Alice: The Musical (tour – Burwell)

Alice: The Musical in this summer's production by Cambridge Touring Theatre is a revised and somewhat cut-down version by Barry Evans (who directs) and Rosie Humphreys of the John Gardiner script performed by the company a year or so ago Carroll's characters and set-pieces are still there but the narrative thread is much looser.

The costume designer is again Elizabeth Glass, and it is her contribution which really steals the show. The colours are bright, the fabrics are fresh and voluminous and the actors can switch characters with ease and some nifty change of headwear. Helena Trebar's set is also colourful and adapts to the different locations as Alice's summer afternoon dream takes her into a subterranean wonderland.

Georgie Freeman is a sweet- though not large-voiced Alice, demure in blue which shadows but does not directly copy the dress from the Tenniel illustrations. Fluffy-tailed James Clifford is the White Rabbit, immediately involving the audience in his dilemmas and leading Alice (and us) into the topsy-turvy realm of the Queen of Hearts.

This is a domineering Rochelle Parry, who is also the flappiest of March Hares and school-marm Mistress Mouse. Ashley Cavender-Jones plays an Italian-inflected, would-be Pavarotti Mad Hatter and the lugubrious Mock Turtle. Matthew Morse manages the Caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly very well and is suitably dozy as the Dormouse.

Musical director Tom Curran is at the keyboard. Simon Humphreys' numbers include a couple for the audience to join in with as well as Alice's two ballads, the "Lobster quadrille" the nicely jazzy "Mock turtle soup", a good setting of "You are old, father William" and one for "The flea and the fly".