Little Women – the irresistibly charming mid-1800s novel about four sisters forging towards adulthood – has been adapted, remixed and retold in dizzying numbers. There’s a series of heartwarming films (the latest was Greta Gerwig’s 2019 adaptation); multiple TV movies and miniseries; a Broadway musical; an opera and an immersive ballet. You can read dozens of books that recast the March family as witches or mermaids or modern women, stories in which the family are Black, Muslim or living on a New Orleans military base.
Still, the story appeals and endures. Watching Hayes Theatre Co’s uneven production of the musical adaptation, directed and choreographed by Amy Campbell, its weaknesses are clear – but so is its seemingly unkillable loveliness.
