#1
Posted: 1/23/05 at 6:06pm
Talkin Broadway is first, as usual - it's pretty bad (McGovern is the only thing he likes):
There are two surprising things about the new musicalization of Little Women that just opened. The first is that a musical of Louisa May Alcott's classic story took so long to reach Broadway; other stage incarnations and operatic settings have been around for years. The second is that the resulting adaptation of the universally admired novel will now only appeal to little girls who can't get tickets to Wicked.
But chances are even they would be frustrated by the bloated, charm-deprived show that's been created from Alcott's semi-autobiographical novel. Writers Allan Knee (book), Mindi Dickstein (lyrics), and Jason Howland (music) have ignored almost all the warm and winsome coming-of-age qualities of Alcott's original and created a forced and false musical that amply demonstrates why "good enough" is never good enough, even when a well-known title guarantees it an audience.
This is the kind of show that must end its first act with Sutton Foster standing downstage center and belting out a song called "Astonishing," which is so full of generic sentiment ("I will blaze until I find my time and place") that you may wonder whether she's playing aspiring writer Jo March or the plucky Kansas-born Millie Dillmount she won a Tony for in 2002. Precisely why the authors opted for such run-of-the-mill writing to bring to life such a flavorful book is never clear.
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What's present isn't likely to be too attractive to those familiar with the novel, though they're probably the only ones who'll be able to follow the meandering plot and make sense of the sketchy characterizations. Those not armed with such foreknowledge will still be able to discern the sisters - the feisty Jo, the romantic Meg (Jenny Powers), the easily hurt Amy (Amy McAlexander), and the kindly Beth (Megan McGinnis) - but will feel little emotional connection to them.
This is because Knee's book so exaggerates the episodic nature of Alcott's story that you may feel you're watching an ABC sitcom or an After-School Special.
*********************************************************
McGovern is the production's sole transcendent element; she's wonderful, but not enough. By the time the show ends, we're supposed to be charmed and moved by how these women have learned and grown from their experiences, but how can we when we know so little about them beyond their names and basic traits? At least this allows us to feel some kinship with Little Women's creators: It's painfully obvious they never got to know their title characters very well, either.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/LittleWomen.html
There are two surprising things about the new musicalization of Little Women that just opened. The first is that a musical of Louisa May Alcott's classic story took so long to reach Broadway; other stage incarnations and operatic settings have been around for years. The second is that the resulting adaptation of the universally admired novel will now only appeal to little girls who can't get tickets to Wicked.
But chances are even they would be frustrated by the bloated, charm-deprived show that's been created from Alcott's semi-autobiographical novel. Writers Allan Knee (book), Mindi Dickstein (lyrics), and Jason Howland (music) have ignored almost all the warm and winsome coming-of-age qualities of Alcott's original and created a forced and false musical that amply demonstrates why "good enough" is never good enough, even when a well-known title guarantees it an audience.
This is the kind of show that must end its first act with Sutton Foster standing downstage center and belting out a song called "Astonishing," which is so full of generic sentiment ("I will blaze until I find my time and place") that you may wonder whether she's playing aspiring writer Jo March or the plucky Kansas-born Millie Dillmount she won a Tony for in 2002. Precisely why the authors opted for such run-of-the-mill writing to bring to life such a flavorful book is never clear.
************************************************************
What's present isn't likely to be too attractive to those familiar with the novel, though they're probably the only ones who'll be able to follow the meandering plot and make sense of the sketchy characterizations. Those not armed with such foreknowledge will still be able to discern the sisters - the feisty Jo, the romantic Meg (Jenny Powers), the easily hurt Amy (Amy McAlexander), and the kindly Beth (Megan McGinnis) - but will feel little emotional connection to them.
This is because Knee's book so exaggerates the episodic nature of Alcott's story that you may feel you're watching an ABC sitcom or an After-School Special.
*********************************************************
McGovern is the production's sole transcendent element; she's wonderful, but not enough. By the time the show ends, we're supposed to be charmed and moved by how these women have learned and grown from their experiences, but how can we when we know so little about them beyond their names and basic traits? At least this allows us to feel some kinship with Little Women's creators: It's painfully obvious they never got to know their title characters very well, either.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/LittleWomen.html
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
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