Adapting a book into a musical, making a classic original in "Little Women"

“Little Women” is best-known as the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, telling the story of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, sisters divided by passion and their personalities but brought together by the love of each other or the movie starring Hollywood heartthrobs like Florence Pugh and Timothee Chalamet. 

However, the adapted musical, currently on its national tour, is sure to bring a twist of fun and whimsy to a story everyone knows and loves. 

The American Theatre Guild’s tour of “Little Women” is stopping at the Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend from April 26-28. 

Aathaven Tharmarajah, who plays Laurie, the one boy able to break into the group of sisters, becoming particularly close with Jo and Amy, said telling this story comes with a lot of responsibility. 

“There's a reason why people love ‘Little Women’ so much,” Tharmarajah said. “It has so much heart to it, and I think we as performers and the production as a whole just have some sort of responsibility to bring that sort of heart to our production so that people enjoy it.” 

However, Tharmarajah said bringing himself into the character to put a modern twist on the show “brings it to life” and makes it a special role for him. 

Tharmarajah said the show is quite different from the original source material, abridging what people usually see in the book and the movies that have been released, not being able to add a song for every scene. 

Instead, the musical focuses on the complexity of each character rather than the full plot, bringing the well-known characters to the forefront. 

“I think the most important thing that you get out of it is a sense of who each of the characters are and their arcs, and the emotional and physical journeys that they go on,” Tharmarajah said. 

Tharmarajah said in the musical version of the story, his character, Laurie, gets to be a bit more of a “goofball,” honing into the playful side of the character that those who saw Christian Bale or Timothee Chalamet play the character may not get a good feel for. 

Tharmarajah also said the musical shows the character’s growth over time, following Laurie when he was just a kid and getting to see him grow into a mature adult. 

Another aspect of the show that pulls in a modern twist is the music, according to Tharmarajah. He said the music tends to sound like the “golden age” of Broadway music with belters and upbeat tunes mixed with themes that keep the audience in the 1860s. 

Tharmarajah said his favorite moment in the show is performing the scene where Laurie proposes to Jo before the key song in the musical, “Astonishing,” being part of the turning point of the musical. 

Tharmarajah said one of the reasons he loves the show so much, and what he wants the people that come to the show to walk away with, is that the musical focuses on the concept of love without focusing on romantic love. Instead, the musical finds its heart from familial love. 

“I feel like it's one of those rare stories that you get because [the media] doesn't really focus on the love that you share with your family, and I think that's the beautiful thing,” Tharmarajah said. “I hope people coming out of the show are heartfelt and touched, and are thinking ‘maybe I should call my mom.’”

Tharmarajah said he hopes people are ready to both cry and laugh throughout the journey of the March sisters in “Little Women.”