Little Women with a Big Heart

The Guthrie’s Little Women is an absolute delight! It’s lively and boisterous and full of warmth. It’s cozy and charming and beautiful and heartbreaking and I couldn’t get enough. I could keep listing enthusiastic adjectives, but I think you get it. My point is: this is just the breath of fresh air that I didn’t know that I needed after a very long winter in Minneapolis.

I had somehow never read or seen any of the handful of movie adaptations of the story before the performance on Saturday, so I came in as a completely blank canvas to build upon.  This adaptation by the brilliant Lauren M. Gunderson uses two creative and clever techniques to enhance the story: the first is to merge the biography of the author, Louisa May Alcott, with that of her main character, Jo, presenting the audience with two heartwarming tales for the price of one. The other was to have just about every actor narrating aspects of their scenes, giving playgoers a deeper understanding of the world inside the Marches’ parlor and Alcott’s masterful storytelling.  Intermingling this narration with the biographical interludes, you can’t help rooting for everything to turn out ok, even though we know that it does.

Of course, as charming as the story is, the production would be nothing without the skillful direction and excellent acting of the four sisters.  Any half-decent actor can deliver their lines in turn, but having four actors all talking over each other in the way that siblings in a happy home would, shows true mastery of the craft and a deep understanding of the beloved characters.  It was especially impressive for a cast of several newcomers to the Guthrie, including Isabella Star LaBlanc, May Heinecke, and Audrey Parker as Jo, Beth, and Amy respectively, who seem like they’ve all known each other for decades.

I can’t say that I understood set designer Junghyun Georgia Lee’s choice to place the characters in a blend of woods and parlor–that is until reading that the Alcott family was steeped in the Transcendentalism movement that placed great value on the importance of nature–but it speaks to how engaging the story is that you never really mind that the March sisters celebrate holidays and homecomings and heartbreaks in the middle of a forest.

Considering the last show I saw at the Guthrie was Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the contrast of the lawful evil of Lord and Lady Macbeth to the chaotic good of the March sisters could not be more remarkable and well-timed.  See this play with someone you love.  See it with your neighbor or someone you just met.  It’s probably no accident the run falls over Mother’s Day, but it’s a delight for anyone and everyone at any time.  Get your tickets at guthrietheater.org now through June 21, 2026.

Photo Credit: Dan Norman