I got the chance to see a performance of Little Miss Sunshine at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. I was looking forward to seeing the show for two reasons. First, I really loved the movie, and second, I really love the composing team James Lapine and William Finn (who also wrote The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee).
It is impossible to watch a play based on a movie without making comparisons to the movie, and Little Miss Sunshine was a fairly close re-telling of the popular independent film. While I am not a huge fan of the practice of movie-to-musical conversions, this story worked on a number of levels. The plot has the perfect blend of pathos and light, and the characters are complex and well-drawn. The fact that the writers manage to find the comedy in a story involving suicide attempts, marital strife, death, disappointment, and existential crisis is what makes this plucky musical work. I think that every theater-goer can relate to the broader issues these characters are facing, and to watch them endure and come out the other side still holding on to hope, family, and humor? This is what makes it a truly feel-good show.
The music was a nice complement to the play. It was not your typical show-tunes fare. There were no giant torch-songs or snazzy dance numbers. The songs were not necessarily melodic, though they were thoughtful and poignant. At many points, it is easy to forget you are actually watching a musical.
The dark themes of the play were offset by several humorous gimmicks that really worked to transition the scenes and keep the play from feeling too heavy. The yellow VW bus was practically a character in the play – and the set design employed several buses of various sizes to show their trek across the country. There was also a “Greek chorus” of self-help devotees who sang in between scenes, and who played various minor characters throughout the play.
Article comments