Marci Shegogue, musical director, and Matré Grant, associate musical director, gave the show the musical backbone on which the actors’ singing performances grew. The directors also brought topical subtext to the show with non-traditional casting of some of the actors. In 1869, a few years after that war, novelist Louisa May Alcott wrote a semi-autobiographical - and feminist-themed - novel about the March family of Concord, Massachusetts, and in 2005 lyricist Mindi Dickstein, musician Jason Howland, and musical book writer Allan Knee created Little Women: the Broadway Musical, which was magically produced into an evening of delightful entertainment by the University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies.ĭirectors Alvin Mayes and Scot Reese harnessed the talents of outstanding players such as Jordan Embrack (who played Margaret “Marmee” March), Anton Van De Motter (Laurie Laurence), and Leilani Clendenin (Jo March) to bring forth an emotionally upbeat musical to the audience. Then as now, people have always found a way through their deepest valleys. Just as the Civil War plunged our nation into a heart of darkness and uncertainty, the present day challenges the human spirit.