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Little Women

Little Women is a Broadway musical based on a two-volume novel by Louisa May Alcott with the same title. The novel is semi-autobiographical in nature and is considered classic literature. The musical has music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and a book by Allan Knee. It first premiered on Broadway in 2005.

Little Women deals with the life and adventures of the four March sisters- Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, and each of them has a distinct personality, with Jo being an aspiring writer. They live in Concord, Massachusetts, while their father is away serving the Union Army. When Professor Bhaer tells Jo to make her writing more interesting, she decides to use incidents from her own and her sisters' lives and the role of the American Civil War.

History and Background Information

The Little Women musical was first performed as a workshop production in 2001. Directed by Nick Corley, it was presented at Duke University after a workshop reading the previous year (2000). The team presented the musical one more time at Duke University. This was in 2004 and directed by Susan H. Schulman.

The Broadway version opened in January 2005 and closed in May. Susan H. Schulman was the director of the first Broadway version. The musical had choreography by Michael Lichtefeld and cast Sutton Foster as Jo. Jenny Powers played Meg, while Megan McGinnis was Beth, Amy McAlexander was Amy, John Hickok was Professor Bhaer, Maureen McGovern was Marmee, and Janet Carroll was Aunt March (Mrs. Kirk).

A different cast went on the US tour of Little Women in the same year (2005). The musical was presented in Sydney, Australia, in 2008. Stuart Maunder directed the musical, and Peter Rutherford was the music director of the Australian version of Little Women Musical.

The musical was performed in two acts, with fourteen musical numbers in the first and ten in the second. The Broadway version was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards but did not win any.

Themes of personal discovery, growth, love, loss, hope, family, relationships, sisterly bonds, heartache, choices, and war dominate the musical. Little Women makes the audience laugh, cry, smile, and feel connected to the four sisters as they navigate through life and share their experiences in a series of melodious songs. The musical numbers convey the voice of young Americans during the Civil War.