Daily Loaf

Big news out of Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center this morning: As the first initiative of its Broadway Genesis Project, TBPAC is producing a new musical by Frank Wildhorn (The Civil War, Jekyll & Hyde) with hopes of taking it to Broadway. Wonderland: Alice’s New Musical Adventure is an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland “set in present-day Manhattan and a timeless Wonderland” in which an author named Alice Corwinkle travels “through the Looking-Glass from New York City to a strange-yet-familiar place where she must reclaim her daughter, defeat the Queen of Hearts and learn to follow her heart.” Wildhorn (pictured) is writing the music, with lyrics by Jack Murphy and book by Phoebe Hwang; the show has its world premiere at TBPAC in December.

Getting a show ready for Broadway is no easy task, but TBPAC President Judith Lisi says in a release that it’s “the next logical step in TBPAC’s artistic development.” With Wildhorn, the center has a proven commodity of sorts, a Tony-nominated composer with a strong fan base who once had three shows running simultaneously on Broadway. But as John Fleming noted in his story in today’s St. Pete Times, Wildhorn’s Broadway reviews have been “lukewarm at best.”

That’s putting it mildly.In a NY Times story five years ago which created its own mini-firestorm,  Charlie Suisman backed up his barbed assessment of Wildhorn’s work with this damning little paragraph:

In recent telephone interviews, three theater critics elaborated on their published invective. Linda Winer, of Newsday, said that Mr. Wildhorn writes ”dunderheaded musicals for people who find Andrew Lloyd Webber too difficult.” Ben Brantley, of The New York Times, allowed, ”They’re fine if you’re in the mood to be emotionally knee-jerked.” And Charles Isherwood of Variety said of Mr. Wildhorn: ”His natural home is in Las Vegas. That might be his most sensible career move. Skip Broadway altogether.”

But that was then. This is Tampa. And who knows? Wonderland may turn out to be the first Wildhorn adventure to wow his fans and his critics.

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