Let’s hear it for the girls! Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s excellent female performers are showcased in the regional premiere of Emma Reeves’ stage adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. There is, in fact, nothing “little” about their performances. The diminutive qualifier Alcott pertained to girls growing up — perhaps as patronizingly described by their more or less absent father and men in general — is a quaint echo of attitudes in 19th-century America. Cincy Shakespeare’s actresses portray the four March sisters as they grow from rather silly if imaginative girls to sensitive, mature young women.
I should observe from the get-go that Alcott’s novel has a lot of soft even corny sentimentality, but it’s convincingly and believably conveyed in this production, perhaps because another Cincy Shakes stalwart, veteran actress Sarah Clark, held the director’s reins for Little Women and kept things from becoming too maudlin. As a performer, Clark always has a glint in her eye, and her smart sensitivity keeps this production lively and engaging.
Maggie Lou Rader as Jo, an aspiring writer and proto-feminist, is watchable from start to finish. She’s initially a fierce tomboy with little patience for girlish things, but as the story unfolds — she is also its principal narrator — she maintains her strong presence while growing in stature, texture and complexity. The early scenes of Jo staging romantic adventures with her sisters in the Pickwick Club are sweet and funny; her genuine feelings and interactions with Meg (Kelly Mengelkoch), Beth (Caitlin McWethy) and Amy (Courtney Lucien) become increasingly subtle and sensitive as she grows into womanhood.
Likewise, her increased understanding of their mother’s role, as Marmee (Annie Fitzpatrick) faces the challenges of raising strong-willed daughters while their father is at war, makes Jo a well-rounded character. This growth occurs as she finds her way through potential romance and aspires to a career as a professional writer: It’s an interesting story arc for a young woman in America a century-and-a-half ago.
Mengelkoch, as Meg, the sweet, uncertain oldest sister, is a pleasure to watch as she stands up against social pressure in her choice of a mate. McWethy’s portrait of shy Beth tends toward being one-note, but that’s the nature of the gentle character. Amy is an annoying caricature of a brat in the first act, but Lucien reshapes her into a thoughtful, sensitive young woman and artist in following intermission.
Justin McCombs does a nice job as Laurie, the raffish boy next door who captures the affections of the girls. We don’t plumb his character as deeply as theirs, and his evolution of affection to Amy once Jo turns him away felt rather quick. But the story is really not his. Brent Vimtrup, as Laurie’s tutor John Brooke, who eventually wins Meg’s heart, doesn’t have much to work with but, as usual, he gives a believable performance.
Nick Rose is Professor Bhaer, the gentle German scholar who helps Jo mature as a writer and a woman. Smaller roles are more uneven. Miranda McGee plays an ambitious socialite focused on marrying well, and as always she brings energy to the stage. The roles of two dowager aunts are more like comic caricatures than believable characters: Abby Rowold captures dour Aunt March’s disapproving nature, but misses her encouraging subtext; Frank Delaney is curiously and distractingly cross-cast as Aunt Carol, looking like Queen Victoria without much of an empire.
The production is simply but effectively staged with minimal furnishings. Curtains on overhead wires are quickly repositioned to delineate different locales in the March home and beyond. Scenes are enhanced with video projections on windows (snow falling, a tree showing changing seasons, a New York street with carriages) and silhouetted images of dancers at balls and such. Some lovely choral singing by the entire cast of hymns appropriate to moments of the story enhances the production at several moments.
Cincy Shakes production of Little Women captures the vivacity of Alcott’s stories about the March sisters and their lives. With Clark as its thoughtful director, the show offers an insightful glimpse into an earlier era and how young women navigated their courses toward adulthood. When Jo’s initial efforts at publication are rejected, she is advised to “never mind the moral” and to keep her stories “short and spicy” as well as “true and real.” She sets her own course by finding the core morals but not losing sight of the spice and truth needed for good storytelling. Those qualities make this a heartwarming production for Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.
LITTLE WOMEN, presented by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, continues through March 21 .
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 3, 2015.
