Alexa Meade paints Hailee Kaleem Wright, Eden Espinosa, and Brian Stokes Mitchell at Wonderland Dreams (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
WONDERLAND DREAMS
529 Fifth Ave. between Forty-Third & Forty-Fourth Sts.
Wednesday – Monday through September 10, $33.50-$44.50
www.wonderlanddreams.com
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If you’re looking for that elusive rabbit hole to bring respite to your harried life — and we’re not talking about the proverbial rabbit hole but something more akin to the real deal — then you can’t go wrong with Wonderland Dreams.
Washington, DC–born installation artist Alexa Meade has transformed a 26,000-square-foot midtown space into an immersive version of Lewis Carroll’s classic nineteenth-century novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Thankfully, it’s nothing like the overhyped shows in which works by such artists as Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Gustav Klimt “come to life,” morphing in projections on the floor, walls, ceilings, and mirrored sculptures.
Everyone is invited to paint their own acrylic flowers at Wonderland Dreams (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
For Wonderland Dreams, Meade and her team hand-painted every inch of the space; as you walk, crawl, or glide through the many rooms, you’ll encounter fanciful chairs and couches, giant mushrooms and flowers, tiny houses, an inviting keyhole, a large chess set and playing cards, a hedge maze, a carousel horse, a swirling tea party, out-of-sync clocks, empty picture frames, and photographs and portraits of celebrities whose bodies Meade has painted on. Everything can be touched, handled, and ridden on; essentially, it’s a gigantic playhouse for kids and adults. Be sure to pick up 3D glasses to enhance your experience in several cool rooms, and stop by the café and the gift shop for bonus surprises, even if you’re not seeking to eat, drink, or buy anything.
In July, I attended Broadway Night, during which stars Eden Espinosa (Wicked, Rent), two-time Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell (Man of La Mancha, Kiss Me, Kate), and Hailee Kaleem Wright (Six, Paradise Square) donned black-and-white jumpsuits and then, standing in a full-length empty frame, were painted all over by Meade, who is currently the artist-in-residence at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario; the actors held the palette as Meade covered every bit of their skin, including their faces, necks, hands, and wrists. They then posed in the frame, individually and together, as if the paintings were, well, coming to life. The next Broadway Night is August 21, with guests to be announced; the Grand Finale closing party is set for September 9.
Every room holds a different surprise in Wonderland Dreams (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
There are various places where visitors are encouraged to put on masks, hats, coats, and other props for further immersion into the world of Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen, the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee. In the back is a studio where you can paint an acrylic flower and add it to the wall. There’s also the family-friendly Mad Hatter’s Adventure on Saturday and Sunday mornings at ten.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense,” Alice says in the first book.
As Meade reveals in Wonderland Dreams, there’s nothing wrong with that.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]