Spring Awakening writers working on new musical

Spring Awakening writers Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik are reportedly workshopping a new musical at London’s National Theatre.

Image via Neuro Productions@Flickr

The show is entitled Alice By Heart and was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s surreal 1865 fantasy novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The musical will reportedly add a heightened sense of urgency and even more danger to the classic story, will explore the rather adult themes of grief and loss and will move the story to “a new historical context”.

Speaking to Playbill.com, Steven Sater said: “It’s about how to leave childhood behind and the challenge and struggle in that”.

The National Theatre’s Connections programme, which develops plays for youth theatres across the United Kingdom, commissioned the new musical.

Sater and Sheik aim to have both script and scow complete by July and intend to stage a workshop presentation at the National Theatre some time in November. The presentation is to be attended by the heads of youth theatres from around the country and each of those theatres will have the chance to stage a production of Alice By Heart. One group will then be selected to perform the show at the National in 2012.

The ultimate aim is to see a professional production in London or New York after the 2012 performances at the National.