WONDERFUL WONDERLAND
Behind the scenes of the must-see new musical.
SCOTLAND rarely has the honour of hosting the European premiere of a major stage show, so there is a sense of excitement surrounding the opening of Wonderland this week.
Edinburgh Playhouse, the UK’s highest capacity theatre, is the first stop for the former Broadway musical based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass.
The music is by the renowned Frank Wildhorn, who wrote the Whitney Houston classic Where Do Broken Hearts Go, as well as a host of other chart smashes, and also composed Broadway hits like Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War.
Reimagined for a British audience, it also features a strong homegrown cast including former Coronation Street actress Wendi Peters, theatre star and singer Kerry Ellis and West End leading men Dave Willetts and Stephen Webb.
Wendi, who played the popular role of Cilla Battersby-Brown for four years in Corrie, is the Queen of Hearts. She only joined rehearsals last Monday after finishing up a panto run in Sheffield.
“I finished the pantomime on Sunday night and came to rehearsals the following morning,” Wendi smiled.
“I was learning the script while working on the pantomime.
“I decided not to watch previous interpretations, like the cartoon or the Tim Burton film, as I would rather do it in my own way.”
As well as her theatre career, Wendi has just finished work on BBC show Hetty Feather.
She’s also appeared on reality programmes like Celebrity Masterchef, Celebrity Sewing Bee, Soapstar Superstar and Celebrity Mastermind.
While she prefers stage to screen, she would never say never to a Coronation Street return, having already gone back for a six-week guest stint at the end of 2014.
“I was very lucky when I asked to leave that they didn’t kill me off and the character does still have family on the show,” she added.
“It was lovely to go back for a little while and it would be silly to say I would never go back because no one knows what the future holds. The door is always open for Corrie.”
Wonderland is at the Edinburgh Playhouse from January 20-28.
With dates still to come in Sunderland, Blackpool, Aberdeen and Glasgow in its extensive UK tour throughout the year, we speak to nine other cast and crew members involved in staging the spectacle that is Wonderland.