Little Women of the '50s

By the 1950s, Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel Little Women had been filmed three times, including the 1933 version with Katharine Hepburn and MGM's 1949, color version, with June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret O'Brien, and Janet Leigh. Also in the '40s, Broadway and the West End saw a non-musical stage adaptation of the novel.

It was inevitable that someone would musicalize Little Women, and currently playing previews is Broadway's first musical version of Alcott's novel. But the new show, which opens January 23, is hardly the first attempt to set Alcott to music. On December 15, 1955 at London's Piccadilly Theatre, a new musical opened, entitled A Girl Called Jo, based on Alcott's Little Women as well as on a sequel, Good Wives. The music was by John Pritchett, the book and lyrics by Peter Myers, Alec Grahame, and David Climie. These writers had previously collaborated on a hit revue, Intimacy at 8:30, and hired to play the title role in A Girl Called Jo was one of that revue's brightest lights, Joan Heal. Heal was a rising star who would reach her peak in 1956, when she spoofed headline-grabbing English film star Diana Dors in the London musical hit Grab Me a Gondola.

A Girl Called Jo took place from Christmas Eve 1863 to Christmas Eve 1864, and had as its principal locations the home of the four March sisters and their mother, Marmee; the neighboring Lawrence house; the Kirke House in New York City; and various locations in Europe.

The critics were at best lukewarm to A Girl Called Jo. The Stage felt that it was "neither good Alcott nor good musical," detecting "no particular dramatic impulse and not a great deal of vitality or variety." According to Plays and Players magazine, the show "never reaches the heights in any way." In The Times, the critic admitted that, "The adaptors have done their best, but the result is likely to be infinitely more pleasing to those for whom the characters and the text are part of the sacred memories of childhood than to those who are simply looking for a musical with a period flavor." On the other hand, the London Theatre World Annual declared that A Girl Called Jo had been "most unfairly" deprived of the enthusiasm that had met such other recent West End musical fare as The Pajama Game, The Water Gipsies, and Summer Song.

Although A Girl Called Jo played until April 1956 141 performances, no cast recording was made. But a remarkably clear, eighty-minute live tape exists of the score and some of the dialogue, recorded from the stage at the final performance, by which time those involved obviously realized that a tape would be the only way to preserve the show. In anticipation of attending Broadway's Little Women and discovering how that show musicalizes its source, I recently listened to the tape of A Girl Called Jo and to one other musical version of Alcott's novel.

A Girl Called Jo begins with an uptempo company salute to a New England Christmas, "It's a White World," followed by the four sisters Heal, Marion Grimaldi, Diane Todd, Virginia Vernon rehearsing "Jo's Play," a "tragical opera" subtitled "the curse of a trusting heart."

Jo expresses her devotion to the magic of words in "Books," joined by her new acquaintance, boy-next-door Laurie, played by Denis Quilley, who would be reunited with Heal in Grab Me a Gondola and would go on to star in such London productions as La Cage aux Folles and Sweeney Todd.

Unaccustomed to frivolity, their father away at war, the four sisters eagerly anticipate attending General Lawrence Laurie's grandfather's New Year's Eve ball in the catchy if unsurprising "Oh, What a Party It Will Be." At the ball, Laurie offers a tribute to the liveliest dance of the night in a predictable toe-tapper called "When They Play the Polka."

Back home, Meg Grimaldi, who would become a West End musical regular sings of her instant attraction to Laurie's tutor, John Brooke Edward Woodward, leading man of Broadway's High Spirits, in "Whither You Go, Love," sung in the waltz tempo she danced to at the party.

In a scene change, the company salutes "The Wonder of Spring" in New England. Jo explains to Laurie that she refuses to be one of those everyday "People in Love," while Laurie, in a neat counterpoint, maintains that Jo protests too much.

As John proposes to Meg, there's a reprise of Meg's waltz, which is then transformed into the tempo of a wedding march. In the solo "Oh, I'm Such a Fool!," Jo laments her lack of tact. Although Jo tells Laurie that she doesn't love him as he would like her to, Laurie sings of his feelings for Jo in the title song, another attractive waltz. The first act concludes with a wedding dance, led by Dr. Vance, interrupted by an upset Jo's sudden departure.

