wonder.land, National Theatre ***

The main reason for the anxiety about the form of Norris' tenure seems to be his Christmas musical which is being critically and publicly lampooned. Damon Albarn's and Moira Buffini's updated adaptation of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland certainly is a mess. The exceptional concept is demolished by a preposterous book from Moira Buffini ('now I'm not alone; like a nail all ingrown' is actually a lyric in this musical). Damon Albarn's music is high concept but lacks a memorable melody which is an important thing for a family musical. The video design takes away from the realism of normal life and the game graphics would mean that wonder.land would never be used in the modern age. Furthermore, there are extremely irritating performances, not least by Hal Fowler whose M.C needs to be reined in to stop being so grating.  But for all of this shows grave faults, it provides a great few hours of entertainment. If you don't take anything seriously, you can enjoy the ridiculous child who throws up for no reason and seems to only exist just to cram another issue in. You can also appreciate some exceptional performances. Lois Chimimba and Carly Bawden play the real and virtual Alice with personality and charm, especially Bawden as I thought I would spend her time on stage wondering how Rosalie Craig would have done it, so the fact that I didn't is a testament to her performance. Anna Francolini brings her formidable skill to the queen of spades like Mrs Manxome, delivering her opening number with fierce power in a 'model of a modern major general' style song and is generally an exceptional Disney villain, being bad with no real threat which suits the production well. Overall, whilst this show is almost a total failure, it is fabulously enjoyable to watch.