Alice in Wonderland Jr

Alice in Wonderland Jr — a youth musical staged and performed by Adlington Musical & Arts Youth Society at Adlington Community Centre, Railway Road, Adlington on Friday 26th June 2026.

This version of this timeless classic is based on the 1951 Disney film – ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and the novels... ‘The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ penned by Lewis Carroll. This is a story of adventure, imagination and pure fun! Alice plunges down a ‘rabbit hole’ and finds herself in a strange madcap world where everything seems upside down! She must find her way home, whilst finding herself along the way. She has many adventures travelling through “Wonderland”. She meets many of the weird, wonderful and comic characters that we’ve all come to love, including the ever-tardy White Rabbit, the grinning Cheshire Cats, a cool Caterpillar, a very wacky Mad Hatter, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts plus many, many others!

The Creatives ... chosen to lead us through the ‘topsy turvey upside world’ of ‘Wonderland’ was Natalie Cleary (Director), Paul Stanley (Musical Director) and Hannah Sutton (Choreography) and what an interesting and imaginative tale they told. They’d gathered an extremely enthusiastic cast, who were well rehearsed and looked ready for everything that had been thrown at them! Credit to Natalie for giving those iconic characters a new lease of life and, with the help of others I suspect, creating some imaginative scenes/settings for them to come to life in! Loved the musical provisions and renditions of the songs, you could tell the cast were totally enjoying belting out those numbers… well done Paul. Loved, loved, loved the simple yet imaginative choreography… favourite had to be the opening to Act two… to the ‘Adventure is a Wonderful Thing’ danced by Caterpillar and the Wonderland Ensemble … loved the ‘armography’ and the togetherness... well done Hannah… well done you three!

The Cast...  thirty-one excited, enthusiastic, well-rehearsed young people took to the stage and what a great time they all appeared to be having.  From opening scene to final bow, the smiles etched on each and every face told a story of enjoyment and camaraderie ... cast included:
Ava Taylor played ‘Alice’ (Violet Hodge played ‘Small Alice’ and Emily Hogg played ‘Tall Alice’)
Annabelle Clough – ‘White Rabbit’; Isaac Lathom – ‘Dodo Bird’; Evie Spencer – ‘Caterpillar’;
Pheobe Doherty, Amelia Antas & Tilly McKnight – ‘Cheshire Cats 1,2 & 3 respectively;
Will Butler and Ethan Towner – ‘Tweedle Dee’ & ‘Tweedle Dum’ respectively;
Declan Hodge – ‘Mad Hatter’; Peter Brownhill – ‘March Hare’;
Charlie McNamee – ‘Queen of Hearts’; Alexia Benedito – ‘King of Hearts’;
Royal Cards: Elijah Latham – ‘Ace of Spades’; Willow Jolly - ‘Two of Clubs’, Faye Loftus – ‘Three of Spades’ & Coco Culshaw – ‘Four of Hearts’
Flowers: Edie Philpott, Ruby Federici, Penelope Upton, Martha Coleman, Phoebe Dunning
(Respectively played: ‘Rose’, ’Daisy’, ‘Lily’, ‘Petunia’ & ‘Violet’)
The Wonderland Ensemble … Eddison Seaton, Everly Timmins, Felicity Garth, Violet Atkinson,
Libby Flannigan, Poppy Flannigan and Tilly Coleman
It’s “sticky neck out time” … where I start suggesting MY Showstealer and favourite performances /characters. I always say these are ‘MY FAVOURITES’, you’ll have your own, but these are mine! Sometimes, when everyone on stage is giving their all and simply enjoying every minute with their friends, it’s really difficult so start saying… someone was better than someone else... as was the case here that evening! As for Showstealer… every character that came on... he, she or they could have taken that accolade… FAVOURITES, well you’ll have yours these are mine... ‘MY TOP FOUR’ … ‘Evie Spencer’ as ‘Caterpillar’… loved the character created, loved the dance routine led by Evie with the ensemble. Her character was strong and playful, the transformation from ‘Caterpillar’ to ‘Butterfly’, was ever so well thought out! (PS… sometimes in live theatre, things don’t go quite to plan. In the ‘transformation’ scene, Evie’s butterfly costume wasn’t sat right … the person in the dance line behind her saw this and adjusted/secured the costume… congrats to whoever it was! When you’re on stage, you’re part of a team, and that’s what ‘team players’ do!). Next, the three ‘Alice’s’ (Ava Taylor, Violet Hodge and Emily Hogg) did a great job, especially Ava. They all looked confident, assured and acted out their characters ever so well… be very proud! Loved, the Cheshire Cats… (Phoebe Doherty, Amelia Antas and Tilly McKnight) … three more great characters created, who worked ever so well together creating continuous mayhem wherever they appeared! Finally, just fell in luv with the Alexia Benedito and her performance as the ‘King of Hearts’. Not the biggest role … but one that she made her own!  You could just tell she was having the time of her young life, well done Alexia! If you haven’t been mentioned as a favourites … please don’t think you weren’t seen, ‘YOU ALL DID GOOD’! This was a great team performance which you should all be ever so proud of and what YOU helped achieve!

