which adds this comment from Murphy: "The casting didn't so much change things as focus things"

I saw a snippt of the script that someone psted on here, and it says the opening deals with looking at the classic Alice in cartoon-ish image...I know I may sound a bit extreme, but do you think Dacal will be in a blonde wig?

I like how they attempted (but failed) to get some sort of recognition for the fact that they casted a latina - I think the only thing Frank did with his last comments was make people more worried about it, so hopefully it really doesn't change the story!

Nikki Snelson as the Mad Hatter? Hmph. She's a fantastic dancer and good actor (both important for this role), but I did not like her singing voice in Legally Blonde.

Agreed - Wonder why Tracy Miller isn't involved - maybe this role is much bigger dancing than many thought?!

I have to say though that one's not a surprise - she's been doing work on it since November atleast. I just wonder where people like Karen Mason and Darren Ritchie came from for these roles! Someone from another Broadway message board claims that all the people from the workshop were given the chance to re-audition or withdraw form the project.

So I'm getting the feeling that this may not afterall be headed for Broadway - especially if they're making a concept album now? Wouldnt that be dumb if you were transfering to Broadway, when you'll probably make a new Original Broadway Cast Recording?

Here's the workshop cast, just a thought - all the people who stayed probably dont have anything on their radar for Broadway at the moment:

Lauren Kennedy (Alice) - Rumoredly has been auditioning for Shrek, although I can't personally confirm this.
Ryan Silverman (White Knight) - Phantom of the Opera now
Sean McCourt (White Rabbit) - ? Not sure hah
Julie Brooks (Chloe) - She looks WAY Too old to play a 10-year old, but nothing else going on.
Julia Murney (Queen) - I feel like she wouldnt do this unless it went to B'way right away?
Nikki Snelson (Mad Hatter) - Nothing else going on haha
Sean Palmer (El Gato) I feel like she wouldnt do this unless it went to B'way right away?
John Treacy Egan (Jabberwock/ensemble) - ?

Just a thought .... because that workshop cast is phenom.

Not really. Several of Frank's shows had concept albums released before they premiered (Jekyll & Hyde, Scarlet Pimpernel, Civil War, Count of Monte Cristo, etc.). A lot of shows do it so people can get a glimpse of the music-- it's good publicity! So I don't think that's any indication if Wonderland is broadway-bound or not.

That workshop cast really is fantastic. I hope they're the ones on the concept album! I'm a little discouraged that there hasn't been any news on the concept album lately.

Give it time. If they've said they're doing it, they'll get around to it at some point.

No no..I know that. But I mean why release a concept album in the fall, let's say, and then open on Broadway in the Spring? It just seems dumb...maybe they'll just call it "The World Premiere Cast Recording," if they are going to re-do it. J&H's concepts were 7 & 3 years...and SP was 5/6 years...


I put this in the Concept Album thread, but I'll post it here too:

"I was in contact with someone NOT officially connected to the project in any way creatively (or that I know of), so take this for whatever you want, but he said they are officially working on it now - a statement came his way that said (among other things): "Thanks for your support of Wonderland and all of Frank's projects. You will be happy to know that a concept recording of Wonderland is in the works and will include some of the material and performers from the demo recordings.""

Both Kennedy and Burkhardt have recorded Wonderland tracks, but I assume they wouldnt re-record stuff like The Caterpillar Song and Mad Hatter/etc. We'll see!

Weren't "The Scarlet Pimpernel" OBC and Encore! recordings released in close proximity to each other? If that's the case, they might repeat that process here.

I think OBC was something like February 1998 and ENcore was much later - December 1999?

I'm saying it couldn't be done, it just doesn't make sense why they'd do a full concept to have a Bway cast album next year.

And why should the show transfer imidiatly to B'way? They can premiere it in Florida, move to Texas and then either move it to another town or just spend some more time working flaws before premiering on B'way ;)

(although I pretty much hope they don't touch the scripts...'cause judging by J&H and Dracula that's not a great idea...lol :P )

yikes this cast is pretty tough, looks like frank has lost almost all of his credibility and pull in the theater world(at least the US) I suppose we'll never see anyone on the same level of what he used to get; Terrence Mann, James Barbour, Linda Eder, Brandi Burkhardt, Chuck Wagner, Douglas Sills etc

Well, yes, there's always that. Personally, I think this will pan out more like "Jekyll & Hyde" except, this time, I hope they keep Gregory on as director. He's great and deserves his dues on Broadway.

Also, wasn't "Rudolf" weakened a bit between Budapest and Vienna? I've never seen either production.

Yes. Though a "bit" is being nice :P For some weird reason they decided to butcher the script in Vienna, and apparently for the DVD they decided to butcher a little further and even more songs were cut. :angry: