Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie
#1Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 5/27/08 at 11:19pmDoes anyone have any details on the Guthrie's Little House? I know that Steven Blanchard, Melissa Gilbert, and Jenn Gambatese are in the cast. Any other info?
Idinster87
Understudy Joined: 2/12/08
#2re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 5/30/08 at 1:12pmIt also stars Sara Jean Ford, and is directed by Francesca Zimbello. Do we know if this is a pre-bway tryout?
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#2re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 5/30/08 at 1:15pm
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/118173.html
#3re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/20/08 at 7:55pmAny new news on this? As a little house on the Prairie fan, I'm hoping this is a hit that makes it to Broadway.
So, that was the Drowsy Chaperone. Oh, I love it so much. I know it's not a perfect show...but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry with you in your head for when you're feeling blue. Ya know?
Corine2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/14/03
#4re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/20/08 at 10:53pm
Laura Bell Bundy as Nellie
Jennifer Simard as Laura
Cheyenne as Manly.
Jared Bradshaw as Nellie's brother.
Mrs Olson- The perfect person Julie White it is perfect casting.
Julie White would make the perfect Mrs Olson.
Mr Olson- Boyd Gaines or Gregg Edelmann.
Updated On: 6/20/08 at 10:53 PM
TooDarnHot
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
#5re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/21/08 at 2:08am
According to producers, the show will NOT be coming to Broadway (as originally intended).
They start a run at the Guthrie in Minnesota this summer then go on to a 10 (or less?) city tour.
#6re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/21/08 at 2:41amWhen this show was on TV, me and my boyfriend used to sob like a bunch of babies (we were in our 20's!) everytime that syrupy sentimental music started. Our fave episodes were the one's where that kid they adopted (forgot his name) got all coked up, stealing the doc's "meds".
#7re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/21/08 at 12:42pm
Awwwww.... too bad. Maybe the tides will change if it is favorably received at the Guthrie. One can hope!
The show is the best- overdramatic, but still sweet.
So, that was the Drowsy Chaperone. Oh, I love it so much. I know it's not a perfect show...but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry with you in your head for when you're feeling blue. Ya know?
#8re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:03pm
I'm thinking I'll get to see it. Melissa Gilbert, Jenn Gambatese . . . I'm excited.
Broadway Mouth: 20 Great Broadway Songs of the Past 10 Years: “Show Off”
TooDarnHot
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
#9re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/21/08 at 3:13pm
Hermione - don't count on it. they completely scratched the idea of a Broadway run.
if the multiple city tryout is received well, we COULD see an open run in somewhere like Chicago though.
#10re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/21/08 at 11:05pm
That would work. Hey, I'd be happy to see it on the tour if it came to my area. Thanks for the update! 
So, that was the Drowsy Chaperone. Oh, I love it so much. I know it's not a perfect show...but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry with you in your head for when you're feeling blue. Ya know?
kooky
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/12/05
#11re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/22/08 at 8:52am
TDH, where are you getting your info? I know as a fact that " Little House "
will not be going to Chicago! Do I detect some Sour Grapes?
I will however be going to the opening at the Gutherie in August.
TooDarnHot
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
#12re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/22/08 at 12:14pm
Kooky... I never said it IS going to Chicago.
I said that if the multiple city tour is well received, the show could become a sit down production in a city like Chicago.
Those are the plans according to producers.
StockardFan
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
#13re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/22/08 at 1:13pm
My mom made my sister and I little dresses and bonnets like the ones the girls wore on the show and we would wear them every week while watching.
Total Dorks.
KFTC!!!!!
kooky
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/12/05
#14re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/22/08 at 2:00pm
TDH, I still find your info not too accurate. That is not at all close to the
info that I have from the Producers.
#15re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/22/08 at 3:52pm
Kooky,
I would love to hear a report on when you see the show. Please post your opinions!
So, that was the Drowsy Chaperone. Oh, I love it so much. I know it's not a perfect show...but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry with you in your head for when you're feeling blue. Ya know?
#16re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/22/08 at 4:17pmRachel Portman is a lovely composer. I hope it all comes together well.
