Word: lake
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Mather Drama Society production of Looking Glass, a new musical based on Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy as adapted by Rick Lake '80, is just such a frustrating disappointment. There was so much word of mouth enthusiasm spread about this show--the music alone was said to be worth the price of admission--that Saturday's audience was expecting one of the best student-written productions ever put on here. But you can't always get what you want, and unfortunately Looking Glass has serious flaws which keep it from living up to its hype...
...Lake's adaptation draws from a variety of Carroll's material, including Alice in Wonderland and his lesser known works and papers. But not all of it belongs in an adaptation of the light-hearted fantasy Through the Looking Glass. Doubtless Carroll's story was intended to do more than entertain little girls, and the elements of social satire and existential questioning which Lake points out in his program notes are certainly part of the depth and appeal of the book. However, Lake and to an even greater extent composer Michael Levine put so much emphasis on existential moralizing that...
Through the Looking Glass has almost no plot and consequently the writers attempt to create one so the show will hang together. Lake and Levine try to show that the episodes are all steps toward Alice's becoming "a woman." There's just one catch--Alice is only ten years old and it stretches the audience's credulity and the fabric of the story to suggest that a character as innocent as Kitty Kean's Alice would so seriously consider such weighty topics...
...shame that Looking Glass isn't better because the source material has so many possibilities. But the inadequate direction and the ponderous songs sabotage a potentially enjoyable show. One can only hope that Lake and company will take the show back to the drawing board, eliminate the existentialism and the about an hour's worth of running time, rework the songs so they relate to the action, and trust more of the humor to Lewis Carroll. Student-written productions aren't expected to be masterpieces, but this one has killing flaws. Perhaps if it were revised it could...
...SALAAM, Tanzania--Ugandan President Idi Amin claimed yesterday he has annexed a 710-square-mile strip of Tanzanian tereitory along the western shore of Lake Victoria. The announcement came amid reports of fierce fighting between troops of the two East African nations...