Alice by Heart, which opened at The Dio last night, is a rare sort of musical. An Alt-Rock take on Alice in Wonderland by the “Spring Awakening” crew of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater (Jessie Nelson is also an additional writer). It has a lovely score of ballads and more upbeat rock numbers, and manages to tell the basic story quite well in an intermission-less 1:45. But its not an easy marriage.
Set in a London bomb shelter during nightly blitzes in WWII, Alice (Alexa Huss, wonderful in the part) tells tuberculosis-ailing Alfred (Kolbe Pierzynowski, also a very strong actor) her favorite book, which she has memorized by heart, and it is acted out in fantasy form including all the denizens of the bomb shelter – complete with occasional bombings and shakings. Alfred himself takes on the role of the White Rabbit (get it, he’s running out of time?). In telling the tale, things take on a more serious air as it becomes apparent that Alfred is, indeed, running out of time.
The score is similar to that of Spring Awakening and even ends with a similar ballad “Winter Blooms” which looks more optimistically toward a better tomorrow (“Purple Summer” redux). And therein lies the disconnect in this musical — set in 1941, an era in which specific musical rhythms and beats are so inherent in our collective recall of big bands and sentimental sing-alongs, the score invokes none of that and that leaves it sometimes clashing with the setting. Not a huge deal, but an uneasy marriage. I personally just love this score but you have to buy-into the alt-rock approach.
Matthew Tomich’s set is appropriately gloomy when in the bomb shelter, and brightly neon lit during the fantasy Wonderland sequences. The 5-piece band under musical director Frank E. Pitts leadership sounds fantastic, and twice its size. Steve DeBruyne directs with particular creativity.
The entire cast is terrific and create vivid characters throughout the production, playing both people in the shelter (some literally losing their minds from the bombing, some having literally lost sense of day or night), as well as the Wonderland characters.
Particularly outstanding is Ash Moran as Red Cross Nurse/Queen of Hearts with her soaring vocals and ability to range from hilarious to dead serious in the drop of a playing card.
Working as a true ensemble, you’ll have your favorites: Alexander Cousins, James Fischer, Lily Gechter, Anthony Pierzynowski, Annabel Pulman, Maddie Ringvelski, Xavier Sarabia, Kylie Scarpace, and Antonio Vettraino.
Overall, it’s a lovely evening out, including a delicious dinner (and cookies!!) and a great look at a modern musical (2019) which The Dio is doing first, but which you will no doubt be seeing a lot of in the coming years (it’s soaring in high school and college musical rentals). You will also most likely find yourself searching out a download of the cast recording afterwards. Appropriate for 13 and up (drug use and occasional strategic use of cursing). Younger audiences should be familiar with the characters of Alice Through the Looking Glass before taking them to see this show, or they will be lost.
Highly Recommended.
Alice by Heart continues through May 12th at The Dio in Pinckney. Tickets at diotheatre.com or 517-672-6009
Mostly Musical Theatre 
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