The second act opens with a ballet depicting summertime in mid-nineteenth-century New York. Jo has arrived there to take up a position as governess to the children of Mrs. Kirke, played by screen veteran Bessie Love. With the help of the two children, Jo offers a Western-style interpretation of some classic fairy tales in the lively "Rely on Me."

At Mrs. Kirke's, Jo meets the distinguished Professor Bhaer, and refuses to believe that "Paree!" isn't as wonderful as she's imagined it to be. For the second chorus of the bright number, the professor sings in French and Jo translates.

Back home, there's Marmee Mrs. March's only musical moment, a brief lullaby as Beth dies. Amy is taken to Europe by Aunt March, and the family hears from her in "Amy's Letter," which leads to another second-act ballet, the lengthy "Amy in Europe," depicting her travels through England, France, Spain, and Italy. By chance, Amy and Laurie meet in Europe the pleasantly routine "Why Do I Feel Like This?" and are soon married.

Jo asks Meg what married life is like in "Bread and Cheese and Kisses," then Jo recalls her late sister in the tender "My Beth." Jo and Laurie pledge eternal friendship as Laurie reprises the title song. Then it's "Christmas Eve," as, in the final scene, Mr. March returns to his family, and Professor Bhaer arrives from New York with a copy of Jo's just-published book, "My Beth."

A Girl Called Jo was a much larger show than Broadway's current Little Women, which features just ten actors one of them takes two roles. The Girl Called Jo score is consistently pleasant but it lacks inspiration and is too often routine. Still, it would have made as enjoyable a cast album as a number of other London shows from the same period.

On October 16, 1958, CBS-TV telecast another musical version of Little Women. It was produced by Albert Selden Man of La Mancha, Hallelujah, Baby! and David Susskind, had a book by Wilson Lehr, and employed top Broadway talent in orchestrator Don Walker and musical director Hal Hastings.

The music and lyrics were by Richard Adler, working without his late partner Jerry Ross, with whom he had written the music and lyrics for The Pajama Game 1954 and Damn Yankees 1955. In the role of Jo was Jeannie Carson, the gifted English performer whose credits include the London musical Love from Judy and the Broadway productions of Finian's Rainbow she can be heard on the 1960 revival cast recording and The Sound of Music the third Maria in the original production.

Florence Henderson was Meg, Zina Bethune Grand Hotel was Amy, and repeating her role of Beth from the 1949 film was Margaret O'Brien. Joel Grey appeared as Laurie, and Bill Hayes Me and Juliet was tutor John Brooke. Opera diva Rise Stevens played Marmee, and Roland Winters was Mr. Lawrence.

The television cast recording of Little Women takes up only one side of a Kapp Records LP. The other side offers an ensemble called the Golden Strings, playing yesteryear favorites deemed worthy of being appropriate "music for little women"; included are Braham's Lullaby, "Toyland," "Danny Boy," "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair," and "Over the Rainbow."

The TV Little Women score consists of eight songs. In the opening number, Jo explores the problem of writing about what she knows, her family, in a fine musical monologue called "How Do You Write a Book?" It introduces most of the principal characters, and is superbly sung by Carson.

"Love I Mean" is a romantic ballad for Henderson in which Meg admits the feelings for John Brooke that she has difficulty concealing. In "Man of the Family," Jo relinquishes her feminine ways and, with her father away at war, takes over as head of the household, demanding respect from Meg and Amy, who submit to her authority.

"The Letter" is a handsome aria for Stevens' Marmee, in which she reads to the girls a letter from their father. "I Don't Want to Be a Fly" is a playful spot for Jo and Amy Bethune, in which Jo plays a spider, imploring Amy to play the fly. Amy declines, preferring to be a dragon.

Adler composed a catchy melody for "Dance, Why Not?," a gavotte at the Lawrence's party that turns into a polka and a waltz. It begins with Mr. Lawrence and Amy, then is turned over to Meg and John. "Party Shoes" is a weak number for Amy, complaining about the tight, grown-up footwear she is forced to dance in at the party. The final number, "The Four of Us," is a dramatic ballad for Jo, who longs for the sisters to remain the close-knit unit they've always been.

And that would seem to take care of Little Women musicals for the '50s. But there have been a number of others since then, notably the off-Broadway musical Jo 1964, Orpheum Theatre, sixty-three performances and the recent Mark Adamo opera, seen at New York City Opera and entitled Little Women.