Jonathan Kaufman 10 June 2019
Deborah Garvey
A very productive session yesterday with brilliant actor/composer Deborah Garvey – who composed music for 2017’s Three Men in a Boat and last year’s Eleanor Marx play – as we grappled with the new songs for our outdoor version of Alice in Wonderland in July.
We played around with some lyrics, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s original verses, and together came up with an inspired ‘White Rabbit rap’ for the opening scene.
I love this process – bouncing ideas back and forth, much like I assume Lennon and McCartney must have come up with their songs – not that I’m making a direct comparison!
Alice in 2010
I’ve known Debs for years, since I first worked at Kirkdale Bookshop in Sydenham and she was a customer. When I discovered she was a trained actor, and vocal coach, we formed a brilliant partnership, and she has been involved in many a Spontaneous production. She has a gift for taking a simple idea and developing it into a memorable song in no time at all, and most of all, she gets my Spontaneous style – which means working very spontaneously of course!
Can’t wait to hear the final versions of these songs, which include a new lyric I’ve written for Alice to sing, based on Tennyson’s poem/song ‘Come into the garden Maud’ and some very mixed-up nursery rhymes It’s going to be a great show!
[Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will run for 8 performances only at Mayow Park from Fri 26 July – Sun 4 Aug. Tickets on sale end of June.]
