Show Synopsis: A young aspiring author named Jo is living in New York, and she is upset that her friend, the German professor Friedrich Bhaer, does not care for her latest story. She remembers when she was full of hope for her writing career as a young woman growing up in Concord, Massachusetts during the Civil War with her three sisters. She remembers a Christmas when they put on a play that she wrote while missing their father, who was fighting in the war. Jo meets a neighbor boy Laurie at a dance while her older sister Meg begins to fall in love with Laurie?s tutor Mr. Brooke. The third sister, Beth, becomes a friend of Laurie?s grumpy grandfather Mr. Lawrence and Jo learns the importance of sisterly love when Amy angers her but Jo saves her from falling into a frozen pond. Mr. Brooke and Meg become engaged, but Jo rejects Laurie?s marriage proposal and begins to focus on her writing career. Back in New York, Jo tells Professor Bhaer that she has sold a story to a notorious editor just before she finds out that Beth has scarlet fever and she must return to Concord. Beth dies and Jo grieves by writing the story of her life with her sisters, which becomes Little Women. Laurie and Amy marry and Professor Bhaer proposes to Jo and tells her that he has sold her manuscript for publication. Character: Jo March, a fiesty, stubborn, and slightly awkward aspiring writer; does not care for the stiffing expectations of women. Beth March, a shy and timid girl who loves her family and simple pleasures. Song Context: Jo cannot see where her life is headed now that Beth is dead, Meg and Amy are happily married, and she has left behind Professor Bhaer. Her sisters were her inspiration and her entire life, and she retreats to the attic where they used to gather and rehearse plays to recapture the spirit she used to have. Fun Facts: 1) This musical was based on Louisa May Alcott?s famous novel of the same name, which is loosely based on Alcott?s life story and relationships with her sisters. 2) Sutton Foster originated the role of Jo on Broadway. In an interview with the publicity team of the show, she said ?I honestly feel like I'm most one with Jo,"" she said. ""The sisters are all so different, and so specific. I'm not a Meg, I'm not a Beth?I don't know if anyone is a Beth! Amy ... well, maybe, because I was a bit of a terror when I was a child. But like Jo, I was always inviting friends over and writing scripts and making them act in these sort of murder-mystery plays, whether they wanted to or not. Jo's an incredible character to play. It's been really fun getting to know her more and more?because every night you perform it, you learn more and more about the part you're playing.? 3) In the original novel, Jo and Beth share a special bond between the two of them, as do Meg and Amy, and the older girls take care of their younger sisters, which is why Beth?s death devastates Jo."
"How do I go on? Just an empty room. All I have are memories. I need a task to do. Someone give me a task to do. I need a ? I thought that somehow we would always have forever. I thought the promises we made would have a different ending. I thought the love we shared would keep us as we were. It was the fire within me. We dreamed and plotted with abandon in this attic. When we were gathered here the room became our citadel. We were amazing then, my sisters and I ? They were the fire within me. In this room I knew we were alive. Nothing was too painful to survive. We faced the world together, The four of us forever side by side. Everything I promised was for them. I was theirs no matter where or when. How can that be lost forever? How when I gave everything with all my heart? [spoken] It was several days before Christmas. It was several days before Christmas. My sisters sat about the parlor and grumbled about their fate. Meg, the oldest and most romantic said, ""It's not fair some girls have pretty things while we have nothing."" ""And it won't be Christmas without presents,"" said Amy with her usual pout. ""And we haven't got father to read to us,"" said Jo who yearned to travel and write great books. Only Beth, sitting contented said, in a tone so sweet, even angels would have listened, ""But we've got each other."" [sung] Everything I promised them is here All of us the way we used to be. We will always have each other, They will always be the fire in my heart. Here I go, and there's no turning back. My great adventure has begun. I may be small But I've got giant plans To shine as brightly as the sun. Here in all the smallest details of the past. Here in this attic, suddenly life is something vast. The four of us forever here at last ? As unexpected as can be ? Astonishing."