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Stage

The power to comfort

The musical Little Women revisits warm memories for many. Star Maureen McGovern knows art's inspiring, healing properties.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published March 6, 2006

People with vivid memories of Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women may notice that some of the subtleties and subplots have been omitted from the musical stage version, one of its stars allows.

"It's a 600-page book," said Maureen McGovern, who plays Marmee in the production at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center this week. "So it's a Herculean task to turn it into a 21/2-hour stage show."

Still, book writer Allan Knee, composer Jason Howland and lyricist Mindi Dickstein have succeeded in capturing the essence, and much of the nuance, of the classic 19th century novel, McGovern said in a telephone interview from a tour stop.

"It's a coming-of-age story about a Civil War family, but the musical is told specifically through Jo's eyes," McGovern said, referring to the oldest of Marmee's four daughters, who also is the novel's central character. "Basically, Jo is a dreamer, an idealist."

This is the first touring production of Little Women , which opened last year on Broadway to lackluster reviews. It has been called the theatrical equivalent of comfort food for its ability to reawaken the warm feelings that so many young people (especially young women) felt when they read the novel.

For McGovern, who originated the role of the March family matriarch on Broadway - and for whom two of the show's songs, Home Alone and Days of Plenty , were tailored - the novel and the show evoke more than just feelings of nostalgic warmth and coziness. They're inspirational.

"I have actually taken three pilgrimages to Orchard House in Concord, Mass., where (Alcott) wrote Little Women ," McGovern said. "To be in that house, to see the piano that she played, to know that Thoreau and Hawthorne were her neighbors, is a profound experience."

McGovern is especially attuned to the inspirational power of art and music. Her signature song, The Morning After from the 1970s disaster film The Poseidon Adventure , apparently still fortifies listeners in need of optimism.

"You know, 34 years later, I still get letters from people who say they played that song while they were undergoing surgery or going through some other traumatic experience, and it helped them get through," McGovern said.

Such reaction no longer surprises her, she said. It even spurred her to start a foundation to promote the use of music as therapy. When she's not performing in concert or in musicals, she's often conducting master classes or lecturing about the healing power of music.

"It's finally being recognized that there's a lot of power in just the sound of music coming through a set of headphones," she said.

"It's being used to treat a variety of conditions, even Alzheimer's. We all saw after 9/11 that the kind of music we listened to was different. We wanted a break from the hopelessness. And that's what people get from a song like The Morning After ."

[Last modified March 6, 2006, 00:58:14]