As Jo would say, “Christopher Columbus!”.  North Shore Theatre Company have such a enjoyable show in LITTLE WOMEN playing at the Independent Theatre.  It is heartwarming and nurturing and a bit of a relief from the rock heavy musicals around town.  There are great performances, attention to detail in design and a friendly front of house team that continue to exemplify the community in community theatre.  It’s just a great night out.  And not just for us girls!

LITTLE WOMEN is part of your growing up if you are a girl.  We all read it and we all saw ourselves in one of the characters.  Whether you were a responsible type like Meg, a quiet and reserved Beth, like my companion on the evening, artistic and yearning for beauty like Amy or me … a devil may care, all guns blazing, Jo, you identified with these Civil War, small town sisters.  With their father away at the war and Marmee there to hold her girls close, the story of their joys, loves and sadnesses reaches forward from the first print of Louisa May Alcott’s novel in 1868.

LITTLE WOMEN-THE MUSICAL (2004, book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland)  is a snapshot of the first in what became a series of stories, but with enough depth to remind you why you love them or, if you haven’t encountered them, to introduce you to Alcott’s semi-autobiographical creations. Beginning with Jo, the most impulsive March sister.

Brought to us in this production by Kathy Xenos in a starmaking role as she bursts in with all the presence and exhilaration of a leading lady.  Her creation balances Jo’s youth and bravado in the early scenes very well with her later coming of age and self-knowledge.  With acting and singing of excellence, she brings us a Jo who is passionate and conflicted.

Xenos has charisma and a skilled control over the physicality of a character who would be less captivating if taken beyond tomboy.  Her relationships are clearly created too as she guides our understanding of the family, including the rapport with the quieter of the sisters, Beth.

The character of Beth unites the sisters in many ways and it’s not a showy role.  Often in the background, quiet and shy, the production needs the audience to invest in Beth for Act 2 to work well.  Ally Foy is a joy to watch.   Her vocal work with Dom Augimeri, who does a great job as Mr Laurence, in ‘Off to Massachusetts’ is smooth yet with a bouncy and funloving side of Beth that endears her sweetness to all.  Such that there’s a tremble of expectation which delicately clouds the duet ‘Some Things Are Meant to Be’ (Jo and Beth).  Still and seated, the staging lets the weight of their performances carry the emotion.

The characters all grow during the show but none more than Meg, Georgia Burley.  Her Meg is strong and loving and her duet with Joey Sheehan’s John is delightful.  Sheehan has also created a great character, diffident and unsure, and the voice blend in ‘More Than I Am’ was spectacular, for some of those top notes it was like one voice.  Meg goes from strength to strength and we see a great deal of Marmee in Burley’s later Meg.

The last of the March girls is Amy and it’s a tricky part to play.  A nasty or vindictive Amy would hit the wrong note.  But not here.  Hannah Paul gives us a strong willed girl, full of petulance and pout, but never spite, with just the right amount of annoyingness so that we never lose faith in the siblings’ cohesion.

My notes from the show keep saying ‘warm’ and so it was.  The personification of this enveloping of affection was Jessica Kelly as Marmee. ‘Here Alone’, her solo in the first act, was so enjoyable as she brought a sad, longing and lost mother.  A sweet voice with such lovely lower notes to give Marmee the vulnerability she cannot show around her girls. And with a terrific solo violin fade with the end of her song, too.  Her ‘Days of Plenty’ solo in Act 2 is very moving and intimate without being closed or alienating.  Just lovely.

Realistically, it’s not the men’s story but the male cast do a fantastic job in support. Scott Dias as Professor Bhaer is warm and engaging from the first time we meet him.  It’s Jo’s scene but he is wise and paternal and the accent works very well to draw the character out.  And he has such a rich baritone in ‘How I Am’ which combines with his very strong connection with the audience.  It’s really nice work from him.  Isaac Downey gives us a new twist on Laurie who has a foppish charm and a comic style that is completely loveable.

