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Arts & Entertainment

March Family Musica

Photo by Joan Marcus

Mindi Dickstein mined Civil War
era sources to write the song
lyrics for Little Women
The
Broadway Musical.

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

a lot of research through tran-
scendental books, Civil War
songs and soldiers' letters as I
looked for phrases that might be
expressive of that period."
"Some Things Are Meant to -
Be" is a song that has Dickstein
becoming creative with a seg-
ment from the book. In the chap-
ter "Beth's Secret:' Beth expresses
to Jo that she understands her ill-
ness and her limited time.
Dickstein softens those ideas in
the second act as Beth sings with
Jo about destiny.
"Astonishing" references other
Alcott writing, with Jo vocalizing
about leaving home to pursue
her dreams. The image about
shining as brightly as the sun has
to do with the novelist's personal
hopes and aspirations.
"'Small Umbrella in the Rain'
is the song that relates most
closely to me now:' says
Dickstein, who is single
but has had long-term
relationships. "The lyric
was inspired by the
chapter 'Under the
Umbrella' and- is sung at
the end of the show by
Jo and Prof. Bhaer.
"It's a quirky love
song in that both people
are very stub-
born and dis-
agree a lot. I put
them in a very
intimate space,
thinking that
you can con-
nect to some-
one if you can
create a world
as big as a

t seems logical that Mindi
Dickstein won the job of lyri-
cist for the show Little Women
The Broadway Musical. It
presents a family of sisters
maturing into adults.
The writer grew her stage tal-
ents as a lyricist for
' Theatreworks USA, a touring
children's theater company.
Dickstein, who auditioned for
the musical by writing a song in
competition with three other
lyricists, read Louisa Mae Alcott's
book Little Women as a youngster
and continues to be absorbed
with the characters Jo, Meg, Beth
and Amy March. She particularly
identified with Jo's journey as a
writer.
The play, which takes place at
the time of the Civil War, stars
Maureen McGovern
Ph-oto by Joan M'arCu
as the matriarch
Marmee and runs
Dec. 6-18 and Dec.
27-Jan. 1 at the
Fisher Theatre in
Detroit.
- "This show is so
much bigger than
anything I've ever
done," says
Dickstein, 42, who
worked with corn-
poser Jason Howland.
"There were hundreds of
people involved in both the
New York and touring pro-
ductions.
"I reread the novel many
times, and there are phras-
es in the lyrics that are
directly from the book,
Top: Maureen McGovern reprises her
sometimes literally and •
sometimes more creatively. Broadway role of the matriarch Marmee
in the production of Little Women.
- "I read other things
Alcott wrote to get quotes
Above: Lyricist Mindi Dickstein:
directly from her. I also did "I reread the novel many times."

I

—

.

70

small umbrella. That's how I feel
about love."

Writing Talent

Dickstein, born in New Haven,
Conn., and raised in Boston,
originally wanted to be an
actress. She recalls the .fun she
had singing at her bat mitzvah,-
and she entered New York
University with the idea to write
plays so she could perform in
them.
As she explored her writing
talents, Dickstein realized that
was the right focus for her. The
lyricist encourages other writers
by teaching two courses at NYU.
"The first musical I wrote as a
university student was Beasts
and Saints," says Dickstein, who
received a master's degree from
the NYU Graduate Musical
Theater Writing Program. "That
musical came out of a class
assignment requiring an adapta-
tion of the Joan of Arc story.
"I thought I couldn't relate to
that because I'm Jewish, but I got
an idea about a Jewish woman
who had saints talking to her. It
turned out to be a comedy and
an exploration of what sainthood
is. I worked on that with Dan
Messe, who is Jewish and from

Lansing."
Dickstein currently is working
with Messe on Strange Vacation,
an adaptation of the Rip Van
Winkle story. A recent project, -
the original musical The Mystery
of King Tut, had a three-year tour
produced by Theatreworks USA.
Some of Dickstein's songs
recently were,included in Lincoln
Center's American Songbook
series as part of Hear and Now:
Contemporary Lyricists. Special
recognition has come with her
receiving the Jonathan Larson
Foundation Award, Second Stage
Theater Constance Klinsky
Award for Excellence in Musical
Theater and the ASCAP Bernice
Cohen Award.
Susan Schulman, who directed
Little Women, discussed the
importance of the score with the
Classical Voice of North. Carolina.
"So much of the emotion is in
the music:' says Schulman, whose
credits include The Secret
Garden, Sweeney Todd and The
Sound of Music. "I feel strongly
that the actor- must be ableJo
really sing. Some voices are -great,
but they don't carry emotion [or
give] the lyrics their proper
weight."
Dickstein basically is a morning
writer who likes to take breaks

Four becomes "Five Forever!"

when next door neighbor Laurie

(former Southfield resident

Danny Gurwin) is invited to join .

the March sisters as their hon-

orary brother, in a scene from

the Broadway production of

Little Women..

and then return to her craft. ..
"One of the great things about
writing musicals is that you're in
this solitary creative art — even
in musical theater, you go home
and write by yourself — but you
have so much more involvement
with other people," she says.
"It's a collaborative art from
the beginning, and it's wonderful '
and inspiring to have the ideas of
a collaborator at that beginning
place of creating an idea, charac-
ter, scene or story" Li

Little Women — The
Broadway Musical runs
Dec. 6-18 and Dec. 27-Jan.
1 at the Fisher Theatre.
Performance times are
7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-
Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays-
Saturdays, 2 p.m.
Saturdays and 1 and 6:30
p.m. Sundays. $32.50-
$72.50. (313) 872-1000.

December 1 • 2005