#17re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/27/08 at 5:37pmI just got my tickets for the show (8/16, evening performance) and tickets are selling pretty fast. People started getting in line at 5:30 this morning from what I hear and I was on hold for nearly an hour buying tickets by phone. If you want to see Little House, you may want to get your tickets sooner than later.
TooDarnHot
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/7/08
#18re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 6/27/08 at 5:44pm
"TDH, I still find your info not too accurate. That is not at all close to the
info that I have from the Producers."
according to Francesa (the Director) and her assistant, they have decided not to take it to New York. They will try out a multiple city tour. If it goes well they COULD try for a sit-down production in the midwest.
That's what I know. Right from Francesa's mouth, sweetie.
#19re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 7/15/08 at 4:49pm
For anyone who is following Little House. Looks like it will be heading to Broadway after all. Despite TDH's expert opinion. 
I'm excited!!!
https://www.playbill.com/news/article/119482.html
So, that was the Drowsy Chaperone. Oh, I love it so much. I know it's not a perfect show...but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry with you in your head for when you're feeling blue. Ya know?
gypsy4
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/07
#20re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 7/15/08 at 4:50pmi was wonderin if there was ever going to be a broadway adaption this looks great.
#21re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 7/15/08 at 4:53pm
Here's the link to the current production's website. I'm curious to hear the music...
http://www.guthrietheater.org/prairie
So, that was the Drowsy Chaperone. Oh, I love it so much. I know it's not a perfect show...but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry with you in your head for when you're feeling blue. Ya know?
kooky
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/12/05
#22re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 7/15/08 at 5:34pmI love that Guthrie web-site, and TDH, Francesca isn't booking the tours !
#23re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 8/17/08 at 3:36am
I just got back to my hotel from this absolutely bewildering mess of a show. I understand why Broadway is now off the table for this production. It would be eviscerated in NY.
Let me begin by saying that I love the Little House on the Prairie books and the TV show and I love good theater, bad theater and mediocre theater. I really wanted to fall in love with this show. I am bereft that I didn't.
Stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled.
The Guthrie is a spectacular venue. If you ever get a chance to see a show there, please do. I've never been in a theatre like it... very modern and sleek. The seats are very comfortable and fairly wide though there's next to no leg room for taller folks such as myself. There are clear sight lines from every seat in the house--I honestly don't think there's a bad seat. Just an exceptional place to enjoy a show, which is bittersweet considering the show I just saw.
Randomly, there were surprisingly few children in the audience and the ones that were there were dressed up in little prairie costumes which was odd but cute.
The lighting is wonderful--very rich colors that evoke the plains. The sound design is pretty clever as well, and really helps to texture some of the scenes that require imagination.
The set design is... interesting, very minimal and only somewhat successful. It is almost too minimal and the set pieces move about so often that it becomes comical toward the end of the second act when the Oleson's store is flying in and out and the Ingall's home is sliding around at a frantic pace. The wheat is straight of the Wicked playbook. I kept looking around for Elphaba to come stalking out of the fields. One of the oddest design elements was a set of metal rings at the front of the stage, evenly spaced across the entire stage. They were used to evoke horses and buggies and during different scenes, the actors would clip reigns to the metal rings and pretend to be driving a buggy or sleigh. It was both clever and comical. I appreciate the ingenuity but watching the actors bouncing up and down and sliding around on a little box just got out of control. Another aspect of the show that was completely nonsensical was the use of props. It was frenzied and chaotic and very very wrong. At random moments, ensemble members would cross the stage carrying a basket or a bolt of fabric or a tool of some kind, completely WITHOUT context. It was insane, like I was seeing this crazy thing that no one else noticed. Just...wow.
As for the show itself. While it is billed as a musical, it is, in reality a play set to music. They tried to accomplish way too much, covering ALL of the books in the Little House series and many moments from the TV show. While there are many familiar scenes if you watched the show or read the books, it all moves so fast that you can never get comfortable and really enjoy the characters or the story. The show moves way too quickly. For example, there is one and only scene where Mary, Laura and Carrie are in school. Based upon this ONE scene we are supposed to believe many of the plot elements that follow. It is... ludicrous.
