“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” reviewed by Julia W. Rath

***** “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is the best of the best that The Joffrey Ballet has to offer! What a thrilling combination of theatre and dance! What a spectacle! Amanda Assucena, who performs as Alice, does an incredible job holding the entire show together with her spirited and flowing ballet. Of note is how well Assucena shrinks herself into tight places while maintaining her poise and elegance. What a splendid performance! The story is simultaneously comedic, romantic, and whimsical, with gorgeous projection design, resonant music, and sets and costumes courtesy of Royal Danish Ballet and Royal Swedish Ballet. The dancing is exceptional: from the solo performers to the corps de ballet. Without a word being spoken, the audience knows exactly what is happening in each of the various scenes that comprise the ballet’s three acts.

True to the original novel by Lewis Carroll, our host (and Alice’s comedic foil) the White Rabbit (Stefan Gonçalvez) leads Alice down the proverbial garden path. But when he loses his tail, it’s almost a portent of things to come.… But it is Jack, the Knave of Hearts (Alberto Velazquez), who becomes Alice’s romantic interest, as evinced by their heartfelt pas de deux. The talent of famed ballet dancer Victoria Jaiani as the Queen of Hearts is unrivaled: She brings so much eccentricity and charisma to her character in the course of the show! Her performance starts out slowly as she rides high above everybody in her red heart wheeled contraption, led by her servants. But later on, she emerges in all her terror and red splendor and comedic charm, together with the King of Hearts (David Gombert). Other highlights include a splendid ballet with Alice and her two sisters Edita and Lorina (Yumi Kanazawa and Natali That) towards the end of the first act, plus incredible tap dancing by Edson Barbosa as the Mad Hatter during the second and third acts. As we follow Alice’s journey, we discover that each dance is better than the next!

Nicholas Wright’s scenario (or concept of how the dances fit into the larger story) is brilliant, and Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography cannot be excelled! This is all in conjunction with the outstanding projection design by Jon Driscoll and Gemma Carrington. It’s great to see the wild and crazy imagery when Alice descends into the rabbit hole and later when she ascends from it. The animation of the rabbit hole as a tunnel or target gives us the feeling of motion, and Alice’s arrival in Wonderland is signified by an assemblage of jumbled letters in various fonts. So many of the projections are undulating or askew or meaningfully repetitive (such as the motion of millions of doors and millions of playing cards), all of which signify a substantial departure from reality as we know it. I particularly loved when Alice is confronted with multitudes of gray doors in the first act and then squeezes through a deep orange door. There’s also a labyrinth in the third act, representing the journey of life, where you don’t know about its confusion ahead of time, just that you have to plod forward. In addition to the symbolism of the labyrinth, life is also depicted as a card game (where you don’t know what card will turn up next), plus all of this is in the context of a dream (which Alice eventually wakes up from). In fact, the Oxford scene at the beginning and the end can be viewed as two bookends for the tale—considering that’s where Lewis Carroll had once made his mark.

The costumes are sublime, thanks to Bob Crowley (who also did the set design). Alice is always a standout in her violet dress in the purest of colors. Her sisters are dressed in pink and aqua respectively: three solid colors that work well together to provide an air of femininity. Then there is the boldness of the red in the Queen, King, and Knave of Hearts costumes; which are in sharp contrast to the Mad Hatter’s costume, with its pastels. As for the rest, the white and monochromatic tutus in various colors are fabulous. The dancers who are made to resemble playing cards look amazing. Then too, the playing cards morph from real to projections to costumes and back and forth again. And then there are the animal costumes! There are dancers who portray animals like the caterpillar (Jonathan Dole), plus flamingos and hedgehogs. It was a joy watching portions of the Cheshire cat coming together and apart—and held together by dancers. I adored how this puppetry was conceived and designed by Toby Olié! What marvelous work! And then there are the uses of the cat’s tail. We watch how it somehow gets disconnected—and herein hangs an improbable yet very imaginative tale!

This 2-hour and 45-minute performance with two intermissions goes by in no time!* The merging of projection design with set design in conjunction with the dance is extraordinary, and the unreality of the narrative only adds to the excitement! The uses of the stage are done incredibly well, and there is even one scene in the first act when dancers come down the aisles and throw confetti! Joby Talbot’s music is awesome and speaks well in telling the various components of this fantastical story. Music director and principal conductor Scott Speck has done a phenomenal job with the orchestra, and Christopher Austin and Talbot’s orchestrations could not have been done any better! Each of these elements put together plus all sorts of clever touches make this production magical and memorable. The company has outdone itself… and the production may be extended due to popular demand!

The Joffrey Ballet’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” runs through July 18th 2025, at the Lyric Opera House, 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago.

Tickets currently range from $46 to $224, depending on seat location and date and time of the performance.

Performance schedule:

Fridays – 7:30 p.m.   (no performance on July 4th)
Saturdays – 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sundays – 2:00 p.m.
Additional performance: Thursday, June 12th at 7:30 p.m.

For information and to purchase tickets, visit https://joffrey.org/performances-and-tickets/alice-s-adventures-in-wonderland/ or call the Joffrey Box Office, 312-386-8905.

For group sales of 10 or more, go to: https://joffrey.org/performances-and-tickets/group-sales/ (recommended) or call 312-827-5720 or contact joffreygroups@lyricopera.org.

“We invite you to our Meet the Artists event taking place in the Lyric Opera House one hour before the performance. Simply present your ticket to the usher to gain free admittance.”

Saturday, June 7 at 1:30 | Christopher Wheeldon
Thursday, June 12 at 6:30 | Adam Blyde
Saturday, June 14 at 6:30 | Edson Barbosa

For general information about The Joffrey Ballet and for a list of their other offerings, see: https://joffrey.org/.

*My only issue with this performance is that I wished that it had started at 7:00 p.m. rather than 7:30 p.m. Several of us needed to catch the train immediately afterwards, and you could spot a whole group of us literally running to the Ogilvie Transportation Center to catch trains at 10:32 p.m. (UP-N) and 10:35 p.m. (UP-NW). I talked to some other patrons as we were running down Madison Street, and they expressed the exact same opinion as mine: that they wanted to stay for all the curtain calls but didn’t want to wait an hour for the next train.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland”.