Jere-Rigged

Jo March Is A Lesbian

Just in from seeing the new, but soon-to-close, Broadway musical Little Women starring Sutton Foster and Maureen McGovern at the Virginia Theatre. Foster rocketed to stardom two seasons ago as the leading lady of Throughly Modern Millie, winning a Tony for her trouble and McGovern has been a huge singing star for 30 years, notably warbling "The Morning After," which won The Poseidon Adventure its only Oscar way back in 1972 or so. Of course, for me, McGovern will always be the singing nun of Airplane!, the funniest movie ever made. R-E-S-P-E-C-T, indeed!

Little Women, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, tells the story of the March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, who are growing up in nineteenth century New England and trying to make the best of limited circumstances with their boundless love for each other. Foster plays Jo, the tomboy sister who wants to travel the world and be a writer. McGovern plays the sisters' mother, Marmee, who is trying to cope with raising a brood of energetic girls with her beloved husband far away at war. I was unfamiliar with the novel, but it reminds me of an American take on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Foster is terrific here as a most throughly modern Jo. In fact, in light of her previous triumph, Foster was a perfect choice for the role. Her Jo is witty, smart, and talented and, try as she might, she just can't seem to fit in with what is expected of a woman at the time. Foster uses a lot of the same tricks here she employed as Millie, and this makes Jo seem like she's somehow dropped out of the 20th Century into this rather curious environment, but it works. My friend Jim, with whom I saw the show, pointed out that Foster didn't take her usual high note at the climax of the first act ender "Astonishing," and that seemed a bit anti-climatic, for lack of a better term.

Now, I realize that I'm looking at the material with modern eyes, but I'm pretty certain that tomboy Jo, at least in Foster's interpretation, is a nineteenth century proto-lesbian. She is visibly uncomfortable in dresses and only seems to truely relax in pants and boots, which she wears throughout much of the show. She shows absolutely no interest in men and declares several times her intention to not marry. Her dedication is solely to her sisters and her writing, mostly women-in-jeopardy tales, one of which actually features a rescuing "hero" who is really another woman (in male drag, natch). When she loses one potential love interest to a sister, she barely bats an eyelash, especially considering that she declined a proposal from this man with a quick and final "no," not even thinking twice about it. She ignores another potential love interest as anything other than a friend until he too proposes and she accepts in the most noncommittal way I've ever seen a woman do so. The only time Jo exhibits any passion at all toward her "fiance" is when this man tells her that a publisher to which he's shown her novel wants to publish the book. Uh Huh...

McGovern is warm and loving as the mother and I wish she'd had more stage time. Her big solos, "Here Alone" in the first act, about her uncertainty in raising her family without the imput of her at-war husband and her loneliness at facing life without him there beside her, and "Days of Plenty," in the second act, in which the strong mother reveals how she deals with the tragedies that have befallen the family, both land strongly. She is truely the backbone of this extrordinary family and we feel that at all times, even when she's not on the stage.

The rest of the small cast is terrific too, although none of them has a lot of material. Danny Gurwin is a really cute Laurie...really cute. Amy McAlexander gets the most to play here as youngest sister, Amy, who starts off the show as a bratty little girl and blossoms into full womanhood by the final curtain.

The whole show was charming and undeserving of the scorn that's been heaped on it. The score by Jason Howland and Mindi Dickstein is lovely and probably deserving of the nomination it didn't get, especially considering how slight everyone says the score of Spamalot is.

Afterward, Jim (a great date...for a straight guy) and I hung by the stage door with a group of mostly pre-teen girls. The whole cast seemed like very nice people, but neither Foster nor McGovern exited that way, both choosing to avoid the small crowd of fans.

While waiting, I was recognized by another guy named Jim who was also at the show and who'd seen me in My Favorite Year and introduced himself after a performance. That's always cool.

So, yeah, I really enjoyed this show and I wish it could have found an audience. When the national tour hits your town later this year (also starring McGovern, I think), go see it and tell me what you think.

Posted by Jere at May 21, 2005 01:09 AM | TrackBack