Why did you opt to present the show at Vassar instead of a traditional out-of-town run? Alice by Heart feels timely when we’re living in a world where politics feel out of control.
We began Spring Awakening in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Sater: We like to use the past as a metaphor for the present.
She has to navigate totally insane characters. In the case of Alice by Heart, our Alice has a huge heart and a lot of compassion, but she’s in an insane situation where people have been traumatized and literally gone crazy. Sheik: They all live in a historical moment, and yet they’re very much a reflection of our contemporary world.
Would you say there’s a common denominator in the projects you’ve worked on together? We’re doing some orchestrations with winds, brass and strings … like military bands of the 1940s, but with contemporary music. For me, it was about finding different colors to bring these outrageous characters to life. Musically, what can we expect from Alice by Heart?ĭuncan Sheik: The score has a more heightened, psychedelic feel than Spring Awakening, but I don’t think people will be surprised that it comes from the same writers. I started to think about incidents that make you leave your childhood behind - leaving home and dealing with loss, death and war. Then it hit me: This piece could be about how to leave childhood behind. As I watched these kids, I looked at Lea, who was in her early 20s and starting Glee at the time, and I remembered meeting her at 14. Then I went with Lea Michele to see a troupe of young actors called Theater Geeks of America perform Spring Awakening songs at a concert in Los Angeles. There’s no beginning, middle or end, really.
It’s just a series of fantastic incidents. Steven Sater: Someone proposed that Duncan and I look at Alice in Wonderland, so we began developing it as a piece of music at first. Longtime collaborators Sheik and Sater call the show an “exploration of love, loss and the transformative power of the imagination,” and it’s going up in a workshop production with a cast of Broadway stars ( School of Rock‘s Alex Brightman, Dear Evan Hansen‘s Noah Galvin, Matilda‘s Lesli Margherita) as part of Vassar College and New York Stage and Film’s 34th Powerhouse season, in advance of a major off-Broadway production at MCC Theater in early 2019.īefore the Powerhouse run (July 5-7), Sheik and Sater spoke to Billboard about their longstanding artistic partnership, how Lea Michele indirectly inspired their new musical, and why it’s a perfect show for this political moment.Īlice in Wonderland is a favorite for stage adaptations - what drew you to it?
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