‘Little Women’: an ambitious show
Image: Molly Bugeja, Kaori Maeda-Judge, Madeleine Betts, Lawrence Hawkins, Shannen Alyce Quan in LITTLE WOMEN. Credit: Grant Leslie Photography
The Hayes Theatre continues to pull surprises out of its hat, to wit, its latest offering, Little Women the Musical. With a book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein (all Broadway alumni) Little Women has the right pedigree for success. Whether it is might be in the eye and ear of the beholder.
It seems somewhat intuitive that Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel would work as a musical adaptation: the action predominantly takes place in the home of the March family and other locations can be easily evoked; it’s an intimate story featuring a handful of main characters and there is a distinct narrative arc.
The challenge is in choosing how much of the story to tell, and how to tell it. It is, after all, a bit of an epic. This musical condenses two books, Little Women and its sequel, Good Wives into a highlights reel of significant moments. It kind of works, but there’s a clear deficit of character development and it’s hard to get involved with the story.
The songs could have helped fill in the gaps in the narrative and flesh out the characters, but instead they tend to feel repetitive, with predictable classic Broadway-style melodies. The lyrics offer no insight and simply reiterate what has already happened on stage.
So it all comes down to production.
As ever, the performances on the diminutive Hayes stage are all impeccable. Shannen Alyce Quan is brilliant in the very demanding central role of Jo March. Quan is pretty much in every scene and has to navigate an ever-changing sea of emotion. They have songs that demand vocal athleticism which they deliver with mastery and beauty.
Kaori Maeda-Judge brings the essence of Leisl von Trapp to Meg March and Molly Bugeja is suitably earnest and endearing as Beth March.
Vitoria Hronopoulos stands out as the bratty, quarrelsome Amy March who morphs into a lady of charm. Emily Cascarino is warm, genuinely motherly in the role of Marmee March, a role that could easily have been given more prominence in the script.
As the condescending Aunt March, Tisha Kelemen has great presence and some wonderful one-liners. Much-loved veteran actor, Peter Carroll is a joy as Mr Lawrence, the grumpy old man next door whose heart gets thawed out by the March family.
As the naïve, high-spirited Laurie, Lawrence Hawkins brings great energy and a lovely voice. Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward is made-to-order as Meg’s first-love-cum-husband, John Brooke.
From the very first scene to the final one, Tyran Stig as Professor Bhaer, is funny, likeable, and charming.
The music, produced by a small orchestra and led by music director, Gianna Cheung, is excellent.
The stage and costume designs are an enigma. Parallel elastic ropes and box cages make up most of the furniture, but their abstraction feels inconsonant with the fairly conventional rendering of the story and the music.
Similarly, Lily Mateljan’s costumes tend to draw attention to themselves for their oddness — a patchwork of rags and esoteric ensembles.
It would be advantageous to be familiar with Alcott’s original novels to fully embrace this musical. You would also need to be a fan of Stephen Schwartz’s (Wicked, lots of Disney stuff) music, as that is the style of the songs in Little Women and there are a lot of them.
