Modernized ‘Alice’ at Celtic Arts

“Alice in Wonderland” is a favorite choice with children’s theater companies, which is puzzling--Lewis Carroll’s verbal magic is not easily absorbed by young children and rarely survives transition to the stage.

At the Celtic Arts Center in Hollywood, the Aweezel Hed Stage Company is presenting an adaptation of “Wonderland” that leaves out the wonder altogether. Directed by Rif Hutton, this “contemporary” version includes a Mafioso Caterpillar, a leather-jacketed Red Queen and an Elvis Presley Humpty Dumpty.

As sight gags, some innovations work briefly. A rap-style rendition of “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” done by Denise Munro and Sally Shore, begins amusingly, but the words get lost in the device. Munro’s punk Red Queen, making an entrance to music from “West Side Story,” elicits a smile, until she shrieks her lines.

Raising the decibel level to maximum, one ear-splitting scene has Munro and Alice (Sharon Mann) in a shouting match: “Off with her head!” “No, off with your head!”

Shore, as the Mouse, lifts her voice to such a high pitch that her words are almost indecipherable.

Gordon Roberts manages to bring life to some of the characters he plays--his Cheshire Cat and King of Hearts work well--but it’s not enough to mitigate Hutton’s loose grip on the proceedings.

Except for Mann, all the cast members portray several characters each, adding simple costume pieces and Irish, Italian, English and Southern accents to make the changes. Maro Hakopian has inexplicably dressed the women in unflatteringly revealing leotards. The men fare better in T-shirts and baggy shorts.

Set designer Renee Nahum makes no attempt to convey Carroll’s fantastical topography. The set is static: three black boxes painted with a mushroom, a chess piece and a teapot sit on a triangular stage.

The play hits its nadir with a suggestive request by one of the characters that Alice take off her clothes. Is this an allusion to supposed perversity on Carroll’s part, intended to amuse the adults in the audience?

Curiouser and curiouser. . . .

Performances at 5651 Hollywood Blvd. run Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. until March 27. Tickets: $4-$6. (213) 461-1566.