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by Rachel Portman, directed by Francesca Zambello

Mirvish Productions, Canon Theatre, Toronto

January 28-February 28, 2010

"The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye"

The new musical, “Little House on the Prairie”, now on the Toronto leg of its North American tour, has apparently been expressly written not to offend anyone except those who may feel the settlement of the American West was not a good thing.  It is perfect counterprogramming to the musical “Rent” that preceded it at the Canon Theatre, a foul-mouthed urban rock opera dealing with homosexuality, bisexuality, cross-dressing, prostitution and AIDS.  Those visiting “Little House” need fear none of that.  The musical is set during that mythical golden age in America when sex happened only within marriage, when there was no violence or foul language and when only bad weather, disease or other acts of God prevent people from achieving their goals.  Even then, as we are told, these accidents are sent by God to test us to make better.  Thus, for a work about settling the West, this is also a musical totally without conflict.  And without conflict there is no drama to sustain the show’s two hours and twenty mintues.  Our involvement remains about as flat as the prairies. 

The musical is based on the beloved “Little House” series of autobiographical novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), which gained widespread popularity through the television series of the same name that ran 1974-84 and starred Melissa Gilbert as Laura.  Director Francesca Zambello and designer Adrianne Lobel had the idea of transforming the books into a musical.  The obvious difficulty is how to mould material that is necessarily episodic into dramatic form.  On the evidence the musical, Rachel Sheinkin, author of its book, made no effort whatsoever and the show suffers as a result. 

Charles Ingalls decides to move his family west to have more land, his wife Caroline opposes him for about three minutes and then agrees.  This sets the pattern for all the subsequent “conflicts” the Ingalls family faces.  Their first crop is destroyed by an early winter and they might starve, but then they find extra stock at a town nearby.  A fire destroys the next crop, but they survive that, too.  The middle daughter Carrie goes blind from scarlet fever, but Laura find work as a teacher to pay for Carrie to go to a special school for the blind and soon she is singing about the joys of reading Braille.  Even the Ingalls girls main enemy, Nellie Oleson, has a song after Laura leaves home, about missing having someone to quarrel with. 

Everyone is just so darned nice it’s almost sickening.  This might be palatable if the songs were good, but Rachel Portman seems content merely to recycle watered down Aaron Copland to such an extent that it’s very difficult to tell from song from the next.  It doesn’t help that Portman decides to tack a big ending onto every song, no matter how slight, as if constantly begging for applause.  It also doesn’t help that Donna Di Novelli has written very unimaginative lyrics, all is lines alternating three and four beats, so that Portman really has little variation to work with.   

The performances are goodish.  As Laura Ingalls, Kara Lindsay captures all the liveliness of the tomboy her father calls “Half Pint” and dings in a clear if occasionally piercing voice.  As her older sister Caroline, Alessa Neeck has a lovely operetta-style voice that tends to reinforce her too-good-to-be true character.  Melissa Gilbert plays Mrs. Ingalls or “Ma” to give the show a star and connect it to the television series.  She can’t sing and thankfully is given only one main song.  Her face appears to have been botoxed into immobility so that she is not really capable of facial expressions.  As Nellie Oleson, Kate Loprest seems to be in some other musical entirely--Glinda in “Wicked” or Amber Von Tussle in “Hairspray”.  She does have the strongest voice of the female leads, but her acting is far too broad.  Meredith Ingleby clearly distinguishes between her two characters, the teacher Eliza Wilder and the neurotic Mrs. Brewster.  Sheinkein must have written the latter to give at least one example of unhappiness, but  there is no resolution to her situation.  

As for the men, Steve Blanchard as Charles Ingalls is the tall sensitive pioneer seldom depicted in Westerns.  He has a commanding voice though it is not alway fully under control.  Kevin Massey is excellent as Almanzo Wilder with a fine singing voice and the most nuanced acting in the cast.

Adrianne Bobel’s sets consist of bits and pieces of buildings placed against a huge cyclorama onto which are projected scenes of big sky country.  Jess Goldstein’s period costumes are all well observed.  Mark McCullough’s lighting is always effective, especially in the big scene of a fire raging across the prairie.  Director Francesca Zambello’s most imaginative touches are the scenes where she has the cast mime activities like the trek over the plains, horse-riding or sledding.  Michele Lynch’s choreography is rather peculiar.  Except for one balletic scene where Almanzo dances with Laura, she never has the men physically touch the women.  Has she never seen square dancing or reels?  Instead, she stages hoedowns where the the men dance, the women dance, but when both dance together they all use the same self-contained steps.

There is probably a market for this kind of musical--most likely the most conservative towns in Bible Belt--but it certainly isn’t Toronto.  One need only think of the 1943 musical “Oklahoma!” to realize how sanitized this musical’s view of western homesteading is.  In “Oklahoma!” there are fights between cowboys and farmers, unwelcome sexual advances, an exploration of the female lead’s psyche, a hero who threatens a mentally disturbed man and a town-wide cover-up of a murder.  Yet, this is one of the classics of music theatre precisely because of its moral complexity--something this mind-numbingly bland musical will never be. 

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Kara Lindsay, Steve Blanchard, Melissa Gilbert, Alessa Neeck and Carly Rose Sonenclar. ©Carol Rosegg.