Stage
- Marian de Forest adapted Little Women for the Broadway stage in 1912 with Marie Pavey as Jo.[63] The 1919 London production made a star of Katharine Cornell, who played the role of Jo.[64]
- Isabella Russell-Ides created two stage adaptations. Her Little Women featured an appearance by the author. Jo & Louisa features a confrontation between the unhappy character, Jo March, who wants rewrites from her author.[65][66]
- A new adaptation by playwright Kate Hamill had its world premiere in 2018 at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, followed by a New York premiere in 2019 at Primary Stages directed by Sarna Lapine.[67]
Film
Little Women has been adapted to film seven times. The first adaptation was a silent film directed by Alexander Butler and released in 1917, which starred Daisy Burrell as Amy, Mary Lincoln as Meg, Ruby Miller as Jo, and Muriel Myers as Beth. It is considered a lost film.[68]
Another silent film adaptation was released in 1918 and directed by Harley Knoles. It starred Isabel Lamon as Meg, Dorothy Bernard as Jo, Lillian Hall as Beth, and Florence Flinn as Amy. It is also considered a lost film.[69]
George Cukor directed the first sound adaptation of Little Women, starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo, Joan Bennett as Amy, Frances Dee as Meg, and Jean Parker as Beth. The film was released in 1933.[70] In Radio City Music Hall the film was "breaking box-office records" in the fall of 1933, and Hepburn received top billing.[71]It was followed by an adaptation of Little Men the following year.
The first color adaptation starred June Allyson as Jo, Margaret O'Brien as Beth, Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, and Janet Leigh as Meg. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, it was released in 1949. The film received two Academy Award nominations for color film, for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction/Set Direction, the latter for which it received the Oscar.[72]
Gillian Armstrong directed a 1994 adaptation, starring Winona Ryder as Jo, Trini Alvarado as Meg, Samantha Mathis and Kirsten Dunst as Amy, and Claire Danes as Beth. The film received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Ryder.[73]
A contemporary film adaptation[74] was released in 2018 to mark the 150th anniversary of the novel.[75] It was directed by Clare Niederpruem in her directorial debut and starred Sarah Davenport as Jo, Allie Jennings as Beth, Melanie Stone as Meg, and Elise Jones and Taylor Murphy as Amy.[75]
Writer, and director Greta Gerwig took on the story in her 2019 adaptation of the novel. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as Jo, Emma Watson as Meg, Florence Pugh as Amy, Laura Dern as Marmee, Meryl Streep as Aunt March, Eliza Scanlen as Beth and Timothee Chalamet as Laurie. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.[76]
Television
Little Women was adapted into a television musical, in 1958, by composer Richard Adler for CBS.[77]
Little Women has been made into a serial four times by the BBC: in 1950 (when it was shown live), in 1958, in 1970, and in 2017. The 3-episode 2017 series development was supported by PBS, and was aired as part of the PBS Masterpiece anthology in 2018.
In 1950, the American anthology series Studio One aired a two-part adaptation consisting of two hour-long episodes on CBS. The first was Little Women: Meg's Story on December 18, followed by Little Women: Jo's Story on Christmas day. Meg's Story was directed by Paul Nickell and Jo's Story by Lela Swift. It featured a teleplay by Sumner Locke Elliott and starred Nancy Marchand as Jo, June Dayton as Beth, Peg Hillias as Mrs. March, Lois Hall as Amy, Mary Sinclair as Meg, Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt March, Kent Smith as Bhaer, John Baragrey as Mr. Brooks, Berry Kroeger as Mr. Laurence, Una O'Connor as Hannah, and Conrad Bain Dr. Bangs.[78][79] In 1958, CBS aired a musical version starring Florence Henderson.[80]
Universal Television produced a two-part miniseries based on the novel, which aired on NBC in 1978. It was followed by a 1979 series.
In the 1980s, multiple anime adaptations were made. In 1980, an anime special was made as a predecessor to the 26-part 1981 anime series Little Women. Then, in 1987, another adaptation titled Tales of Little Women was released. All anime specials and series were dubbed in English and shown on American television. Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari can be streamed on Amazon Prime.[81]
In 2012, Lifetime aired The March Sisters at Christmas (directed by John Simpson), a contemporary television film focusing on the title characters' efforts to save their family home from being sold.[82] It is usually rebroadcast on the channel each holiday season.
In 2017, BBC television aired a miniseries adaptation developed by Heidi Thomas, directed by Vanessa Caswill. The three one-hour episodes were first broadcast on BBC One on Boxing Day 2017 and the following two days. The cast includes Maya Hawke, Emily Watson, Michael Gambon and Angela Lansbury.[1][2][3] Production was supported by PBS and the miniseries was shown as part of its Masterpiece anthology.
A 2018 adaption is that of Manor Rama Pictures LLP of Karan Raj Kohli & Viraj Kapur which streams on the ALTBalaji app in India. The web series is called Haq Se. Set in Kashmir, the series is a modern-day Indian adaptation of the book.
A South Korean adaptation was developed and produced by Studio Dragon for local cable network tvN and Netflix. Written by Chung Seo-kyung[83] and directed by Kim Hee-won, it aired in September 2022.
Musicals and opera
The novel was adapted to a musical of the same name with a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland and debuted on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre on January 23, 2005 and closed on May 22, 2005 after 137 performances. A production was also staged in Sydney, Australia in 2008.[84]
Eleanor Everest Freer adapted Little Women as an opera, writing both the score and libretto.[85] Freer's opera, a two-act work in English, debuted in Chicago at the Musician's Club of Women on April 2, 1934.[86]
The Houston Grand Opera commissioned and performed Little Women in 1998. The opera was aired on television by PBS in 2001 and has been staged by other opera companies since the premiere.[87]
Audio drama
- A dramatized version, produced by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre,[88] was released on September 4, 2012.
- A radio play, produced by Far From the Tree Productions, is being released in episodes from November 14 to December 19, 2020.[89]
Literature
The novel has inspired a number of other literary retellings by various authors. Books inspired by Little Women include the following:
- His Little Women by Judith Rossner[90]
- The Little Women by Katharine Weber[91]
- March by Geraldine Brooks[92][93]
- Little Women and Werewolves by Porter Grand[94]
- Little Vampire Women by Lynn Messina[92]
- Little Women on Their Own by Jane Nardin[95]
- This Wide Night by Sarvat Hasin[96]
- Marmee by Sarah Miller[97]
- Littler Women by Laura Schaefer[96]
- The Spring Girls by Anna Todd[94]
- Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rey Terciero and Bre McCoy[98]
