Anna in Wonderland: Music in Musicals

Through the Looking Glass: The Burlesque Alice in Wonderland is a wonderful musical that was staged last Saturday at The Olympia Film Society’s Capital Theater. The assignment for digital journalism was to investigate music and musicals are music.

The Looking Glass Banner, taken from the Olympia Film Society Homepage

The line for the show when I came to the Capital Theater wrapped around the corner and almost reached The Painted Plate. I feared that my adventure in Wonderland would be derailed, but slowly and surely ever single patron in line filtered into the Theater. The members of audience that were milling about and socializing scrounged for seats as the lights dimmed. The announcer, a young lady in an opulent top hat, came on stage and informed us that the show was about to begin.

It begins with a Alice, a mute young lady, befriending her shadowy reflection, and being pulled into her reflection’s world. The Looking Glass from Lewis Carroll’s timeless children’s stories is transformed into a Bar, a stroke of brilliance. At the Looking Glass Bar, there are showcased a series of Burlesque acts, all extracted from Alice in Wonderland or Alice through the Looking Glass.



The ringleader of the Looking Glass is the White Rabbit, a song and dance man with a top hat that has bunny ears sprouting out of it. He interacts with the audience and introduces the acts. The first performer is Catta Pillar, a woman who has a train of crawling women under her dress following after her to create the caterpillar legs. This is followed by the Jabberwocky, a silhouette seen through a screen dancing erotically while being rather creepy and eating a bird. Tiger Lilly is a flower of a woman who loses her petals, and the Three Flamingos are ballerina-type dancers who strip each other of their feathers as they fight for center stage. The White Rabbit commands Alice and her Reflection to clean up the feathers, which leads to the two young ladies rolling about the stage covered only by feathers.

Then, two sworn enemies enter the Looking Glass, and stir up trouble. The White Queen and the Red Queen fight each other to their undergarments and have to be dragged off stage. Then, The Burlesque Alice in Wonderland, which was funny all the way through, became hilarious. The Cheshire Cat is a man in sparkling underwear, whose nipples are covered in glitter just like the ladies, and he begins slipping on clothes. Cat calls were heard throughout the theater. Next up is the Tweedle Sisters, two girls in short shorts with helicopter hats and distance expressions, who do a cute and fully clothed dance, accompanied by Alice and her Reflection.


The White Rabbit introduces the final act, and informs us we should recognize this performer, even though she has changed a bit. In comes Catta Pillar, as a beautiful butterfly, who dances till she is dressed in only her wings and sparkly undergarments.

It is closing time for the Looking Glass when the Queen of Hearts enters. Alice, in her ignorance, joyfully volunteers to play poker against the Queen of Hearts. This poker game had high stakes: it was strip poker. Through some help from the Reflection switching cards here and there, it is the Queen of Hearts that ends up in her underwear.


Thus, Through the Looking Glass comes to a close when Alice and her reflection dance their way back to reality and to near nudity. The music throughout the show reflected the feel of each act, the White Rabbit’s songs were funny and propelled the play onwards, and the cast call at the end is set to Jefferson’s Airplane’s song “White Rabbit.”

To be continued...