Written by orange• November 22, 2025• 12:58 am• Musical, UCI, Uncategorized

Little Women The Broadway Musical @ UCI – Review

Written by Patrick Chavis

Little Women: The Broadway Musical is playing now at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, Nov 20 – 23, 2025.

For one weekend only, the UC Irvine Department of Drama presents Louisa May Alcott’s most famous novel, Little Women, through the medium of the musical.

Story:

This musical adaptation of the classic musical drops some of the emotional weight of the material for brevity, but many of the touchstone moments that make the cut receive a charming and gentle hand from director Myrona Delaney and this cast. It’s truly, in a word, Astonishing!

Little Women: The Broadway Musical boasts of a book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland, and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein. It is the story of four young sisters growing up in Concord, Massachusetts, during the Civil War and the various life paths they take. Since it’s a musical, songs accompany dramatic moments.

This story has been told repeatedly in many different media over the years: films, television, and, of course, a straight play version of the material. This tale, though written long ago, has many captivating stories about the realities of many women’s lives at the time, the restrictions society thrust upon them, the sad stories, but also the triumphs. It’s a story that, even though it is for a broad audience, doesn’t shy away from the darker side of life while also staying pretty positive. This is one of the reasons Little Women has remained so relevant for so long.

In this musical version, my only issue with the book, as mentioned earlier, some of the really dramatic, impactful moments from the source material are visually overlooked. It’s either for brevity’s sake or because staging such scenes is difficult.

Whatever the reasoning, these slight omissions are felt primarily by fans and do make the material feel lighter. Besides that, it’s a good book by Allan Knee, and this production really milked a lot of quality out of the story and its characters.

Set Design/Lighting:

Let me start with scenic design from Mariko Cilley. The design looks like the inside of a deconstructed house. This not only captures the essence of the house in the story but also provides the audience with quite a bit of information about the family and utilizes the space at the Barclay Theatre with interesting places and levels for the actors to inhabit on stage at any given time. Avery Reagan’s lighting and, even more importantly, timing with the various moments really focus on the most dramatic moments that sync well with the emotion and feeling of the music.

Live Music/Acting:

The music was divine. I was in the second row. Even that close to the action, the band’s live instrumentation sounded incredibly balanced. The music really blended well, maybe nowhere stronger than in the tune “Could You?,” where the two women singing, Jessica Lopez (Jo March) and Mikayla Thomas-Turner (Aunt March/US Mrs. Kirk), share their vocals back and forth so clearly in concert with the instrumentation. The singers delivered incredible harmonies during the performance.

The show begins and ends with Jo March (Jessica Lopez), literally and figuratively. Lopez’s had perfect snarky line delivery and emotionally tinged vocals, with great tone and clarity, throughout the production. Her talent especially shone when she sung “Astonishing” and “The Fire Within Me.”

Sophia Gilbert, as Beth March, and Aidan Pryor, as Mr. Laurence, delivered a highlight when they sang “Off To Massachusetts,” around a piano.

“Some Things Are Meant to Be” was just so rich, and they were blowing that stage up with sound. It was incredible and, possibly, my new fixation. That tune deserves its own show.

Mr. Brooke (Jake Stiel) hit all those tasteful comedic notes while keeping it endearing.

If you can make this show’s short window, this would be a great introduction to the material.

I give this show an 8.7 out of 10!