About Little Women: The Musical

Produced nationally and internationally, Little Women has been praised by critics for its ambition in adapting such a well-known story for the stage. This timeless, captivating story is brought to life in this glorious musical filled with personal discovery, heartache, hope and everlasting love. The original production starred the unparalleled Sutton Foster, who received Tony, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk nominations for her performance.

Based on Louisa May Alcott's life, Little Women follows the adventures of sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March. Jo is trying to sell her stories for publication, but the publishers are not interested – her friend, Professor Bhaer, tells her that she has to do better and write more from herself. Begrudgingly taking this advice, Jo weaves the story of herself and her sisters and their experience growing up in Civil War America.

Little Women embodies the complete theatrical experience, guaranteeing a night filled with laughter, tears and a lifting of the spirit. Little Women features plenty of great opportunities for female actors and singers ranging in age from teenage to 60 years old. The show also has a flexible cast size that can include as few as ten or as many as 42 people! The powerful score soars with the sounds of personal discovery, heartache and hope – the sounds of a young America finding its voice.

 

Author Bios

Allan Knee is the author of the play The Man Who Was Peter Pan, which was the source for the film Finding Neverland (starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet), which received an Academy Award nomination for best picture, and the subsequent musical, currently touring the US. He wrote the book for the Broadway musical Little Women which premiered in Tokyo this fall, and will have a national tour in England next season. Among his other works are the four-part adaptation ofThe Scarlet Letter for the PBS, the dance drama, Syncopation, about the passion of two workers to become ballroom champions in 1914, which was awarded for best regional play, and The Jazz Age, which currently placed at the Playground Theatre in London. His latest work, The Astonishing Times of Timothy Cratchit (music by Andre Catrini) premiered this November at the Hope Theatre in Manchester, England. Allan is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Jason Howland, an honors graduate of Williams College (1993), is a Grammy Award winning producer, Emmy Award winning arranger, and Tony nominated producer. He is the composer of Broadway’s 2005 TONY nominated Little Women - The Musical. Howland was nominated for a Tony Award in 1999 for co- producing the The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh, and won an Emmy Award in 2007 for creating and composing the Christmas special Handel's Messiah Rocks for the Boston Pops. He is the Arranger and Music Supervisor for the smash hit Beautiful - The Carole King Musical (Broadway, West End, US National Tour, Tokyo, Australian National Tour, UK National Tour) for which he won a Grammy Award; Bonnie and ClydeWonderlandJekyll & Hyde,The Civil WarThe Scarlet Pimpernel, in addition to music directing the mega-hit Les Miserables, and Boy George’s Taboo. International projects as an arranger and orchestrator include Frank Wildhorn’s stage adaptation of the Japanese Anime sensation Death Note for HoriPro, and two new shows Mata Hari and The Man Who Laughs. Recent theater projects include composing and orchestrating the original score for Ikiru, a new musical based on the Kurosawa film, that premiered in Tokyo, Oct 2018, Last Days of Summer (Kansas City rep), and Paradise Square at Berkeley Repertory Theater.

MINDI DICKSTEIN is an award-winning lyricist, librettist, and playwright. She wrote lyrics for the Broadway musical Little Women, which has had productions across the USA and around the world, most recently in Tokyo, Japan, and Manchester, England. She is the lyricist for Benny and Joon, a new musical based on the MGM film, which had its world premiere at The Old Globe, San Diego, and east coast premiere at The Paper Mill Playhouse. Benny and Joon was developed at NAMT, Transport Group, Running Deer Musical Theater Lab, Goodspeed Johnny Mercer Colony, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, and the Rhinebeck Retreat. Among her other works are TRIP (book and lyrics), commissioned by Playwrights Horizons; Toy Story - The Musical (book), Disney Creative Entertainment; Starving to Death in Midtown (a short play), Climate Change Theater Action; Beasts and Saints (book and lyrics), Boston Music Theater Project; The Existential Gourmet, Jane Chambers Award; and Guadeloupe, Westbeth Theater Center. Mindi's songs have been performed widely, most notably as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook ("Hear and Now: Contemporary Lyricists") and at the Kennedy Center.  Awards and honors include: a Jonathan Larson Grant, Massachusetts Artists and New York Foundation for the Arts playwriting fellowships, ASCAP Workshop Bernice Cohen Award, Second Stage Constance Klinsky Award, and a PEN International New Playwright Award (selected by Wendy Wasserstein). She received her MFA from New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where she was an Oscar Hammerstein Fellow.

Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world's leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theatres from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theatre as a vibrant and engaging art form.

MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these musicals to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to over 100,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 150 countries worldwide.

MTI is particularly dedicated to educational theatre, and has created special collections to meet the needs of various types of performers and audiences. MTI’s Broadway Junior® shows are 30- and 60-minute musicals for performance by elementary and middle school-aged performers, while MTI’s School Editions are musicals annotated for performance by high school students.

MTI maintains its global headquarters in New York City with additional offices in London (MTI Europe) and Melbourne (MTI Australasia).

LITTLE WOMEN is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI

mtishows.com

White Mountain Players

The White Mountain Players were established in 1967 by director Michael Bennett. For over half a century, the players have been dedicated to presenting innovative and inspiring works of theatre to the surrounding community, along with performances at the regional, state, and New England Drama Festivals. We are thrilled to be kicking off our 2023-2024 season with the first ever performance of the musical "Little Women".