LITTLE WOMEN – FROM PAGE TO STAGE

Stephen Patterson (left) and Kate Fisher, Little Women –
The Broadway Musical. © 2005 Joan Marcus.

For a musical to be a hit, generally there are two basic elements that are required: a good book and a good score. Acting, singing, dance, production values figure in there, too, but the book and the score really make it fly.

Take a look at “the book” for LITTLE WOMEN—THE BROADWAY MUSICAL: the much-loved classic tale by Louisa May Alcott, published in September, 1868, concerning the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. It’s around 500 pages of some of the most popular literature of its period, and while some of its issues may seem outdated, many of the trials of the sisters are still relevant today as evidenced by its continued following.

The show’s creators, especially Allan Knee who wrote the play’s book, had the Herculean task of taking a 500-page book and synthesizing it into a two-and-a-half hour musical onstage. They decided to focus on Jo’s journey in this retelling, but have managed to keep the “flavor” of the novel, maintaining its inspiration and universal appeal.

Alcott’s original work explores the overcoming of character flaws through application of the Bible, which each girl receives as a Christmas present in the early chapters. Each of the March girls displays a major character flaw: Meg, avarice; Jo, anger; Beth, crippling shyness; Amy, selfishness. They overcome their flaws through lessons learned the hard way: the pretty Meg becomes discontented with the children she teaches; boyish Jo loses her temper regularly; the golden-haired schoolgirl Amy in inclined towards affectation. Beth, however, who keeps the house is always kind and gentle. Even as young women the girls must work out these flaws in order to become archetypical mothers, wives, sisters and citizens.

LITTLE WOMEN—THE BROADWAY MUSICAL is not the first adaptation of Little Women for stage or screen. The Christian theme of the novel was usually deemphasized for film versions, and it is completely non-existent in the screen version produced by Winona Ryder and starring Susan Sarandon. Of the many popular versions, the four-hour miniseries with Susan Dey, Meredith Baxter Birney and Eve Plumb is considered the most faithful to the novel. Well-known adaptations include:

1933 film: Katharine Hepburn as Jo, Spring Byington as Marmee

1949 film: Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, June Allyson as Jo, Janet Leigh as Meg, Margaret O’Brien as Beth, Mary Astor as Marmee and Peter Lawford as Laurie

1978 film: Meredith Baxter Birney as Meg, Susan Dey as Jo, Eve Plumb as Beth, William Shatner as Friedrich Bhaer, Greer Garson as Aunt March and Robert Young as Grandpa James Laurence

1994 film: Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Winona Ryder as Jo, Kirsten Dunst as Amy, Claire Danes as Beth and Christian Bale as Laurie

According to the Internet Movie Database, seven additional versions were made as early as 1917 and as recently as 2001.

Interestingly, several Japanese anime versions have been produced, a 1980 TV special and a 1981 TV series. In 1987 a Japanese animation studio created yet another version which is the most successful and widely regarded as the best of all anime adaptations of the story.
In 1998 the book was adapted as an opera by composer Mark Adamo.

In January, 2005, the Broadway musical starring Maureen McGovern opened, playing through May, 2005.

In the fall of 2005, LITTLE WOMEN—THE BROADWAY MUSICAL began its tour and will play in 32 cities through the end of 2006.

Through all of its incarnations it still remains the story of Little Women, the story of the sisters’ growing maturity and wisdom and the search for the contentedness of family life.