Little Women

From Page to Stage

by Anne Morgan

Little Women: The Musical is adapted from the beloved children's novel of the same name. Little Women was written by Louisa May Alcott and was originally published in two parts. The first part, titled Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, ends with Mr. March’s return on Christmas Eve and Meg and John Brooke’s engagement. It was published in October of that year. Good Wives, the second part of Little Women, was written shortly following the publication and success of Little Women and was published in April of 1869, less than a year after Alcott first started writing Little Women.

After John Pratt (John Brooke in Little Women) died in 1870, while Alcott was in Europe, Louisa May Alcott decided to write Little Men, the sequel to Little Women and Good Wives, as a way to support her sister Anna (Meg in Little Women) and her children. Little Men was published in May of 1871.

Despite severely declining health, Alcott was determined to wrap up all the loose ends of the March family stories and Jo’s Boys was published in September of 1886, less than two years before her death in 1888.

An adaptation of Little Women first appeared on Broadway in 1912 and has been revived and re-adapted many times since. Little Women has also been popular in film; there have been more than 10 versions of it on screen. Some of the most famous of these are the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn as Jo, a 1949 version that altered the birth order of the sisters in order to have Margaret O’Brien play Beth. A 1978 TV version starred William Shatner as Professor Bhaer. The 1994 film starred Winona Ryder as Jo, Susan Sarandon as Marmee and Christian Bale as Laurie was nominated for three Academy Awards. It has even been adapted into a Japanese Anime series.

Little Women: The Musical has a book written by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland. After 55 previews, it opened at the Virginia Theatre on January 23, 2005 and ran for 137 performances. It was nominated for both Drama Desk and Tony Awards. It starred Sutton Foster (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Young Frankenstein) as Jo.

Production Team

Cast