The Theatah, The Dahnse!

Last night Rob and I took advantage of a rare weekday night off by going to see the final preview of Theatreworks' new musical extravaganza, "A Little Princess".

(Warning: there are spoilers in this review!)

Let me start by saying it was a fantastic piece of theatre. Go see it as soon as you can get tickets. It's going to be a huge hit. The set was incredible, especially the exterior London scenes. The singing, dancing, and acting were all wonderful. The girl who played Sara had an absolutely amazing voice with astounding range and power, especially for a teenager. The supporting cast was phenomenal, particularly the wonderful Molly Bell (who I adored in Theatreworks' "Bat Boy" last season), Courtney Stokes, who was brilliantly cast as Ermengarde (and I'm not just saying this because I know her - she was marvelous), and the little girl who played Lottie, who pretty much stole every scene she was in.

There were some changes to the original story. Sara was inexplicably a gorgeous blonde. I vastly prefer the original concept of the dark, bookish, strangely beautiful Sara. It didn't bother me too much, though. Also, instead of setting the story in late Victorian England and India, it was set at the very beginning of Queen Victoria's Reign and in Africa. Captain Crewe has been ordered by the Queen to go do something or other involving Timbuktu, and that's why he has to send Sara off to school. Partly due to Tasha Tudor's illustrations of the book, images of late Victorian clothing are very clear in my head when I think of this story, but this change didn't bother me, either. Africa is just as magical and mysterious as India is, and the dancing and the music were wonderful, and I didn't miss India too much. What bothered me a little more was that they drastically downplayed Sara's extreme poverty. After her fall from grace, she's dressed in a respectable maid's outfit, not rags. In the book, she's a starving, abused slave. Here, she's a maid. She's hungry, but it doesn't seem like an enormous tragedy.

I was easily able to overlook those changes. However, they seriously Disney'd up the ending. I'm not going to out-and-out give away the ending, but let's just say the writer borrowed some things from the loathsome Shirley Temple film version. I saw it coming and was prepared, but it still annoyed me a little. What actually made me roll my eyes was this: at one point, a vital piece of evidence needed to prove someone's innocence is tossed into the fireplace. Lights flash on the fireplace, and magically - the letters aren't burned.

Here's what's so great about the original story. It's a fairy tale. There's a princess, a villain, a dark tower in a castle (okay, an attic), and there are "magical" helpers to the princess. But the princess is strong and independent and smart, and she eventually triumphs due to her own strong will and help from others who recognize her beautiful spirit. There is no literal magic. It's all psychological magic. It's real. That's the beauty of the story. There's nothing in the story that couldn't happen.

To take that away and sprinkle pixie dust on it does a great disservice to the book, and to us. This play is still a work in progress, and I can only hope that that part gets changed. It would have been so easy for Sara or Ermengarde to heroically snatch the letters out of the fire before they burned, or for someone to prevent the letters from being thrown. Heroism. That's REAL magic.

Despite the silliness, it was still a terrific show. Everyone involved with the show should be very, very proud. Go see it! Now!

Comments

[Elisa]

Hi there! Thanks for giving me this link over at my blog.

And I linked to your review over at the TheatreWorks blog:

http://theatreworks.blogspot.com

I agree with you on the drastically changed ending, frankly. Luckily I already knew it had been changed going in. I also agree she didn't look impoverished enough.

This was one of my favorite books growing up, so I have my own prejudices about it. But it's like when I saw "Wicked." I had to divorce myself from the book entirely or I would not have enjoyed "Wicked" the musical at all.

[Kate]

That's funny you mentioned "Wicked". I was just listening to it in the car on the way home and I thought the exact same thing. Great minds, I guess. :)