“I’m bursting with energy,” proclaims young Jo March (Rebecca Erin Curtis) in White Rock Players Club’s Little Women (until May 11 at Oceana PARC Playhouse).
It's an apt summary, not only of Curtis’ playing of the main character, but also the largely commendable WRPC production of the 2005 Broadway musical, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel.
Judging by an appreciative, almost full house Friday (April 25), that energy has ensured that WRPC has a hit on its hands.
Little Women, set in Concord, Massachusetts in the turbulent era of the American Civil War and the immediate post-war period, chronicles a close-knit family of four sisters, and their tirelessly loving and supportive mother Marmee, struggling to make the best of life in Concord in the protracted absence of their father, a chaplain serving with the Union Army.
Headstrong Jo has naturally assumed a leadership role among her siblings, amusing and exhorting them, and involving them in her numerous amateur productions of her own blood-and-thunder plays and novellas. But as years go by and the sisters mature into womanhood, Jo finds herself out of step; experiencing her own measure of heartache and rejection, ultimately finding her way back by telling the story of her family.
Assembling a full-scale Broadway musical at a community theatre level (and on a community theatre budget) is no mean feat, and my hat is off to director Dann Wilhelm and assistant director Paige Thomsen for putting all the pieces together and making it work smoothly. The action moves at a good clip, and it's clear the actors have been well-guided to make the most of their characters and musical numbers.
They have also, with Lauren Gloanec, put together a design for the show which makes good use of a few well-done set pieces and some large projections (including a fine one for the attic domain of the sisters) to create atmosphere, aided by good crewing for the swift changes of scene.
Just how future audiences will appreciate this version of LIttle Women, Alcott purists among them – and others, no doubt, with fond memories of many film and television adaptations of the classic – will depend on their tolerance, or love, for the tropes of contemporary musical theatre.
The downside is that adaptor Alan Knee has ruthlessly hammered Alcott's two-volume novel into a procession of rather clichéd musical theatre "moments," while the score by Jason Howland (music) and Mindi Dickstein (lyrics) so slavishly follows Broadway formulas of the last four decades that it borders on parody.
Most effective are Howland's more melodic songs, in which Dickstein's lyrics provide the kind of necessary fleshing-out of characters that Knee's expository script all too often tends to neglect.
Would that Knee had spent more time on showing and not telling us about the touching characters of Alcott's original story rather than imagining what Jo's melodramas might have looked like on stage (in no less than two numbers) – which must have seemed a cute idea to the adaptors, but affords only a few cheap laughs at best. And Mr. March, while talked about, doesn't figure in the show at all.
But the current cast, nonetheless, makes the most of what it has been given to work with, achieving the most with song.
Curtis doesn't so much perform her lines, and numbers like Astonishing and The Fire Within Me, as launch a frontal assault on them – while she might be faulted on technical grounds, she can't be faulted in either the passion or heart of her performance. It's all somehow well-suited to the character of impetuous, stubborn, quick-tempered Jo – so much so that part and player succeed in fusing into an inseparable whole long before the show is over.
For me, the real relevatory performance comes from Gina Geoghegan as Marmee – particularly her warm and melodious singing in the moving solos Here Alone and Days of Plenty. She has such command of the material – and the idiom – that it is surprising to learn that this is her first return to the stage since she was a child.
Young Annie MacEwan is thoroughly assured in her promising performance as the youngest sister, Amy, offering a fine portrait of immature petulance but smoothly transitioning to the character's more deeply caring side.
Camilia Rodriguez finds all the sweetness and sadness in the sickly sister Beth, notably in the touching Some Things Are Meant To Be, but even more felicitously at the piano for her duet Off To Massachusetts with the gruff Mr. Laurence (Larry Doan, who engineers a smooth transition from lean miser to warm-hearted benefactor that begins with More Than I Am).
Tirion Jones isn't given much to do as calm, mature sister Meg, but she lights up the stage in the pre-ball number I'd Be Delighted and has some sweet scenes with Jake Catling, effective as her utterly smitten suitor Mr. Brooke.
Jared McCune as the young neighbour 'Laurie' Laurence – who becomes the sisters' closest friend and confidante – begins by playing him with a kind of studied goofiness. While his portrayal is not without charm (as exemplified by his solo Take A Chance On Me), fortunately, for all concerned, he takes on a greater and more convincing maturity as the characters grow older.
Mark Braun, who was hampered by a malfunctioning wireless microphone in the early scenes of the show I saw, creates a well-judged portrayal of Jo's New York friend and mentor Professor Bhaer, particularly by the time he reaches his solo How I Am, in the second act.
Elizabeth Trottier provides a suitably strict and severe presence as the sisters' moneyed relative Aunt March, also doubling felicitously as Irish boarding house owner Mrs. Kirk.
It should be noted that two other very reliable players are set to understudy some roles during the run: Abrielle Dumansky (for Amy and Beth) and Alexandra Quispe (for Jo and Meg) – which, given their abilities, is reassuring.
Eve Partridge's costume design successfully and efficiently evokes the line and style of the 1860s, although, in the execution, one could have wished that the men's vests were more carefully fitted.
Stef Delisimunovic has contributed some brief but effective choreography, and Tim Tucker, reliable veteran of many a local musical, provides strong musical direction and keyboard playing (augmented by bassist Steve Lay and percussionist Evan Macnamara); agreeably spirited and more than equal to the demands of the score.
The Oceana PARC Playhouse is located at 1532 Johnston Rd. For tickets, call 604-536-7535, or visit www.whiterockplayers.ca
