Karen Mason
"I was told the breakdown for the original character," the multi-talented Karen Mason said earlier this week, explaining how she became involved in the new Frank Wildhorn musical Wonderland, which officially opened at Broadway's Marquis Theatre April 17. "It said, 'Queen of Hearts,' and then it gave a short description, and the description was: 'Black R&B singer. Margaret Dumont type.' And I thought, 'I'm not quite sure where I fit into any of that,'" Mason says with a laugh, "but I'll give it my best shot! ... I went in, and what I decided to do for my audition was 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend,' and I figured it kind of showed me off a little bit. I always wanted to work with Frank — I had been a fan for a long time, and known him through ASCAP. ... It was an opportunity to work with him at the audition and so I prepared, and prepared the parts of the scripts that they gave me.... I took it very seriously and went in and thought the audition went pretty well, and that's really all you can do is hope that your audition goes as well as you would like. And, I guess it did, and they offered me the role, and that was kind of the beginning of the journey."

That journey has included tryout engagements in Tampa, FL (twice) and Houston, where the musical's director, Gregory Boyd, is artistic director of the Alley Theatre.

Mason plays the wickedly zany Queen of Hearts in a cast that also boasts Janet Dacal, of In the Heights, as a modern-day Manhattan mom named Alice, as well as Darren Ritchie (Little Shop of Horrors, Thoroughly Modern Millie) as White Knight, E. Clayton Cornelious (The Scottsboro Boys, A Chorus Line) as Caterpillar, Jose Llana (Spelling Bee, Flower Drum Song) as El Gato, Kate Shindle (Legally Blonde, Cabaret, Jekyll and Hyde) as Mad Hatter, Carly Rose Sonenclar (Les Misérables, Little House on the Prairie) as Chloe, Edward Staudenmayer (Spamalot, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me) as White Rabbit and Danny Stiles (regional productions of Guys and Dolls and Sister Act: The Musical) as Morris.

	Mason in Wonderland.
	photo by Michal Daniel

Mason says the use of the dream in the new musical parallels her own journey through therapy following a paralyzed vocal cord she suffered in 1984. "It kind of freaked me out a lot, and a friend of mine recommended therapy — psychological therapy, just to try and get through it, and since then, I have been a big fan, especially of dreams. Dreams are fascinating. The fact that you utilize dreams to figure things out for yourself, and that you are the writer, the director and the star, I find always interesting in what they tell us about ourselves and really how they help us to figure out how complicated our lives are, and how to get through certain things in our lives."

Mason's voice, it should be noted, is as powerful and colorful as ever. "Well, most of us actors are pretty superstitious about stuff and most people have little, oh I hate to say, rites that you do right before you go on the stage. But, I do vocalize. I still vocalize, and I find that that really helps me a lot," she explains. "It's funny, I really only do two songs in the show, but ... in a way it's almost more difficult to only do two songs because then you don't have any time to kind of lead in to it or build up to it or kind of mark along the way — kind of build to that moment — it's basically shot out of a cannon.

"But, I do do my vocalizing and try to protect my voice in that way, and when I can, I go and study ...I just had a big birthday, and as I'm getting older, I thought, 'I don't want to let my voice go.' I really enjoy utilizing it to express myself. That's always been a way that I do express myself. Even when I am doing cabaret, I get a chance to sing the sad songs and the angry songs and the songs of discovery and the big fun songs, and I want to continue that. I want to continue to be able to have my voice. I want to be able to continue to utilize all of the colors of my voice until I just can't — until it finally gives away. But, after I had the paralysis, it was certainly a more heightened awareness of each second that I have of the ability to sing, so I want to make sure that I enjoy it and take care of it. It's a gift that I have right now, and I want to be able to enjoy that somebody gave me this gift, and make the most of it — not only for my own psyche, but for my career."

The singing actress, who is also one of the leading lights of the New York cabaret scene, describes her current role, the Queen of Hearts, as "an amalgam — she's a little bit of everything. You know, it's funny, somebody asked me, 'How does it feel to play a villain?' And I think that she is not really a villain in my mind. I think she does wield the power. That's definitely true. And I think she takes great joy in wielding the power. In my mind, and I was thinking about this the other day, if I decide that she really doesn't decapitate everyone who is walking the streets of Wonderland who gets in her way. She says, 'Off with their heads!,' and there is somebody right behind her who takes care of everything and really doesn't decapitate everyone. So she, in her mind, thinks that she has this great power, but in reality, she is powerful in that she makes it known, but nobody really dies in the process. I don't know if that takes away her power, but to me, she has the power and she knows it and just expects that everybody is going to accommodate to her power.... I've seen that certain people believe that they have power, and they walk into a room with that presumption of power, and everybody responds in kind. And that is, I think, what the Queen of Hearts is. I think it's that presumption of power."

	Mason takes an opening night bow.
	photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Mason gets the chance to stop the show in the musical's second act with her no-holds-barred rendition of "Off With Their Heads." "[Frank Wildhorn] wrote a couple of different versions before I came on board, which were all great songs," Mason explains, "but this one certainly fits who I am as a performer, and so he basically wrote this for me, and when we were working on the arrangement of it, of course, I put in all of those wonderful things that I've stolen from other performers... to make it fit me. I have a little plaque at home, and it says, 'Originality is the ability to conceal one's source,'" she laughs. "I think I have kind of stolen from a lot of different people. I do my homage to Liza and Judy in the song, and I love doing that moment. I really do. I love the lead-in to it, and that's probably what has changed the most [through the various productions] ... The book really supports where that song is coming from and where it's going to. Originally when we did it, it opened the second act. Queen is doing her cabaret act in the prison, which was kind of like, 'What? Okay! Well, we're going with it!' It worked in its odd, fantasy-land way, but I know it was strange. So this way, I have a scene, and I have something that kind of leads into it."

"What's so great is that everybody gets a moment," Mason continues. "I think that's why we are a happy company because you do get a chance to strut your stuff and do what you do, and then you can go and support everyone else. That's really important. We are in this so we can perform — so we can entertain. And, when you get a chance to do that, it makes you happier."

Similarly, Mason feels there is also something in the show for every possible type of audience member. "I see the kids coming to see this show and their parents also enjoying it, and the parents enjoying it for their kids," she says. "You can come to this show, and the young kids are going to walk away loving the boy-band and the spectacle and the Mad Hatter and Alice and Chloe, and hopefully the Queen. Then the parents are going to love some of the inside political jokes, and some of the musical theatre references. I think there is something for everyone."

She also loves that the show may be encouraging a whole new generation of theatregoers: "I am happy to see all of those beautiful young eyes seeing this show for the first time and possibly seeing a show for the first time and thinking this is the show that they will remember the rest of their lives. That is remarkable to me," says the Drama Desk-nominated artist. "And, I remember the first show I saw was Peter Pan at the St. Louis Muny, and we were about 12 miles away because it seats 13,000 people, and we were in the cheap seats. My parents were a young couple, with young kids and took us to see Peter Pan. We brought lunch for the afternoon and saw the show at night, and it still takes my breath away. I think I was so dazzled by the magic and, honestly, they must have been, because we were so far away, like an inch, but I still knew that there was magic on that stage. And going out and signing autographs afterwards and seeing these young kids who get the magic, that's great. That's just great."