Paul's Broadway Watch - Little Women
Mon, 24 Jan 2005, 03:35 pmWalter Plinge1 post in thread
Paul's Broadway Watch - Little Women
Mon, 24 Jan 2005, 03:35 pmJust opened on Broadway...
Little Women
Book by Allan Knee – “The Man Who Was Peter Pan” (filmed as “Finding Neverland”)
Music by Jason Howland
Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein
Based on the book by Louisa May Alcott
Directed by Susan H. Schulman – “Secret Garden”
Featuring:
Sutton Foster – 2002 Tony Award Best Actress in a Musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie”
Maureen McGovern – “The Towering Inferno”
John Hickok – “Aida”
Jenny Powers – “Bounce”
From the reviews:
“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.”
“In this underwritten, undercomposed, understaged, and underpopulated epic, you're always more aware of what's missing than what's there. “
“…McGovern's is the finest performance: mannered, controlled, maternal, all-encompassing. She commands the stage whenever she's present, and commands your attention and heart every time she speaks or sings. Foster (the only performer billed above the title) has far more opportunities, but is strident and modern as Jo, seeming less a burgeoning 19th-century female writer than a struggling Suffragette more at home several decades later.
“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.”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“Little Women isn't the most sophisticated or rapturously melodic show you'll find on Broadway. But this chamber-size musical pulses with a generous affection for its source material and a refreshing realization that Broadway audiences don't always need to be wowed.”
“…the performances of Sutton Foster as Jo and especially Maureen McGovern as the materfamilias Marmee root the drama with a heartfelt confidence that overrides the show's shortcomings. “
“The presence of a veteran like McGovern often skews a musical in his or her direction, but Little Women wisely keeps the focus on Jo and the girls. McGovern, who has burnished her beautiful
instrument with a welcome maternal warmth, makes the most of her two songs and her limited stage time. Foster, by comparison, is front and center almost as much as she was in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and although she overplays the gawky tomboy too broadly in the early scenes, she sounds terrific and does justice to Jo's conflicting loyalties. The 10-member cast is, with one or two mild exceptions, quite strong.”
“About halfway through a sad and very pretty Act II duet for Jo and Beth called "Some Things Are Meant to Be," the woman to my right wrapped a comforting arm around her daughter, a preteen in a sleek winter coat whose shoulders had begun to heave. A quick look and listen around the theater made it clear that dozens of other parents were having just as little success quieting their kids, let alone keeping their own emotions in check. Beth goes on to sing:
"Some things will never die:
The promise of who you are,
Your memories when I am far from you.
All my life I've lived for loving you.
Let me go nowÂ…"
The level of commitment by the actors and writers, in addition to the goodwill extended by a receptive audience, is by no means exclusive to this scene. That doesn't turn Little Women into a great show, but it does result in a comfortable, honest, highly satisfying night at the theater. “
Broadway.com – Eric Grode
“George Cukor, who directed the first (excluding silents) and best film version of Little Women, once remarked that he wasn't happy when first handed the assignment: "It was a story that little girls read, like Elsie Dinsmore," he said. But he soon changed his tune. Louisa May Alcott's novel is a grown-up story for grownups, full of New England backbone and well drawn characters who really do mature and deepen. Watching Cukor's 1933 film, with Katharine Hepburn's exuberant, career-defining Jo March, one is immediately struck by how innately musical the material is. It's emotional, honest, touching, and every feeling Jo expresses is a song waiting to happen. She's ambitious, yearning, independent, spirited -- and she grows.”
“But if Little Women is such a natural for musical treatment, why do adaptors keep dropping the ball? … And there's Mark Adamo's recent, well received opera, which suggests that Alcott's nuanced characters and episodic narrative don't fit readily into the mold of a standard-issue musical. That's surely what they get in the old-fashioned rendering of Little Women that opened last night at the Virginia Theatre. With its deliberate scene-song-scene-song construction, traditional values boldly declared, simple life lessons, and pretty, unadventurous harmonies, you might mistake this show for the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein -- that is, if it were bigger and better. “
“Much of Jason Howland's music is sweet and appealing in a corseted, A-A-B-A sort of way.”
“The adaptors do get large swatches of the show right, particularly in the momentum-building second act.”
“Fond as I am of traditional musical theater forms, this show -- for all its beguiling moments -- would have more impact and pungency if it didn't keep posturing and going through such predictable paces. It's almost as if it were in contention to be named the Best Musical of 1958. “
Theatermania – Marc Miller
Hmm...