Kristin Kok is a suitably austere Aunt March without any jarring coldness, just exasperation and her own values as motivation.   Kok’s vocal work is also excellent, the duet with Xenos ‘Could You?’ is great fun as exaggeration meets exasperation with some delicious final notes.  And discrete storytelling.

The director, Jon Emmett, has a terrific way of driving the story through the songs.  Though he is happy to let his cast stand and belt when required, the final Jo song ‘The Weekly Volcano Press’ a good example, his commitment to story is evident throughout. I very much enjoyed the development of character that was done through ‘Take a Chance on Me’, the relationship grows in a superbly directed scene.  Emmett also has an excellent feel for the visual, it showed even in the pre-production images where the groupings brought individuals together as family.  The grouping around the letter is classic Little Women imagery and there many such cleverly conceived placements in the show. The entry of Laurie to the stillness of the gaping girls just one of them.

The orchestra had a few issues on opening night but Musical Director, Philip Eames held them tightly within the score and his choice for period sounding instruments with an extremely effective blend of reed and string lead to some fine orchestrations.  The reading of the letter where the solo string was slowly empowered by the entry of the other instruments was an evocative and a subtle adjunct to the emotion of the moment.  And I really appreciated the decision to put music under some of the dialogue, especially the scene outside the ballroom, where the orchestration was gently supportive of Downey’s voice in ‘Take a Chance on Me’.

And the costumes are to die for.  (James Worner, Beth Pilley). This is costuming that is respectful of the audience!  Nothing has been dragged out of home closets in a that’ll’do desperation.  Every dress fits perfectly and is the right length,  the men are costumed for handsomeness and there is detail everywhere.  Amy comes back from travelling in a bustle, which would have been all the rage in Europe, in contrast to the home town crinolines.  There’s satin and velvet going out clothes in comparison with homely homespun and dowdy.  Not to mention the satin ball gloves and men in tails. The constant changes are jaw dropping!

And the cast can move freely under all that fabric.  The choreography is also storytelling.  Choreographer Katherine Harradine is assisted by a set design (Jon Emmett, Alan Roy) which gives her the room to send the girls off to the Ball well practiced.  A shoutout here also for Judy Roy’s props, from pencils and aged envelopes and coloured swords to the period set dressing.  Back to the choreo.  That scene where they waltz in preparation for dancing with boys is luxuriously created with twirls and spins and girls being girls, dizzy and ditzy and joyous.  So lovely from all involved.   And the hoe-down and dosido of ‘Five Forever’ has toes tapping as we want desperately to join in the fun.

Technically, the lighting is warm, there’s that word again, with an amber feel.  Perhaps, a little dark at times from the back and with a few states that were a bit too modern for my taste.  The forest green, for example, and the hi-uv blue of the LED throwforwards … those are rock and roll colours for mine. But the cues are well controlled and the restrained use of a soft followspot is intelligently applied as is the occasional use of gobos for texture.

The audio suffered from a few late mic opens on opening night and I have to say, it’s disappointing that Xenos’ mic trouble wasn’t dealt with at interval but a technical glitch doesn’t take away from the performance.   That being said,  there was fine audio tech in some places, such as the powerful reverb for the final notes of ‘Astonishing’ to close out Act 1. And in the raise-the-roof ensemble singing of ‘The Weekly Volcano Press’, first up after interval.  That really put the ensemble work of this thoroughly enjoyable production on display.

LITTLE WOMEN is such a pleasure to enjoy and a real credit to the hard work of many hands.  It is nostalgia for some of us and a revelation for others, I am sure.  North Shore Theatre Company has created this production with such care and cast it with excellence to make it  a soothing and cheerful night out.  And, I just have to say it, … warm.

LITTLE WOMEN- THE MUSICAL from North Shore Musical Company [Facebook] continues at the Independent Theatre until April 28th.