You'd have to be really jaded not to enjoy the new musical, Little Women (book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein). The tall but elfin Sutton Foster as the leader of the sisters is lively, endearing, and a spunky 19th-Century example of a woman with a will, a way, and universal good looks and charm. She has great comic timing, intonation and physicality. All of the cast are really good singers (as is apropos on Broadway), and then there is Maureen McGovern as the mother. When she sings in Act One it's sublime, and when she opens up her pipes for her big number in Act Two, it's a killer.
With the fine performances by the entire cast, an imaginative active set by Derek McLane, Catherine Zuber's costumes and Kenneth Posner's lighting, director Susan H. Schulman draws us into this family until we feel we are part of it. It's a long show, but as it ended I said to my date, "I'd love to stay for one more chapter."
