LZHS has turned into a wonderland for the weekend. After months of rehearsal and hard work, LZHS’s drama department will be putting on the high-energy and kid-friendly musical version of Alice in Wonderland.

“It’s a fun show,” Marcel Graham, the director of the production, said. “Our goal [was] to have bright, wacky characters.”

The drama department has certainly succeeded in their goal, as the songs are fun and fast- paced and the costumes are outrageous and colorful. The musical is directed mostly to a younger audience, according to Graham.

“It’s geared for four, five, six year olds,” Graham said. “From my understanding, the Johnny Depp movie version is a bit dark, so we are sticking closer to the original book version to play it light [for the younger audience].”

Graham was sure to include direct quotes from Lewis Carroll’s novel. For example, the jabbawalkie song quotes a poem from the book almost word for word.

While the musical is not very similar to the popular 1951 or 2010 Disney adaptations of the Alice story, LZHS’s interpretation of Wonderland includes all the beloved characters from the Queen of Hearts to the Mad Hatter, to the White Rabbit, and includes an aspect of the story that is both different and amusing for the kids in the audience.

“Audience interaction is key,” Graham said. “[The kids] have to feel like they’re a part of it, they get to decide [how the characters react].”

At the turning point in the musical, the Cheshire Cat calls up a kid from the audience to listen to the trial between all the characters in the play. The audience member then is called to the stage to decide whether they want to rule the character guilty or non-guilty.

While the musical is directed at kids, adults will be able to find their inner child in the silly and slapstick humor of the characters and the songs.

“I just hope everyone can go away having a really good time and just enjoying it,” Graham said.