Cabaret Scenes Theatre Review - Little House on the Prairie

Fans of the TV series Little House on the Prairie, which ran on NBC from 1974-1983, may be interested in the fact that a stage musical adaptation, bearing the same name, is currently running at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. Melissa Gilbert, who played the daughter in the original series, is now playing the mother. The musical (with book by Rachel Sheinkin, music by Rachel Portman, and lyrics by Donna di Novelli) has a pleasant, wholesome—but ultimately rather bland and uninvolving—feel to it. When Gilbert appears for her curtain call, many audience members rise, but one suspects it is due more to nostalgia for a fondly remembered TV series than for anything they've just witnessed; Gilbert doesn't have a very interesting role, and in truth there are countless actors around who could have handled it as well or better. Kara Lindsay is appealingly spunky as Laura, Kevin Massey makes an agreeable beau for her, and Kate Loprest has some fun being supercilious Nellie Oleson (whom we love to hate). Steve Blanchard is appropriately stoic as Pa. But the production tends toward the generic.

This musical is too fragmentary and episodic to draw us deeply in. Tensions are repeatedly introduced and then released too quickly for there to be much emotional payoff. We are reminded repeatedly that frontier life is hard. There is a fire; the men put it out. There is a hard winter; but they get through it. Vain, self-centered Nellie Olson temporarily attracts the fellow Laura likes; but he soon realizes he prefers good, honest, down-to-earth Laura. No one theme is explored long enough, or substantively enough, for us too care too much.

Director Francesca Zambello and set designer Adrianne Lobel, who together initiated this stage adaptation, have come up with some striking visual images—tableaux that are my best memories of the night. But that is simply not enough. I'm sorry that a much-loved TV series and the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that were the original source material haven't inspired a more affecting musical.

(Pictured: Melissa Gilbert and cast. Photo by Jerry Dalia)

Chip Deffaa
Cabaret Scenes
September 27, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org



	Little House on the Prairie Paper Mill Playhouse Milburn, NJ
Fans of the TV series Little House on the Prairie, which ran on NBC from 1974-1983, may be interested in the fact that a stage musical adaptation, bearing the same name, is currently running at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. Melissa Gilbert, who played the daughter in the original series, is now playing the mother. The musical (with book by Rachel Sheinkin, music by Rachel Portman, and lyrics by Donna di Novelli) has a pleasant, wholesome—but ultimately rather bland and uninvolving—feel to it. When Gilbert appears for her curtain call, many audience members rise, but one suspects it is due more to nostalgia for a fondly remembered TV series than for anything they've just witnessed; Gilbert doesn't have a very interesting role, and in truth there are countless actors around who could have handled it as well or better. Kara Lindsay is appealingly spunky as Laura, Kevin Massey makes an agreeable beau for her, and Kate Loprest has some fun being supercilious Nellie Oleson (whom we love to hate). Steve Blanchard is appropriately stoic as Pa. But the production tends toward the generic. This musical is too fragmentary and episodic to draw us deeply in. Tensions are repeatedly introduced and then released too quickly for there to be much emotional payoff. We are reminded repeatedly that frontier life is hard. There is a fire; the men put it out. There is a hard winter; but they get through it. Vain, self-centered Nellie Olson temporarily attracts the fellow Laura likes; but he soon realizes he prefers good, honest, down-to-earth Laura. No one theme is explored long enough, or substantively enough, for us too care too much. Director Francesca Zambello and set designer Adrianne Lobel, who together initiated this stage adaptation, have come up with some striking visual images—tableaux that are my best memories of the night. But that is simply not enough. I'm sorry that a much-loved TV series and the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that were the original source material haven't inspired a more affecting musical. (Pictured: Melissa Gilbert and cast. Photo by Jerry Dalia) Chip Deffaa Cabaret Scenes September 27, 2009 www.cabaretscenes.org

Little House on the Prairie

Paper Mill PlayhouseMilburn, NJ

Paper Mill Playhouse
Milburn, NJ