Why in heaven's name didn't Little Women do better?!

[Jennifer Lynn]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 12:49pm

I just listened to the CD of the Little Women musical, which I'd asked for for Christmas. (I'd already fallen in love with the song "Small Umbrella In The Rain," having heard it on Music Choice.) Does anyone have any opinions on WHY in God's name this show didn't do better?

Now, granted, I've never seen a production. But the score--to my ears, at least--is lovelier and more emotionally affecting than some shows that are established hits!

Of course, such things are subjective anyway...one listener's "lovely and emotionally affecting" may be another's "monochromatic". There's someone on RATM who insists that The Secret Garden's score, which I consider one of the most beautiful in all musical theater, is "monochromatic."

But...to my ears, LW has the score that most musicals wish they could have. So, what's your opinion?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 12:52pm

The score isn't that special. The story plods.

It's not a bad show, but it lacks a WOW factor. It's a nice, enjoyable night at the theatre. But...that's all.

I never saw it on Broadway, but the only thing that kept me coming back to it on tour was the cast. They made it special. Not much else was.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 12:55pm

Saw it on Broadway shortly after it opened.

One word: BORING!

Story isn't one that interests people, especially at Broadway prices.

[little_sally]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 12:56pm

I saw the show shortly after it opened and I did enjoy a lot of the music, and I loved Sutton Foster and Maureen McGovern. What I didn't love was the book. It was extremely dull and it tried to condense pages and pages of a novel into a two and half hour show. And IMO, there were just as many dull or bad songs as there were good songs. When I listen to it on the cast recording, I do enjoy the score more, so I can understand why you think it's so wonderful. The score works better on disc than it does in the theatre.

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 12:57pm

I saw it on Broadway, and very much enjoyed it
As LizzieCurry already said, it was enjoyable, but lacked a WOW factor
The score was fine with some very very good songs
But the book was baaaad, just horrible writing and such
Overall, I'm also very sad that it closed so early
But with mixed to negative reviews, and not that great of advertising, the show didn't do all that well
Yeah.

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:04pm

Just like you I love the score, then I saw it live and realized how BORING it was, not completely like I want to cry because its so boring but it wasn't great. The score is pretty amazing though.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:05pm

I saw it on Broadway, and I agree that the score is wonderful. I love it. But the show was very slow and dull. It could have been better, but the book was executed poorly. It was unfortunate as all the performers were wonderful and the score is great.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:06pm

Hard to be interesting when the story has so little in it. Four girls and a mom waiting for Dad to come home from the war. Other than Beth's death, it is a time passing type story. Nice in a book, long day in the theater.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:09pm

It just wasn't compelling. Some of the cast were wonderful, but Sutton was working her ass off, and it showed. Mugging as if her life depended on it.

[Danielm]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:25pm

I think that while some of the score--especially the period numbers--was quite beautiful, too much of it was sort of dull pop ballads. It was just not quite good enough.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:32pm

I don't think the material was universal. The advertising for the show was targeted toward mothers and little girls.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:34pm

Right, but it still wasn't a good show even for them.

It was my favorite book as a child, and still remains one of my favorites to this day.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:48pm

The music may have been fine, but some of those lyrics were horrendous. I never bought the CD, but one lyric that I still remember from seeing the show on Broadway was something along the lines of:

"And we'll leave Concord unconquered!"

Lord! Does it get much worse than that?

[sondhead]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 2:51pm

I never found the score very good. Very clunky and amateurish melodies and let's not even talk about the lyrics. Furthermore, it's so modern musical theatre in parts.. songs like the terrible Astonishing are just not appropriate given the subject matter and time period.

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:00pm

the novel Little Women is one of the top two favorite novels of mine. I read it when I was in the 5th grade and I can't even count how many times I've read it since. So when I found out they were doing a musical with Maureen McGovern I was SOOO happy. But it BLEW. I liked some of the songs. The girl who played amy was so annoying and it was sadly boring. And I still love the book and actually just finished reading it again because I was in the mood, but the musical wasn't...right.

Plus, the men came across as total pussies. I'm sorry I know that's not the most educated way of putting it, and it's rude to say, but seriously. Little Women is about strong women but these men were like little boys and in the book they were portrayed much more honestly.

Thats what it is. The musical wasn't honest to the time period or the original novel.

[galindagirl2]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:11pm

SallyBrown...EXACTLY! Little Women is one of my all-time favorite books (I've read it several times), and the musical did not do it justice. The characters in the musical were written in a rather stereotypical, cookie-cutter fashion. (ex. "Amy is vain and whiny", "Meg is motherly", "Mr. Laurence is gruff".) Giving a character one characteristic will not carry him or her through a show or make him or her even remotely realistic. The romance in the novel is sweeping and beautiful, while the musical seemed to purposefully make it cliche and almost laughable.
I suppose Laurie bothered me the most...because I practically fell in love with the character in the novel...They COMPLETELY rewrote him for the musical. He was nebbish and overly-polite and very unlovable! I totally understood why Jo said "no" in this instance.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:16pm

Christopher Colombus, guys!

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:17pm

Somehow, B3T, that was not annoying in the book, but hearing Foster screech it every 10 minutes really got on the nerves.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:18pm

And how!

(Oh wait, wrong Sutton Foster show.)

I have to chime in that the musical -- lukewarm as it is -- more or less stood on its own independent of the book if you'd never read it. At least that's how it was for me. I hadn't even touched the book until after I saw the musical. And I'm still on page 5 or something.

[James885]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:29pm

I saw it on tour and found it enjoyable. I think that the book was one of the show's major weak spots. I felt that the March sisters (with the exception of Jo) were poorly developed. For example, Beth's death did not have the emotional impact it should have because the character was not developed. I went into the show not reading the novel and knowing next to nothing about the story and as a result, I didn't really connect with Beth because I hardly knew anything about her. The time changes didn't really make sense to me because in some instances the audience was never told of the change in time. (I found that telling the first act in flashback was kind of confusing)

The score is ok. There are some very good songs (Five Forever, Days of Plenty) , but also several VERY forgettable ones (The Most Amazing Thing, Take A Chance On Me, More Than I Am ). I agree that some of the lyrics are pretty generic and full of cliches.

Despite all this, I did find the show to be pretty good, mostly due to the very talented cast I saw on tour. I can see why it had trouble lasting on Brodway in a season with Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels & The Light In The Piazza.

Updated On: 12/27/06 at 03:29 PM

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:29pm

Laurie made me want to hit him in the show. Stop whininh Laurie. Gawd.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:31pm

Four words: Directed by Susan Schulman

Updated On: 12/27/06 at 03:31 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 3:31pm

That makes sense, James, people on this board seemed to enjoy the tour cast more than the Broadway cast.

[Mamie]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 4:25pm

I also saw it early in its Broadway run and I remember walking out of that theatre and...... Well, honestly that's about all I remember. It was absolutely tedious and I do recall that as I left I couldn't recall one single song. No melody, no words, no nothing. I was so excited about having Maureen and Sutton back on stage and I couldn't have been more disappointed.

[galindagirl2]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 4:27pm

No. I saw the tour. I probably just love the book too much to enjoy the musical...