Nikki Davis Jones and Paul Harnett discuss Alice at St James Studio

Sandwich crumbs in your keyboard and coffee stains on your notebook, ever get the feeling you should get out of the office at lunchtime? Well co-writers Paul Harnett and Rebecca Crookshank, along with composers Dan Williams and Jay Reynolds may just have the answer. Introducing Alice – A New Musical at St James Studio.

Running until 21 March, the show features Alice, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat and Co. and takes place at lunchtime (12:00 or 13:00 depending on the day) for 45 minutes, meaning you can fit in lunch AND a show and still be back at your desk before the boss realises you've detached yourself from the computer.

We caught up with director/producer/writer Paul Harnett and assistant director/former Wicked star Nikki Davis Jones to find out more about the show.

Nikki, what’s it like directing a show?

NDJ: It’s really interesting, I love working with Paul and seeing it coming to life, reading the script and seeing it actually being created right there in front of me. Having ideas and being able to [suggest them] to Paul. It’s such a great team and everyone’s collaborating really well so I think the end product will be amazing.

PH: It’s a real luxury to have all the creative team actually in the rehearsal process. Things are changing constantly, the music is changing and the script is changing.

NDJ: And everyone’s on exactly the same page so it’s perfect. It’s a great experience for me and to be on this side of the cloth is really fascinating and I’m learning lots as an actor as well.

Tell us a bit about the story

PH: Alice is the story of a little girl who falls down a rabbit hole and ends up in this magical world called Wonderland. We really explore who she is – she’s a lot older in our story, she’s a teenager – why she needs to escape the reality of her life and go to this magical place, and what the characters bring to her, we’re looking into the idea that all the characters are a part of her in some way – they represent her courage or her confidence or her shyness, and how she judges them is in a way her judging herself. It’s an amazing story, the original book is incredible and kids around the world know it as a story and we’ve taken that and taken it one step further and looked at the relationships.

What’s different about your production?

NDJ: Well it’s a musical.

PH: This is a musical, it’s 45 minutes long and it’s on at lunchtimes. The idea is that office workers and people in the local area can come and watch the show in 45 minutes, eat their lunch whilst watching it, it costs a tenner and it really works as a concept. We’ve done it before with Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, and people do put down their pens at one o’clock come to the theatre, watch a show, eat their lunch and get back to their desks within an hour. I think this being a musical as well we’ve opened it up to a whole new audience.

NDJ: Yeah, the music is incredible. Lots of different styles, incredible voices, great tracks that have all been made especially for this with incredible musicians. So you are getting a lot for your money for 45 minutes.

What has the writing process been like?

PH: Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the book is incredible and there’s a reason why it is so successful today and people read it and love it and it actually means something to people. Turning that into a play was quite difficult because in the book you just get character, character, character, character, character and on stage that would be a bit too much. So we had to work on this new storyline for Alice, update her from the Victorian character she is in the book and make her a little bit more relatable to a modern audience. Also we had to give her a journey from the start of the play to the end, so that she achieved something from being in Wonderland. It really has the essence of the book, it has all the characters you’d expect, you’ll watch it and feel like you’ve got Alice in Wonderland out of it but we’ve also added a bit of ourselves to it.

NDJ: It’s very funny.

PH: Yeah and Lewis Carroll has been lovely to work with. He doesn’t really say much but it’s been real great fun.

Why should people come and see the show?

PH: It’s £10, it’s 45 minutes long and you get this amazing cast, the music is incredible, it’s very funny and I don’t know what more people want from the theatre.

NDJ: No, it’s just fantastic and it’s well worth a tenner. Bring you lunch, I’ll see you there!

Alice: A New Musical runs at the St James Studio until 12pm. Click here for more information and see below for a sneak peek at one of the songs from the show