Stage/Tech… AMAS are so blessed with great theatre people, on stage, off stage and backstage! Backstage, led by people like Stephen Pilkington, Russ Jones and Howard Bates who do an incredible job. What’s also noticeable, is what comes out of those ‘wings’, be it for an ‘adult show’ or a ‘Junior show’ it’s always of the same standard! Adlington Community Centre hasn’t got the biggest stage area, nor largest wing spaces, so what comes out of those murky depths at times is just incredible and is very rarely seen as a problem! The scenes in this production flowed with “effortless” (probably the wrong word) with ease! Loved the door construction from ‘Little to Big’, so simple, yet so effective! As always well-done folks! Sound/Lighting… the ever-present Joanna & Natalie Sweet, Richard Cornes and Stuart Naylor were in charge doing a great job ... I’m told they also did a ‘bit of additional UV painting for this production’ (loved those mushrooms emblazoned across the front of the stage and extension, well done) … be very proud folks!

Wardrobe... said this many times before, but the costumes for all AMAS’s Youth Productions are always fabulous... so nothing had changed! Beautiful and bright, enhanced the production so much under the watchful eyes of Ruth Crookson, Alex Butler and Hannah Brownhill. Props... again great use of the props, which were used well, looked appropriate and of the era... looked after by Sue & Yzzy Heyes.

Constructive Advice... hope I don’t offend here by offering a ‘wee bit’ of ‘constructive advice’! If you’re given a line to say, never think that ‘one line’ doesn’t matter because it does! If your audience doesn’t hear or can’t understand that one line, they may lose the plot of the story ... your audience needs to hear every word spoken, but having said that, just saying them isn’t enough!
‘Spoken Word’ - I always feel great when I know my lines – but knowing them isn’t enough, you have to add ‘light and shade’, ‘emotion/accentuation’, they are vital if your dialogue is going to comes to life!
Clarity & Pace - for the most part diction was crisp and clean...  there were moments that evening when lines were rushed, making them hard to hear/understand, always try and keep your volume up, project to Row Z and try and add that light & shade and articulate what needs to be said!  Hope that makes sense and again I hope I haven’t over stepped!

Thank you so much for inviting my wife and I, for your welcome and your hospitality, which is always appreciated! We really did enjoy the show, I love watching, supporting young people, whenever and wherever I can, so please allow me this opportunity to thank Natalie for arranging my visit to a rehearsal a few months ago, for allowing me to meet and speak with the cast and those selfless adults who give up their time to help these young people improve and achieve their dreams on stage!  Keep going strong ... be very proud of what you helped achieve!

Stay safe and keep well…
‘STRONGER TOGETHER’

Jim Briscoe
NODA North West
District 6 Rep

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