NEW YORK—One of the greatest joys of fantasy is the escape it brings from the everyday world. But when flights of fancy become a desperate attempt to fend off reality, truth can appear in the most unexpected places. This is the underlying theme of the new Off-Broadway musical “Alice by Heart,” presented by the MCC Theater.
In 1941 London, during attacks by the German air force, teenage Alice Spencer (Molly Gordon), along with dozens of others, takes nightly shelter in an underground tube station. Their hiding place has been converted into a makeshift hospital and refugee camp, with inhabitants that include shell-shocked veterans, doctors, and nurses with no time for cheerfulness, and people wondering what, if anything, will await them when they emerge the next morning.