We're supposed to believe that the actresses who play Laura, Carrie and Mary are both children, and later young adults and it is quite jarring. It is patently absurd, BUT, the entire cast is excellent. Any faults with the show are strictly with the material.
No one will ever accuse Melissa Gilbert of being a great singer but she definitely does her best, rarely has to sing, and in her non-singing scenes she is really charming. She also looks fantastic. I don't know what magical elixir she's taking but I want some.
Steve Blanchard (Pa) was a real standout. I could hear him sing the phone book and more importantly, he was very believable as the prairie loving dreamer.
Sara Jean Ford as Nellie Olsen stole the show--fantastic comedic timing, lovely voice, great physical acting.
Jenn Gambatese is so much more talented than the role allowed for. She spent a lot of time standing around acting well-behaved like we know Mary Ingalls to be, but she was shamefully underused. Its a bit baffling that she took the role.
Kara Lindsay, as Laura, was also quite good though at times her voice seemed a bit unsteady and the range of ages she was expected to play were a major distraction. She really stood out in the second act as she became a young adult, and grew up and fell in love with Almanzo. In their big romantic scene, Almanzo is on his knees and she grabs him by his shirt and pulls him to his feet for a kiss... it sounds schmaltzy, but it was really fantastic.
The ensemble was strong though there were a few amusing things that stood out like the little black boy and the black doctor. I think color-blind casting is necessary and important (as a person of color who sometimes works in theater) but it was a little funny to see them amongst a sea of white people when we know, historically, its pretty inaccurate. All in all though, the cast was phenomenal, making the best of dismal, dismal material.
Rachel Portman is a talented composer and overall, the score is pleasant and that is a big part of the problem. I think she is so used to scoring movies, where the music shouldn't overwhelm but should complement a story that she doesn't know how to work in a medium where the music is the thing. Nothing stands out. Its all a blur of pleasant notes that are largely indistinguishable from one another. Her work, however, is the least of this show's worries.
There is not one song that you can sing along too, and I use the term "song" lightly because the show is a series of scenes where sometimes the characters speak and sometimes they sing but without any clear demarcations. Without a program you wouldn't be able to walk away knowing most of the song names. It is really sad given the richness of the source material. The only really engaging songs are the ones for Nellie Oleson made palatable because the actress is talented. Laura has a song in the one school scene about rocking a chair (I can't find my program) that has potential but goes so far off the rails that you forget the point of her song.
The lyrics are often cringe worthy, the most offensive being those for the "song" I'll Be Your Eyes, where Laura is telling Mary all the ways in which she will see for her newly blind sister. To see such a moment, one so ripe with lyrical potential, butchered in such a manner, it made me sick to my stomache. In other songs, the lyrics were choppy and didn't work well with the score. On the whole, the songs did nothing to advance the plot. They were just there--these bizarre, random, awkward moments that only occasionally made sense. There was also an overemphasis on certain thematic elements such as the idea of the vast prairie, freedom, independence and defying convention. Toward the end of the second act I wanted to stand up and say, "Please stop beating that poor dead horse on the middle of the stage. We get it."
The friend I saw the show with, who works in theater far more often than I, was equally distressed with the show, so I know its not just me being a picky bitch.
It was like watching a rough draft--there's a grand idea in the show but it has not yet been realized. I think this show will do well in Minneapolis and on tour because so many people are so nostalgic for the Little House books and because the cast is so oustanding but if it has any ambitions directed toward Broadway, there's a lot of work to be done.
exedore
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/20/05
#24re: Little House on the Prairie
Posted: 8/17/08 at 5:14am
"The ensemble was strong though there were a few amusing things that stood out like the little black boy and the black doctor. I think color-blind casting is necessary and important (as a person of color who sometimes works in theater) but it was a little funny to see them amongst a sea of white people when we know, historically, its pretty inaccurate. "
I haven't read the books for the better part of 15 years, but I remember there being a black doctor in the originals when everybody came down with malaria (aka fever 'n' ague).
