If someone were to suggest the idea of a balletic adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 children’s classic, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” what elements would you want it to have? Zany merriment? Crazy costumes? Kaleidoscopic colors? Abundant fun?
All those qualities and more can be found in the Joffrey Ballet’s Chicago premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s delightful adaptation. It opened Thursday evening at the Lyric Opera House and continues for 13 additional performances through June 22.
The production was originally slated to run for Joffrey’s usual 10 performances, but early ticket demand led to the company in September to add four additional shows — a company first.
And why not? The ballet is based on one of the most familiar and beloved children’s tales of all time, one that has been repeatedly adapted in multiple forms, none more famous than the 1951 animated Walt Disney film.
England’s Royal Ballet presented the world premiere in 2011, and it has since been performed by more than half dozen other companies. The Joffrey Ballet is the first American company to take it on, and, frankly, one wonders why this debut didn’t happen sooner.
Wheeldon, 52, is one of the top ballet choreographers of our time, and he is well-known to area audiences because of his Chicago-centered version of “The Nutcracker,” which he created for the Joffrey Ballet in 2016.
And, in many ways, this production is a kind of early-summer “Nutcracker.” Like the Christmas classic, it is based on a famous literary work and tells the story of a girl who embarks on a far-flung adventure that turns out to be a dream.
And like “The Nutcracker,” this ballet is billed as family-friendly, and for the most part it is. But parents should be aware that it runs about 2¾ hours, a long haul for younger children, and there is one somewhat grisly scene that takes place in a sausage factory that might be frightening.
In some ways, Wheeldon follows the traditional story-ballet formula in “Alice’s Adventures,” but in many others, he takes it in eye-opening and thrilling new directions. It all adds up to a non-stop, dizzying, fantastical panorama of sights and sounds.
Rather than striving for any kind of choreographic innovations in this work, Wheeldon is more concerned about the dance serving the story. He keeps things simple and direct and uses telling movements to define the characters — the skittering White Rabbit or the exaggerated, self-satisfied gesturing and posing of the Queen of Hearts.
This ballet is very much an ensemble piece, with 70 dancers in all, including 19 students and trainees, but there are individual performances that stand out. None is delightful than Victoria Jaiani as the preening, always angry Queen of Hearts, whose wannabe star turn in Act 3 turns into a hilarious self-sabotaging series of falls and miscues.
Other standouts include Stefan Gonçalvez as the fretting White Rabbit, Dylan Gutierrez in a humorous, a cross-dressing turn as the awkward Duchess and, of course, Amanda Assucena, who nicely conveys Alice’s youthful wonder and innocence.
Sets and costumes are more important than usual in any production of “Alice’s Adventures” because of the exotic locales and strange characters that are so integral to this story, and Irish designer Bob Crowley, a seven-time Tony Award winner, has outdone himself.
He has brought together a startling combination of eye-popping, high-tech projections and low-tech sets and a whacky mix of styles and periods: An 18th-century theater as a kind of stage-within-a-stage in the tea-party scene. A projection of a 1950s sci-fi-style swirling vortex that takes Alice down the rabbit hole. A vintage embroidered “Home Sweet Home” wall hanging that is blown up to out-sized proportions. It could be a jumbled mess, but it all comes together as a joyous, wonderful whole.
Deserving special mention is the amazing, black-and-white Cheshire Cat puppet created by Toby Olié. It is operated by eight black-clad, nearly invisible dancers, who manipulate different parts of the feline’s anatomy, moving together with graceful, flowing cohesion.
Shaping and propelling this ballet forward is a first-rate, amplified score by British composer Joby Talbot that is powerfully realized here by conductor Scott Speck and the 56-member Lyric Opera Orchestra. Talbot has also worked in film, opera and television and is the former arranger and keyboardist for the Northern Irish band, The Divine Comedy.
Tinges of all these worlds can be heard in this moody, mysterious, ever-changing music. He combines traditional orchestra instruments with electronic keyboards and a huge array of percussion, including bells, gongs and vibraphone to create an atmospheric, evocative and sometimes exotic sound world.