Luke warm reviews?
So far this season that translates as glowing reviews, after everything else (except The Frogs) has been universally slammed!
Little Women
Book by Allan Knee – “The Man Who Was Peter Pan” (filmed as “Finding Neverland”)
Music by Jason Howland
Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein
Based on the book by Louisa May Alcott
Directed by Susan H. Schulman – “Secret Garden”
Featuring:
Sutton Foster – 2002 Tony Award Best Actress in a Musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie”
Maureen McGovern – “The Towering Inferno”
John Hickok – “Aida”
Jenny Powers – “Bounce”
From the reviews:
“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.”
“In this underwritten, undercomposed, understaged, and underpopulated epic, you're always more aware of what's missing than what's there. “
“…McGovern's is the finest performance: mannered, controlled, maternal, all-encompassing. She commands the stage whenever she's present, and commands your attention and heart every time she speaks or sings. Foster (the only performer billed above the title) has far more opportunities, but is strident and modern as Jo, seeming less a burgeoning 19th-century female writer than a struggling Suffragette more at home several decades later.
“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.”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“Little Women isn't the most sophisticated or rapturously melodic show you'll find on Broadway. But this chamber-size musical pulses with a generous affection for its source material and a refreshing realization that Broadway audiences don't always need to be wowed.”
“…the performances of Sutton Foster as Jo and especially Maureen McGovern as the materfamilias Marmee root the drama with a heartfelt confidence that overrides the show's shortcomings. “
“The presence of a veteran like McGovern often skews a musical in his or her direction, but Little Women wisely keeps the focus on Jo and the girls. McGovern, who has burnished her beautiful
instrument with a welcome maternal warmth, makes the most of her two songs and her limited stage time. Foster, by comparison, is front and center almost as much as she was in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and although she overplays the gawky tomboy too broadly in the early scenes, she sounds terrific and does justice to Jo's conflicting loyalties. The 10-member cast is, with one or two mild exceptions, quite strong.”
“About halfway through a sad and very pretty Act II duet for Jo and Beth called "Some Things Are Meant to Be," the woman to my right wrapped a comforting arm around her daughter, a preteen in a sleek winter coat whose shoulders had begun to heave. A quick look and listen around the theater made it clear that dozens of other parents were having just as little success quieting their kids, let alone keeping their own emotions in check. Beth goes on to sing:
"Some things will never die:
The promise of who you are,
Your memories when I am far from you.
All my life I've lived for loving you.
Let me go nowÂ…"
The level of commitment by the actors and writers, in addition to the goodwill extended by a receptive audience, is by no means exclusive to this scene. That doesn't turn Little Women into a great show, but it does result in a comfortable, honest, highly satisfying night at the theater. “
Broadway.com – Eric Grode
“George Cukor, who directed the first (excluding silents) and best film version of Little Women, once remarked that he wasn't happy when first handed the assignment: "It was a story that little girls read, like Elsie Dinsmore," he said. But he soon changed his tune. Louisa May Alcott's novel is a grown-up story for grownups, full of New England backbone and well drawn characters who really do mature and deepen. Watching Cukor's 1933 film, with Katharine Hepburn's exuberant, career-defining Jo March, one is immediately struck by how innately musical the material is. It's emotional, honest, touching, and every feeling Jo expresses is a song waiting to happen. She's ambitious, yearning, independent, spirited -- and she grows.”
“But if Little Women is such a natural for musical treatment, why do adaptors keep dropping the ball? … And there's Mark Adamo's recent, well received opera, which suggests that Alcott's nuanced characters and episodic narrative don't fit readily into the mold of a standard-issue musical. That's surely what they get in the old-fashioned rendering of Little Women that opened last night at the Virginia Theatre. With its deliberate scene-song-scene-song construction, traditional values boldly declared, simple life lessons, and pretty, unadventurous harmonies, you might mistake this show for the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein -- that is, if it were bigger and better. “
“Much of Jason Howland's music is sweet and appealing in a corseted, A-A-B-A sort of way.”
“The adaptors do get large swatches of the show right, particularly in the momentum-building second act.”
“Fond as I am of traditional musical theater forms, this show -- for all its beguiling moments -- would have more impact and pungency if it didn't keep posturing and going through such predictable paces. It's almost as if it were in contention to be named the Best Musical of 1958. “
Theatermania – Marc Miller
Hmm...
Luke warm reviews?
So far this season that translates as glowing reviews, after everything else (except The Frogs) has been universally slammed!