Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...Lauren Gunderson, one of America’s most produced living playwrights, has a career-long fascination with framing devices and with pumping up the importance of the writer’s craft. Thus her very lively new adaptation of “Little Women,” which premiered Friday night at Northlight Theatre, is actually titled “Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women,” and the story of the youthful familial goings-on in Concord, New Hampshire, is bookended by Gunderson’s tribute to Alcott herself. Gunderson collapses the character of Jo into Louisa and uses Meg, Amy and Beth to not only celebrate their eldest sister but the author who made the quartet the most famous fictional American sisters in the world."
Daily Herald
- Recommended
"...While the gently humorous "Louisa May Alcott's Little Women" remains faithful to the novel, Gunderson contemporizes characters' language and attitudes. Case in point: Jo's rejection of Laurie's marriage proposal so she can "paddle her own canoe" as a "literary spinster.""
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...It’s a well-cast production, with Demetra Dee’s Beth—the sickly sister who stays home while Amy (Yourtana Sulaiman) travels to study art in Europe, Meg (Janyce Caraballo) marries, and Jo pursues writing in New York—providing the emotional heart of the story. Her death scene is still a tearjerker, but Verdin has found a simple and profound way to mark the transition."
Stage and Cinema
- Recommended
"...The production’s strength lies in its emotional core. Gunderson’s trademark style — a blend of quippy dialogue and profound sentimentality — shines through. While the flow of dialogue feels sometimes a little clunky, mixing borrowed lines from the book with Gunderson’s own less poetic writing style, the overall narrative arc remains deeply moving, successfully tugging at the heartstrings of theatergoers."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews
- Recommended
"...The Christmas season brings Louisa May Alcott's Little Women to life, telling the story of family hardship and love, and is a wonderful Christmas treat for the family."
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...“Little Women”, a coming of age novel written by Louisa May Alcott, published as two books back in 1868-1869 is a story that has been looked at as an autobiographical look at the author and her family. The book addresses three major themes: domesticity, true love and work ethics. While each of these items is independent of the other, the combination of all helps our heroine, Jo/Louisa ( played to perfection by Tyler Meredith, find her true identity. I have seen several interpretations of this book as well as a film version, and found the version that is on the stage at Northlight to be unique and entrancing, even for a male audience. The “translation” or should I say interpretation by Lauren Gunderson is different. The characters explain the narratives that would be in the text so that everyone can follow the action."
Chicago Theatre Review
- Highly Recommended
"...Prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson (THE BOOK OF WILL, I AND YOU) has created a new play, based upon a classic American novel. Chicago audiences will be among the first in the nation to enjoy LOUISA MAY ALCOTT'S LITTLE WOMEN, in a sweetly charming production Directed by Georgette Verdin. This production not only brings the popular children's book to life, it offers insight into Ms. Alcott's writing process. The play also happens to be a nice alternative to other holiday productions around town. Grumbling how "dreadful it is to be poor," Jo's familiar lament, "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents" might ring true for some audience members during these austere times. But it also illustrates from the start how author Louisa May Alcott beautifully and clearly was able to create word pictures, painting with her pen."
Buzz Center Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...There are countless lessons on the potency of familial love and the capacities of the human spirit to prevail despite discouraging odds. Bracketing the effort with novel approaches in directing and generous splashes of humor made this project as exciting and entertaining as it was enlightening. Placing it in the hands of such able and gifted actors simply added to its appeal. Watching Erik Hellman’s inspired transformation from Laurie’s self-effacing tutor to the German professor Jo meets in New York and eventually marries was a particular delight. It was also emblematic of the fine acting that filled this delightful experience."
Evanston Roundtable
- Highly Recommended
"...The four March sisters and their mother learn to hold their family together while their father is fighting in the Civil War. In some ways, it’s an idealistic 19th century version of coping with financial and personal difficulties while staying connected as a loving family."
Splash Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...Little Women is one of those examples of a timeless story that everyone adores over and over again. Northlight Theater’s new version of the beloved novel is an absolute delight from start to finish. It all comes down to the perfect cast of performers who bring all the story and characters to life in a refreshing perspective."
NewCity Chicago
- Recommended
"...A new adaptation by Lauren Gunderson, premiering at Northlight Theatre, avoids the sentimental piety that mars some versions by using more language from Alcott's astonishing book. It has the characters speak aloud some of the book's non-dialogue narration, the way the narrator in Goodman Theatre's Tom Creamer adaptation of the "Christmas Carol" uses non-dialogue bits from Charles Dickens' novel. This way, you not only get a suitor's proposal to Meg, but her internal reaction to it. As a result, more of the wit and complexity of Alcott's characters come alive."
