 Little Women - the Musical
Musical in 2 Acts based on the novel Little Women by
Louisa May Alcott
Book by Allan Knee; Music by Jason Howland; Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein
Opened Virginia Theatre, Broadway - 23 January, 2005.
SYNOPSIS
Act One. The story opens in New York City,
1866. The Civil War is over. Jo March, an impassioned, ambitious
girl of 19, has recently arrived from Concord. Mass. to work as a
governess for Mrs. Kirk and, more importantly, to try to launch a
career as a writer of blood-and-guts thrillers. To
ease the blow of yet another rejection, she reads and re-enacts one
of her stories to a boarder in the house, Professor Bhaer. Taken
aback by the violence he hears. he tells her that she is unique and
could do better. Furious at him. Jo responds and, in
the process. her memory of the past comes alive. The scene segues
back to Concord. three years earlier, a few days before Christmas.
We are in Jo's favourite haunt, her attic, where she has just
completed her Christmas melodrama, which she and her sisters
- the oldest and romantic Meg, the youngest and determined Amy,
and the angelic Beth - intend to perform for the entire town.
During the song Jo extracts from her sisters a promise that the
four of them will remain together forever. Marinee, the girls'
mother and backbone of the family, returns home and after reading
them a letter from their father. who is serving as an Army chaplain,
she tries to write a letter of her own to her husband.
Jo works for her Aunt March. an over-bearing matriarch,
who promises to take Jo to Europe to further her much-needed education,
but only if Jo can change her un-lady-like ways.
Jo gets her first real opportunity to change when she and Meg are
invited to Annie Moffat's St. Valentine's Day Ball, an event that
Meg feels she is not up to until Marme, Jo and Beth reassure her.
At the ball, Jo and Meg meet Laurie, the engaging boy-next-door,
and his tutor. Mr. John Brooke. After Meg goes off dancing with Mr.
Brooke, Laurie confesses his desire for a friendship with Jo.
Laurie's gruff and irrascible grandfather, Mr. Laurence,
is vehemently against any relationship between his grandson and the
March family, but hearing Beth sing he
is so touched by her and the memories the song evokes that he joins
Beth in a duet. Upon his departure, Laurie races in carrying Amy,
who had fallen through the ice in an ice-skating accident. Jo and
Amy have not spoken to each other since Amy, in a fit of jealous
pique, burned Jo's best story. Jo opens up her heart, forgives her,
and together the four girls reaffirm, 'the March sisters forever!'.
Inspired. Jo invites Laurie into the fold as the brother they never
had.
When Marmee is called to Washington to attend to her
ailing husband, Jo's world begins to unravel. She sells her hair
to help finance Marmee's trip and thereby loses her own trip to Europe
when Aunt March is outraged by her behaviour. She loses Meg when
her sister becomes engaged to the recently-enlisted John Brooke,
and finally she loses Laurie when her confidante and best friend,
seemingly out of nowhere, proposes marriage to her and she turns
him down. Left alone she cries out for a different life.
Act Two finds Jo in New York. Jo finally
sells her first story: a rewritten version of 'An Operatic Tragedy'
which she joyously re-enacts for Professor Bhaer and Mrs. Kirk. But
when she receives news that her beloved Beth has contracted scarlet
fever, she abruptly returns to Concord, leaving behind a bewildered
Professor, who comes to see just how smitten with Jo he has become.
Jo, desperate to heal her ailing sister, takes her to
Cape Cod where Beth gently tries to convince her of the truth and
let her know that the hardest part is leaving her. The family mourns
the devastating loss of Beth, but when a grown-up Amy returns, one
senses life does, and must, go on. Laurie, who had gone to Europe
to get over Jo, returns with Amy, and the two confess to Jo that
they have fallen in love and will be
married in the spring. Unable to write, desperately missing Beth,
regretting she had ever left Concord, Jo makes her way up to her
long-unattended attic where Marmee finds her and passionately tells
her that Beth's memory must be honoured
Alone. Jo gradually recalls earlier times
that she and her sisters had in this very attic which leads her to
discover her true calling, writing the story of her own life with
her sisters, 'Little Women'.
On the day of Amy and Laurie's wedding, Professor Bhaer
arrives in Concord with the manuscript of the novel that Jo has sent
him. After struggling with his feelings, he professes his love and
proposes marriage. And though Jo admits she will never be an obedient
wife. this is a very good match. He then surprises her with the news
that Henry Dashwood of The Weekly Volcano Press has agreed to publish
her novel of Little Women. The lovers kiss passionately,
and Jo, before joining her newly extended family. declares her deep
contentment, thus joyfully acknowledging her journey from a young
girl to womanhood.
– By Allan Knee. Bookwriter. "Little
Women–The Musical"
Musical Numbers:
- Overture - Orchestra
- An Operatic Tragedy -Jo, Braxton, Clarissa,
Rodrigo
- Better – Jo
- Our Finest Dreams – Jo, Meg, Beth, Amy
- Here Alone – Marmee
- Could You? – Aunt March, Jo
- I'd Be Delighted – Marmee, Meg, Jo, Beth
- Take A Chance On Me – Laurie, Jo
- Off to Massachusetts – Beth, Mr. Laurence
- Five Forever – Jo, Laurie, Meg, Beth, Amy
- More Than I Am – Mr. Brooke, Meg
- Astonishing – Jo
- The Weekly Volcano Press – Full Cast
- How I Am – Professor Bhaer
- Some Things Are Meant To Be – Beth, Jo
- The Most Amazing Thing – Amy, Laurie
- Days of Plenty – Marmee
- The Fire Within Me – Jo
- Small Umbrella In The Rain – Jo and Professor
Bhaer
- Sometimes When You Dream – Jo
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