BIG WEST DEBUT `LITTLE WOMEN' PLAY TO OPEN AS MUSICAL.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Few actors get to meet the writers of the plays they perform, but today the cast of ``Little Women - A New Musical'' will have that chance.

Leah Miles and Brent Sprague, authors of the musical, will be in town today and Saturday to watch their work's West Coast premiere. The two, who met at Salem State College in Massachusetts in 1997, adapted Louisa May Alcott's novel ``Little Women'' for their musical.

``It was my first endeavor to do a musical, and I started out thinking I could do something like this by myself, which was silly - but I had to have that moment, I guess,'' said Miles. ``I really wanted it to be a story that had strong female roles, and I thought it would be easier to do ... an adaptation instead of doing something completely original. So `Little Women' - what little girl doesn't read it?''

It's Only Tuesday Productions, a local children's theater group, will perform ``Little Women - A New Musical'' today through Sunday at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, 750 W. Lancaster Blvd., in the Black Box Theater. Show times are 8 p.m. today, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and noon and 5 p.m. Sunday.

Before writing the musical, Miles reread the book and watched a movie version starring Winona Ryder and Claire Danes.

``When I saw the scene with Claire Danes dying, that was what really kind of hit me right in the gut and made me want to go after that story,'' said Miles.

When they set out to write their show in 1997, Miles and Sprague were unaware there had been any musical version of ``Little Women.'' They have since discovered three musicals and an opera, along with numerous play scripts. There have been four movie versions.

``We spent a good amount of time looking for other versions of 'Little Women' and we did not find one anywhere,'' said Sprague. ``And then just as we started getting the workshop in 1998 ready, all of sudden, we heard about one other version, then we heard of another version.''

Director Wayne Berry's two daughters persuaded him that ``Little Women'' should be staged in Palmdale, but finding the right script was something of a task. He wanted a script that went beyond the father's return from the Civil War and covered the girls as young adults.

``We'd finished 'Wizard of Oz' and were looking for something to do,'' said Berry. ``We started looking for scripts. ... They always ended with the father coming home and, according to my experts, that was a bad thing. So I actually had to read the book very quickly. We kind of gave up because we looked everywhere.''

After Berry gave up, Erin Swetland located the Miles and Sprague Web site and learned that their script doesn't end with the father's return. It also covers marriages, Meg's pregnancy and Beth's death.

``In that scene we will have the audience right here. They will be in tears,'' Berry said about Beth's death scene. ``The women will just cry their eyes out because the girls really carry it off.''

Working with an original script was both challenging and exciting for Berry and his cast.

``Usually you .... go to Amazon.com and print out 'Les Mis(erables),' or whatever it is, and you listen to the CD in your car, and generally when you get to rehearsals it's really similar,'' said Berry. ``You can't do that with this show. It's all original music.''

The original music is also an advantage for the cast members - no temptation to imitate other performers.

``They don't have to say, How did Ethel Merman sing this song?'' said Sprague.

``Now that I know the story, I think I understand why little girls like it so much,'' said Berry. ``It kind of relates to what they go through. It really does. I have two teenage daughters at home. I'm going through it as a father.''

Tickets are $15 for general admission; $10 for children and teens 17 and younger; and $13.50 for senior citizens, military personnel and full-time students 18 and older who have student-body identity cards.

For tickets, call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) The ``Little Women - A New Musical'' cast rehearses for what members hope will be one of several curtain calls. The play will open tonight.

(2 -- color) Director Wayne Berry, left, gives advice to actors, from left, Matthew Grisson, David Megaard and Erin Swetland for a new musical play whose West Coast premiere will be tonight in Lancaster.

(3 -- color) Katie Barr as the mother reads a letter to her ``Little Women,'' played by, clockwise from left: Raquel Michael, Jessica Padron, Melissa Mosher and Erin Swetland.

(4) James Van Den Ham and Melissa Mosher rehearse a scene for ``Little Women - A New Musical,'' opening tonight in Lancaster.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer