Review: WIDDLE WOMEN at Elysian Theatre

This is not my first time reviewing an adaptation of Little Women in Los Angeles, so I have to make one thing clear upfront: I was born and raised in Massachusetts and we don’t mess around about Little Women where I’m from. That said, Greta Gerwig’s recent Academy Award-nominated adaptation may need to make some space for an iconic new contender for GOAT. Cassie Ahiers’ 90 minute comedy, Widdle Women playing at the Elysian Theatre, gives a surprisingly faithful retelling of the iconic quartet— except in this version, they are four inches tall and living beneath the couch of a hoarder.

It’s all in there: an emotional coming of age story where four sisters struggle with financial hardships, a father away at war, conflicting opinions on their relationships with men, jealousy, dreams of better lives and the ways to attain them, the vengeful burning of a book, a sudden fatal illness, and even an unconventional but very convenient German love interest. I won’t waste time trying to explain how or why this show was funny— where’s the fun in that? Suffice it to say, from beginning to end, the Monday night audience roared with laughter. I will posit this, however: sometimes there are ideas so asinine that they circle back around and become genius again. That’s Widdle Women, and Alcott would be thrilled enough people signed off on this that it is seeing the light of day.

The cast absolutely carries this show, landing joke after joke after joke. There is not a weak member of the bunch, but certainly Emma Pope, Jordan Lee Cohen, Elizabeth Andrews, and Alison Banowsky as the titular widdles (Spring, Fluff, Loose Change, and Crumb respectively) are commendable in their interactions and heightened characterizations. Somehow, each pushes their role to its extremes— Pope as gangly and awkward as imaginable, while Banowsky commits to a babyish squeal— without forfeiting any of the humanity of the characters. As neurotic as the energy got, it still felt like witnessing four sisters struggling with the universal weight of growing up. Grace Palmer’s Marmee, Damon Royster’s Dardee, Jeff Murdoch’s Knob, and Anthony Lombard’s Günter all cued up bits perfectly for the sisters to land home.

Ahiers’ staging is, of course, the other star of the show. Choreographic moments are clean and the widdles’ adventures with garbage disposals, puking cockroaches, full-sized humans, and other perils are imagined with precision and staged with exciting ingenuity. Puppetry consultant Karly Bergmann and props artisans Cassie Ahiers, Anthony Lombard, Ian Bratschie, and Julie Bratschie have fleshed out a very real universe within the hoarder’s home— one that is surprisingly consistent in scale and reliably delightful in its inventiveness. Crayons, raisins, an expired inhaler, and even a glass jar-turned-quarantine-vessel flesh out a bizarre widdle world. With live accompaniment by Alex Kliner, the entire piece unfolds flawlessly. Brava to Widdle Women. I can’t wait to see what they dream up next!