The musical Alice By Heart about a disruptive hurt girl who is being blocked from the one she loves based on a medical pretext.
Although they take her book from her, she still manages to tells him a rabbit hole type story as she increasingly angers a controlling crowd who want to further suppress and lock her up ever more severely than they already had been doing.
Alice has a lot of guns pointed at her throughout the production. She is told by her enemies that they own the future and the truth but this only makes her more defiant and determined to challenge them. It turns out they really don’t have the power to stop her as they indulge themselves in fronting and ridiculous theatrics.
Despite all the games, subversion and false accusations, Alice continues to refuse to back down and finds that she has garnered a great deal of support, though the trumped up captivity problem is not solved by the end of the show.
Plot overview
The musical takes place in 1941, in the debris after the London Blitz of World War II. The life of teen Alice Spencer is disrupted, as she and her best friend Alfred are forced to take shelter in a London underground tube station. However, Alfred, suffering from Tuberculosis, is quarantined ("West of Words"). Alice urges him to escape with her into their cherished book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and travel down the rabbit hole to Wonderland. Nurse Cross, who is in charge of keeping everyone safe, rips Alice's book as a punishment for visiting Alfred, despite his quarantine. Alice becomes very defiant and declares she knows it "by heart" and will read to him anyway.
The people hiding in the shelter slowly change into some of the book's characters, and Alfred himself changes into the White Rabbit[2][3] ("Down the Hole"). During her time in Wonderland, Alice changes parts of the story, such as spending too much time with the White Rabbit and forgetting Chapter 3. She gets teased by not one, but two, Caterpillars ("Chillin' the Regrets"); receives advice from the Cheshire Cat; dances the Lobster Quadrille with the White Rabbit ("Those Long Eyes"); gets berated for growing up too fast by the Duchess; plays croquet with the Queen of Hearts ("Manage Your Flamingo") and other slight twists on scenes from Alice in Wonderland.
Alfred tires of being the White Rabbit and wants to finish his life as himself, in the bunker with Alice, so he attempts to get her to finish the story early and to help her move on by taunting her as the much less friendly March Hare. She tells him she hates him for getting sick, however before she can apologize he gets taken to Ward D ("Sick to Death of Alice-ness"). Alice attempts to go to him but is halted by the Jabberwocky. The Jabberwocky taunts her with claims of insanity and grief. Alice defeats him with thoughts of Alfred. ("Brililig, Braelig").
The Cheshire Cat urges Alice to let Alfred go and face her grief ("Some Things Fall Away"). Alice soon meets Mock Turtles who encourage her to not move on and live wholly in her grief ("Your Shell of Grief").
Alfred returns, wishing to finish the story with Alice, but Alice, taking the Mock Turtles' advice, pleads with him not to move on. Alfred asks how Alice will grieve him, both of them lamenting of what could have been ("Another Room In Your Head"). She tries to kiss him, hoping to contract Tuberculosis and die with him. He refuses, resuming the story as the hateful March Hare despite her protests.
During the trial ("Isn't It a Trial"/"Do You Think We Think You're Alice?"), Alice stands up for herself, and finally, Alfred joins her. With the help of Tabatha as the Cheshire Cat, they break out of Wonderland and back into the bunker ("I've Shrunk Enough"). Alfred and Alice then admit their feelings for each other before Alfred dies ("Afternoon"). The show ends with Alice finally accepting Alfred's death, and trying to be optimistic about life with everyone else in the bunker ("Winter Blooms").
