Little Women (Stage Adaptation): Review

AD: Press tickets gifted for a review of Little Women

Women and girls of all ages remember reading Little Women when they were children. It’s billed as a “coming of age” story, but there really is more to it than that. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women taught us about the problems faced by females in the past. How family and ambition can prevail in the face of true poverty and gender prejudice. Whilst the story is set in the 1860s, even girls reading this today can see themselves in Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth. But how well does this iconic book translate to the stage? Anne-Marie Casey’s stage adaptation of Little Women will be at Malvern Theatres until this Saturday, 19th April 2025.

About Little Women

If you’re not already familiar with the story of Little Women, it tells the story of the March sisters. Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth are American girls growing up in poverty, despite their father having previously been wealthy. Anne-Marie Casey’s stage adaptation focuses predominantly on Jo, whose fiery character drives the story.

Jo is a tomboy, whose love of writing leads her to want more from life than what is expected of her. When her father is injured at war, she cuts off her hair and sells it to provide money for the family. While the girls’ mother, “Marmee” is away tending to their father, Jo’s younger sister Beth visits a family whose baby has scarlet fever. Beth ends up falling ill herself, and though she recovers she remains weak.

Jo’s good friend Laurie proposes to her, but she insists she’ll never fall in love. Jo’s ambition drives her to move to New York, where she earns money by writing short stories and meets Professor Bhaer who is her biggest supporter. When Beth takes a turn for the worst, Jo returns home and the audience rides the roller coaster of Jo’s emotions as she deals with the ups and downs of early adulthood.

The Cast of Little Women

The small cast portrayed this stage adaptation brilliantly. The basic set changed little, so the audience remained captivated by the performers throughout.

• Jo March: Grace Molony
• Meg March: Jade Kennedy
• Beth March: Catherine Chalk
• Amy March: Imogen Elliott
• Abigail March (Marmee): Honeysuckle Weeks
• Aunt March: Belinda Lang
• John Brooke / Professor Bhaer: Jack Ashton
• Theodore Laurence (Laurie): Cillian Lenaghan

What we thought of the show

As is often the case with a stage adaptation of a well-loved story, I was a little nervous about going to watch Little Women at the theatre. Would Anne-Marie Casey do justice to the beloved characters when bringing them to the stage?

The show struck a delightful balance between being true to the book and shifting its focus slightly to tell the story predominantly from Jo’s perspective. Due to the necessity of condensing the story, it felt fitting that one person’s story sang out. This prevented the dilution that would undoubtedly have occurred had the play focused equally on each of the sisters.

The stage adaptation didn’t lose any of the impact that the book portrays in terms of the struggles faced by women and girls in that era. In fact, by bringing the characters to life, it made them more relatable and easier to draw parallels between 1860s America and the modern day.

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