Productions

Here are a few Films and stage productions that have been created over the years. I have only included 'Looking-Glass' productions although there are many that included both books.

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  • One of the first is this short 1928 silent film by Walter Lang , see black & white picture above of the cast.

  • Thirteen year old Jane Asher was in "Alice through the Looking Glass" at the Playhouse, Oxford and in Cardiff in January. 23rd November 1959. (See album cover below)

  • In 1966 there was a NBC TV musical special, first airing on 6 November. The special includes music by Moose Charlap, and stars Ricardo Montalban, Agnes Moorehead, Jack Palance, Jimmy Durante, and the Smothers Brothers, along with Judi Rolin in the role of Alice. "A top notch cast brings this engaging TV musical to life based on Lewis Carroll's legendary character "Alice." When Alice is lured by the Red King to magically enter her mirror into Looking Glass Land, Alice meets up with the White Queen and King, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and Jabberwock for a magical, musical blend of fantasy and fun." (See poster above)

  • In 1973 there was a BBC TV movie, directed by James MacTaggart and starring Sarah Sutton as Alice. (The first picture above)

  • Alice in the Land in the Other Side of the Mirror (1982) is a 38-minute Soviet cutout-animated TV film produced by Kievnauchfilm studio and directed by Yefrem Pruzhanskiy. (see picture below)

  • In 1987 Australian-Italian animated film was directed by Andrea Bresciani and Richard Slapczynski from a screenplay by Jameson Brewer. The film's voice cast includes Janet Waldo as Alice, Mr. T. as the Jabberwock, Phyllis Diller as the White Queen, Jonathan Winters as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and Alan Young as the White Knight. Much of the film consists of Alice and a jester named Tom Fool (Townsend Coleman) journeying through some of the incidents of the novel, while ultimately, the film is more about Alice finding an imaginary friend in Tom Fool than the novel's themes of logic, illogic, and reversal. The film also throws in Heffalumps, rock-throwing cavemen, Ed Sullivan, and The Marx Brothers (Hal Rayle). Humpty Dumpty (George Gobel) is a dinosaur egg, and as such, has fangs and a tail, which gives an example of how little interest in the book the filmmaker's had. (see picture below)

  • 1998 saw the Channel 4 TV movie, starring Kate Beckinsale as the role of Alice, which restored the lost "Wasp in a Wig" episode. (see above)

  • Hattie Naylor's irresistibly anarchic adaptation of Alice Through the Looking Glass, 2007 at Bristol's Tobacco Factory, was revived by Lee Lyford in a fun-packed production for Bath's egg theatre with Jessica Worrall's ingenious monochromatic design add to the magic of this production, and a strong cast bring to life the pandemonium of the world beyond the looking glass. Alexis Terry is a tenacious Alice, entertainingly enraged by the taunts of her elder sisters. Her journey is brimming with with strange encounters - all of which keep the family audience spellbound. Among the most memorable has to be the verbose flower-bed, particularly John Biddle's deliciously Shrinking Violet. Louise Plowright's Red Queen, is a marvellous, Frances de la Tour-esque, entirely mad monarch, whose beautifully impassioned rendition of "My Time is Spent on Queenly Things" in Act II is an unforgettable highlight worthy of any West End stage. Her bizarre store, filled with temperamental Liverpudlian merchandise, is another highlight, as Plowright rocks out to her merchandises' anguished refrain, "we live in fear of sticky-fingered girls". There are more inspired character choices throughout the production which keep all ages of audience member rapt. John Biddle's angry Humpty Dumpty wouldn't be out of place selling the Socialist Worker, for example, while Paul Mundell's White King appears to have a mild case of Tourettes. Both are met with belly-laughs from the audience. Dodgson's score adds to the mayhem: a particular favourite is the "overwrought" Christmas Pudd, a self-pitying alcoholic, miserably swigging brandy to help block out the pain of knowing that he will be forever "a pudding be" (see small right hand picture below)

  • Lookingglass Alice (2007) was an acrobatic interpretation of both novels, produced by the Lookingglass Theatre Company, that performed in New York City and Chicago, with a version of the show touring the rest of the United States. (left hand picture below) Review - Lewis Carroll’s barrage of dream logic leaves no Victorian value standing, as the author slyly deconstructs every certitude and tidy moral in sight. The masterful adaptation by David Catlin (who also directs) gets right to the heart of Carroll’s coolly subversive approach to childhood and life, integrating and balancing the writer’s linguistic anarchy with acrobatic spectacle and jaw-dropping theatrical effect

  • The BBC show Saturday Drama broadcast an adaptation by Stephen Wyatt on 22 December 2011. The broadcast featured Lewis Carroll, voiced by Jullian Rhind-Tutt, as both the narrator and an active character in the story. Other actors include Lauren Mote (Alice), Sally Philips (White Queen), Nicholas Parsons (Humpty-Dumpty) and Alistair McGowen (Tweedledum & Tweedledee).

  • The 2016 film was directed by James Bobin and is a sequel to the Tim-Burton-directed Disney reboot of Wonderland (2010). It does not follow the plot of the book at all.

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