Review: Peak Youth's adventure in wonderland

But they were two words that deserved to be in Peak Youth’s vocabulary after an enchanting first-night production of Alice at Chesterfield’s Pomegranate Theatre.

How refreshing it was to see a children’s musical that hadn’t been done countless times before, to hear fresh, vibrant songs and watch dainty dances beautifully performed in a story which everyone knows.

Hannah Fagan as the inquisitive Alice stole hearts with her pretty voice and fancy footwork.

Hayley Heath playing the bonkers Duchess, Sophie Etell as the murderous Queen, Effie Carter as Hatter, Sean Fagan as Rev Dodgson and Marissa Thorpe as young Alice were among several notable performers.

Noah Rodker and Lewis McPhilbin brought the house down with their duet Beautiful Soup then segued into rapper-style gestures as they danced and sang their hearts out with the ensemble.

And a big shout-out to Marianne Pummell, playing Emily, who sang the lengthy opening number beautifully.

Projected images resembling children’s drawings provided a simple backdrop for the cast to perform scenes from Alice in Wonderland.

The Duchess chucked her baby pig to the cook, plastic flamingoes were thrown to the Queen’s croquet opponents and the remainder of the cast threw themselves whole-heartedly into the show.

Alice continues its run at the Pomegranate until Wednesday, June 8, directed by Mike Spriggs with music direction by Jon Davies and choreograpy by Kaye Gilbert.