Broadway Musical Version of ‘Little Women’ Comes to Santa Barbara

The American Theatre Guild presents Little Women, the popular Broadway musical based on Louisa May Alcott’s novel of the same name. Meet the March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, girls on the brink of adulthood in the 1860s. Adapted by Allan Knee with music by Jason Howland and Mindi Dickstein, Little Women is a contemporary musical with notes of the gilded age that champions the bonds of family and highlights some of the many ways women built lives for themselves in mid-19th-century America.

Hannah Taylor, who plays the main protagonist, Jo March, notes the themes of love and strength that have kept this story relevant since its publication in 1868. “This musical shows the strength of women in so many different colors, and how they lift each other up and support each other in the hardest of times,” she says, “and how they challenge each other to become better.”

Aathaven Tharmarajah plays Laurie, the boy next door who befriends the March girls and joins them in this coming-of-age journey. He holds immense respect for Jo, despite the fact that her aspirations skew from the typical female experience of the time. “He feels a connection to Jo,” Tharmarajah says, “because he also feels different, doesn’t feel like he fits the status quo. He comes from a more affluent family but doesn’t want to do all the things that affluent people did at the time.” He points to chasing your dreams and accepting your personal uniqueness as important thematic issues.

Fans of musical theater (and impressive performances in general) will enjoy numbers like the charismatic “Take a Chance on Me” and the power-belt notes in “Astonishing.” In Little Women, the laughter is potent, and the tear-jerk moments are authentic and relatable. See this show and get to know one of American literature’s most beloved families April 10-11 at The Granada Theatre.

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