Little Women set to music

MANILA, Philippines - Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Susan Sarandon stirred the audience with their acting skills as they played Marmee in the various film editions of Louisa May Alcott’s semi-autobiographical novel Little Women.

Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, and Christian Bale starred in the 1990s film adaptation of Little Women, which garnered an Academy Award nomination.

The picky Japanese audience felt satiated only after the fourth anime (Japanese animation) edition of Little Women had been released.

In the Philippines, from Nov. 20 to Dec. 19, theater-goers will have a chance to see a musical version of Little Women, the novel which launched Alcott’s writing career upon its publication in 1868 and enabled her to finally provide financial security for her family. Alcott’s creative outputs prior to Little Women were ignored and thus, were commercially disastrous.

The Repertory Philippines’ 2010 reinvention of Little Women is directed by Menchu Lauchengco Yulo, who earned the critics nod for her portrayal of Mrs. Lovett in Rep’s Sweeney Todd and later, the 2009 Philstage Gawad Buhay Award for Female Lead Perfomance in a Musical.

Yulo, who directed the musical West Side Story, is assisted by Rem Zamora in the directorial tasks for Little Women.

Following the footsteps of Hepburn, Taylor and Sarandon, multi-awarded chanteuse Pinky Marquez fills the Onstage Theater hall in Greenbelt 1 Mall with her soaring voice as she plays Marmee. She acted in the Rep musical productions Sleeping Beauty and Fiddler on the Roof.

In Little Women, Marmee is the broke but persevering mother struggling to look after four daughters as her husband is sent to fight in the American Civil War.

Marquez said in an interview she accepted the part of Marmee because she can “very well relate to the role,” adding she read the novel in her grade school days.

“I am also a mother and all the good qualities of a good mother in the story are evident: Compassionate, understanding, unconditionally loving, strong, sensitive to the needs of the family, God-fearing, and supportive just like a Filipina mother. I love the book. It is about relationships, family, love, passion, and life,” Marquez said.

Yulo said in a separate interview that the “biggest lessons” audience can learn from the novel are “the great values of unconditional, unselfish love and importance of self-worth.”

To the young Filipinas, Yulo has this advice: “Don’t give up dreaming. Jo (one of the characters) is full of dreams. But also understand that dreams may not be the answers to your search for happiness.”

“Sometimes, you don’t realize or when you look back on it, what you already have is what will really make you happy beyond fulfillment of dreams. Sometimes, people are so focused on achieving their goals that they miss out on what are genuinely essential in life, such as creating true, lasting relationships, to take care of relationships especially within a family,” Yulo said.

Assistant director Zamora said, “We are encouraging educators to watch the show because of the values that Little Women teach children. If the children cannot go on their own, maybe educators can watch together with their students.”

Veteran Joy Virata, who plays Aunt March, said: “It is good to have one show that has family values, a show that shows a way of life that is probably no longer possible in the rush of modern times. It is good for old people to recall and young people to know. This is what theater does. It gives you an idea of human relations no matter what the time, what the era, and what the place are.”

Other cast members are: Caisa Borromeo as the headstrong Jo, Lora Nicolas as the romantic Meg, Kelly Latti as the pretentious Amy, Cara Barredo as the kind-hearted Beth, Miguel Faustmann (Mr. Lawrence), Jack Salud (John Brooke), Jaime Barcelon (Laurie Lawrence), Jeff Arcilla (Prof. Bhaer), Mayen Bustamante (Mrs. Kirk), and Kaila Rivera as the understudy for Jo.

For this production, Maestro Gerard Salonga conducts the FILharmoniKA orchestra, New York-based Joey Mendoza handles set design, Tuxqs Rutaquio designs the costumes and John Batalla does lighting design.

(Little Women runs Nov. 20 to Dec. 19; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., matinees at 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays at Onstage, 2F Greenbelt 1. For details, call Repertory Philippines at 571-6926, 571-4941, or e-mail [email protected].Tickets also available at Ticketworld at 891-9999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph.

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