Little House on the Prairie is a musical for those who grew up with the classic TV series and/or read the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder on which it was based. I grew up with both and as such I had a an affection for the material that helped me over some of the hurdles non fans might experience. It isn’t a great musical, but the cast and crew of Lakeshore Players Theatre do a nice job with their production. Newcomers to the story might find it a little hard going but those familiar and fond of Laura’s story will find enough to see them through. Based on the books by Wilder, the musical follows Laura Ingalls and family, Ma, Pa, her older sister Mary and her younger sister Carrie as the journey east to stake a claim in the west. The Government will give them the land if they live and farm on it for five years. As with the TV series, the family is beset by one tragedy after another. The first year is an especially brutal winter and the supply trains can not get through. The second year the crops are all burned up in a wildfire. Add to this, Laura’s sister Mary contracts Scarlet Fever and goes blind. Any fan of the TV series knows that if something can go wrong in pioneer days, it will happen to the Ingalls. But as with the series the focus of the musical is overcoming adversity and the grace and faith in each other with which the Ingalls family persevere.
The musical has a book by Rachel Sheinkin music by Rachel Portman and Lyrics by Donna Di Novelli and premiered at the Guthrie Theater in 2008 featuring the star of the TV series Melissa Gilbert in the role of Ma. This production is directed by Kristin N. Fox with choreography by Ruby Carlson and musical direction by Jack Johnston. The team does a nice job with the the exception of a few odd choices, one of which was at the end of a town fourth of July celebration dance, although rather short, the cast ends in a pose as if they’ve just wowed us with some really tricky footwork. It leads you to expect it’s time for intermission but it isn’t. It’s a bizarre choice that breaks the fourth wall which stuck out to both myself and my companion. The set design by Brandt Roberts makes versatile use of several section of a wood structure that can be rearranged in different configurations to create the different settings, from the Ingalls family house to Oleson’s store, and the schoolroom among others. For needing to be wheeled on and off continuously throughout the production the transitions were surprisingly smooth and quickly accomplished.
The cast has some stand outs both Kate Piering as Laura and Bridget Benson as Mary are very good vocally, their duet on “I’ll Be Your Eyes” was beautifully done and for me quite an emotional moment. Piering has the unenviable task in the first half of the play of being a twentysomething (I’m guessing) playing a younger girl in her early teens. It’s a tricky performance to pull off without grating on the audience and I thought she avoided the usual performance landmines and kept the audience on her side. Other standouts for me were James Lane as Pa who embodies the same characteristics that we came to know and love in the character on TV decades ago. Lane captures the wisdom and decency of the character and also proves to be a strong singer. Malea Hanson is very fun as Laura’s nemesis Nellie Oleson, particularly in her solo song “Without An Enemy” in which she laments the fact that Laura has gone away to be a teacher in another town. She is also great in a nonverbal scene towards the end at a wedding in which she stays in character even when no one is supposed to have eyes on her, always a sign of an actor who has committed to a role.
Little House on the Prairie runs through February 10th at Lakeshore Players Theatre in White Bear Lake. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.lakeshoreplayers.org/little-house-on-the-prairie
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