Adapted from Lewis Carroll’s iconic children’s novel, Wonderland the Musical will take your audience on an absurd adventure that will ignite the imaginations of children and parents alike. Follow Alice as she falls down the rabbit hole, takes part in nonsense games and frustrating tea parties, and narrowly avoids losing her head!

Capturing the illogical brilliance of Carroll’s original text and featuring eleven original songs composed by our contributing writer, Kate Belcher, this article dives into discovering when your students would love Wonderland the Musical as their next summer show!

What’s the Show About?

Spoilers ahead!

At the start of this primary school musical, Alice escapes the boredom of her parents’ dinner party by sneaking into the garden, where she encounters the White Rabbit. As she follows the flustered rabbit around the garden, she trips and tumbles down a hole, which takes her straight to Wonderland.

Finding herself trapped in a corridor of doors, Alice spies a beautiful garden through the keyhole of a door she is much too big to enter. Following the advice of a talking Key and Table, Alice drinks from a bottle and shrinks to the size of the door, only to realise she can no longer reach the Key on the Table. After more prompting, Alice eats a cake and returns to her regular size.

Alice sobs in frustration, and the corridor floods with her tears. Strange animals are carried on the current of her tears, and after calming Alice down, they convince her to join them in their Caucus Race. While there is no clear winner, all the animals demand prizes before disappearing into Wonderland.

Now alone, Alice wanders further into Wonderland until she meets the Caterpillar, sitting on a large mushroom. Alice eats some of the mushrooms and grows once more, finding herself standing outside the Duchess’s house. Inside the Head Cook is preparing a peppery soup, while the Duchess tries to calm her crying baby. After witnessing the Duchess’ baby turn into a pig, Alice leaves the house and encounters the Cheshire Cat, who directs her towards the Mad Hatter.

Bombarded by riddles from the Hatter and March Hare, Alice becomes frustrated and decides to leave. Finding some more in her pockets, she eats it, but this time it shrinks, arriving suddenly in the Queen of Hearts’ garden. As some frightened Playing Cards hurriedly paint the white roses red, the Queen storms into the garden and demands that Alice join her in a game of croquet.

The Queen takes a shine to Alice and introduces her to the Mock Turtle, who starts teaching her about a dance beloved by the inhabitants of Wonderland. The Mock Turtle is interrupted by the Knave of Hearts’ trial, but the nonsensical proceedings only serve to frustrate Alice once more. As she releases her frustrations, all the Wonderland characters disappear and Alice is returned to her parents’ party.

Making Wonderland The Musical

Originally published over 160 years ago, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is an English literary classic, beloved by children and adults around the world. Its iconic classic and nonsensical plot has inspired numerous adaptations and iterations across numerous mediums, from television and film, theme parks and video games, to ballet, opera and musical theatre.

When contributing member to our writing team, Kate Belcher, was approaching her adaptation, she was met with the same challenge faced by generations of writers that came before her: how do you capture the madness and absurdity of Alice in Wonderland without compromising the cohesion of your production?

Her solution was to think about the audience. When a child is reading or being read the original book, they experience Wonderland through Alice, so it stands to reason that a theatre audience would similarly look to Alice to gauge the impact of each Wonderland encounter and how they changed her character. In the hope of emphasising these changes, Kate decided to write not one but eight Alices in her script, each one slightly more changed by her time in Wonderland.

What Can We Learn from Wonderland The Musical?

While Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland to entertain the daughters of his friend and Christ Church college dean, Henry Liddel, inserting his daughter into the story alongside other roman-à-clef characters, the novel contains many themes that are as relevant today as they were in 1865. In addition to representing these themes, Kate was able to incorporate some modern themes that are sure to resonate with KS1 and KS2 students.

By staging Wonderland the Musical, you can teach your students about:

●        Identity

From the moment Alice tumbles into Wonderland, depicted in the playful song Falling, she is physically and mentally changed by her experiences. As Alice shrinks, grows and totally transforms from one scene to the next, her identity is constantly reshaped by the characters and situations that present themselves, much like our own identities are changed by the challenges we face in life.

●        Imagination

While the ‘golden afternoon’ at the start of the original text offers a calming contrast to the madness of Wonderland, this musical adaptation launches into a critique of the corporate world with its open number, Dinner Party. Compared with the cynicism of this networking event, Alice is left with an appreciation for the absurdity of Wonderland, and when she returns home at the end of the musical, she encourages her parents to invite some imagination back into their lives in the closing number, Won’t You Join the Dance?

●        Courage

At various points in her journey through Wonderland, Alice finds herself totally alone in a world she does not understand. While she struggles with her loneliness after the Caucus Race (All Alone in Wonderland), Alice summons her courage and overcomes each new obstacle she faces along her adventure. This teaches children to persevere in times of hardship, knowing that every challenge presents an opportunity for them to develop. 

Who Should Purchase Wonderland The Musical?

Written to be performed by children aged 10 to 13, Wonderland the Musical would be perfect for your KS2 class leavers' musical and would make an excellent summer production for an appropriately aged youth theatre group.

With a run time of 65 minutes, the musical gives your actors plenty of time to play around in Wonderland, without fear of losing their heads! Included with every purchase are the necessary resources to shorten or extend the show to your liking, but we would recommend keeping your performance at around the hour mark to preserve the pacing of this madcap production.

While the script features 36 speaking roles, 8 of which are the different iterations of Alice, the resource pack includes instructions for combining or dividing the dialogue to accommodate 20 to 60+ students. If the Cheshire Cat has got the tongue of any of your actors, but they are still eager to follow Alice down the rabbit hole, you could fill out your ensemble with unspoken animals participating in the Caucus Race or Playing Cards at the Queen’s court.

Ready to Put on a Show to Remember?

Whether you want to end your school year with a bang or you are searching for a nonsensical alternative to a traditional school nativity, Wonderland the Musical is a hilarious and heartfelt musical that is sure to leave an impression on students and parents alike.

Come join the dance with Wonderland the Musical, or explore our other musical adaptations of literary classics, including The Wizard of Oz, The Jungle Book and the award-winning Pantastic. For more information about any of our musicals, songbooks or other resources, feel free to get in touch for a friendly chat about your next school musical production.