New York- You’d think that Bill Osco was Mel Gibson the way critics were taking cheap shots at the Broadway rendition of his Seventies porn film, Alice in Wonderland. We caught up with Osco last week when he was in a series of meetings and rehearsals. Hence the quick chat. Osco’s Alice in Wonderland came to Broadway the beginning of this year after a four-month run in Los Angeles and was met with less critical enthusiasm than a pet accident on the living room rug.

But what do critics know? The audiences have been packing the house and Osco is now talking about a film re-make of Alice as early as mid-summer. Another thing, the original film is scheduled for a DVD release from Arrow Productions, www.deepthroat.com at the end of this month. https://adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=3052

“We just finished the third month,” says Osco about the New York show. “We moved the location to Studio 54, a much bigger place. We’re expecting huge crowds this [Easter] weekend.”

Osco’s response to some of the negative swipes at the play was that bad reviews only served to pack the house. “It was critic-proof,” said Osco.

“They couldn’t succeed in hurting me. The show’s probably acting-proof, too. The material’s so strong, even if the actor’s are bad, they’re still funny.”

Osco feels that the critics looked at Alice more as a play than a show and reviewed it as such. “I offend a lot of people. Most of the critics were over 75 on the average, and the others pretty much gay, and they got offended. It’s not a critics’ show.

“During the run in Los Angeles, New York heard about it, and flew in,” Osco continued. “They liked it and wanted to take it to New York.”

So well received has the show been that Osco said another version had been set for last Friday- Alex in Wonderland with an all-male cast.

“I have two friends on Broadway- it worked for them,” Osco notes. “Mel Brooks and John Waters- it worked for their old films. And Alice probably grossed 10 times more than what they did. We’re doing good.” Osco said he shot the film originally as an R-rated project and that his editor shot the additional hardcore footage which was added later.Osco says the movie when it first came out did about $50 million in box office.

“It was the biggest hit in ’77- the Number One movie. And that was at $3 a ticket,” he says. “Another movie of mine, Flesh Gordon, came out a year prior to that and I did about $46 million on that. In today’s market that would be over $100, $150 million. It looks like I’m going to do another Alice from the way it looks. We’re getting a lot of offers here in New York to do Alice again.” Osco said the New York run was an opportunity to see if the show would hold up for audiences. “If I updated everything I wanted to see if people would have feelings for it. Audiences here are laughing their ass off.”

Asked if the film would include the Broadway cast, Osco said he would probably bring a few people on board. “Plays are much more difficult to do than movies,” he continmues. “You’ve got to spend much more time with people. It’s a pain in the ass.”