Dreams For Alice
Gilbert Hetherwick’s “Psychedelic Folk Pop Musical”!
A ONE MAN SHOW / ABOUT A SHOW / WITHIN A SHOW!
A solo presentation performed by myself that moves between Oxford of the 1860s
and the “Wonderland” that Lewis Carroll created for Alice Liddell and her sisters.
Featuring 15 of the musical’s songs and all of your favorite Wonderland characters.
FOR MUSIC LOVERS OF ALL AGES!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH 4 SOLO SONGS ON YOUTUBE!
Write to Hetherwick@me.com to book the complete solo show !
On the beautiful Grouse House Studio Stage near Woodstock New York!
Great for famiies, groups of friends or anyone interested in “Alice in Wonderland”
Psychedlic folk pop! Sound effects... synth guitar... and educational and entertaining dialog!
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FULL CAST RECORDING!
THIS IS A FULLY ORCHESTRATED FULL CAST ALBUM
THE COMPLETE MUSICAL! GREAT SINGERS - 78 MINUTES OF MUSIC!
ABOUT "DREAMS FOR ALICE"...
The “Dreams For Alice” musical actually began years ago in 1988 when I first wrote a cycle of 10 pop songs based on characters from Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland.” All of the original songs were written as third person narratives and recorded with myself as the sole vocalist. I was encouraged by friends to write more.
In 1996 I returned to the “Alice” songs and began rewriting them with lyrics now intended to be sung by the characters themselves. I then wrote eight new songs and expanded the original song cycle into a complete musical. I didn't want the musical to simply be "Alice in Wonderland" set to music. I wanted Lewis Carroll to be the main character and I wanted the songs to move back and forth between Carroll's real world in Oxford and the fantasy world he created verbally for the young Alice Liddell and her sisters.
Before becoming successful as the writer of the “Alice" books, Lewis Carroll (under his real name of Charles Dodgson) was already well known as an Oxford Don, a mathematician and a photographer. Alice Liddell and her sisters were the daughters of the Dean of the school where Dodgson taught and they became friends through tutoring sessions and picnics. Dodgson later wrote out “Alice in Wonderland” in longhand as a gift to Alice Liddell. She asked him to do so as she never wanted to forget the amazing stories that he had created spontaneously for her and her sisters over many “golden afternoons.”
Much of the inspiration for my writing of this musical has been the biography by Morton Cohen. In his book Cohen clears up a lot of the myths concerning Lewis Carroll but he also brilliantly transports you back to the England of the 1860s and makes you better understand the world from which Lewis Carroll emerged.
Lewis Carroll loved children. The tutoring of Alice and the storytelling sessions on those summer afternoons were the highlights of his life at the time.
The Lewis Carroll character's songs reveal the musical's underlying theme of aging and lost childhood. Carroll was a great photographer of the time and the song "Time & Photographs" suggests the theory that Carroll believed his photographs stopped time and froze childhood. Alice Liddell eventually grew too old for the stories and Carroll's life was never the same. "Promise to Dream" ends the musical with Carroll saying good-bye to Alice as she moves on from childhood.
My goal was to create a musical that would appeal to audiences of all ages. I envision a multimedia production with two acts of approximately 50-55 minutes each. This would mean approximately 10-12 minutes of added dialogue for each of the two acts. The production could be arranged for a six piece theater band. Beyond the singing cast of eight there could also be additional dancers. The dancers would play the roles of the Duchess, The Dormouse, The March Hare, and also various flowers, numbers, and clocks.
This project involved nearly six years of my life... when I wasn't flying all over the world for the dreaded Record Labels! I love keeping it alive through the new "one man show" version I have been doing. ENJOY! GH
DOWNLOAD THE LIBRETTO AS A PDF FILE FOR MORE INFORMATION
