What I liked
Fertile material for contemporary satire, but poorly developed and directed.
What I didn't like
The song score is especially intrusive (an unmuted piano covers dialogue passages) and inane, and the “choreography” simply silly. Purple-patching the dialogue with endless profanity gets cheap laughs at the expense of the material, not abetting it.
My overall impression
Last year London’s Tier-5 troop brought a fresh voice to Fringe with a show that gave voice to the 6 wives of Henry the 8th. This year they’re back with a show twice as long (106 interminable, intermission-less minutes) and not half as good. With several superior movie versions available, why rewrite LITTLE WOMEN for “now”, culling contextless sentimental moments, peppered with profanity and inane musical numbers (and a terrible new song), just to underline a (possible) lesbian subtext and make it seem ugly and ridiculous? Half the cast seems MIScast, but (also-)Producer James Cougar Canfield is in a class by himself: someone should tell him he’s playing to 48 people, NOT 4800! Beware!
