Given the Broadway stagehands strike, I thought I wouldn't be doing much theater blogging this week. But, of course, theater is not all about Broadway. And Siege amply reminded of that when she made my day by passing along an exciting bit of musical theater news: The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis will be producing the world premiere of Little House on the Prairie, a musical based on the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. The show is scheduled to open during the summer of 2008.

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I'm cautiously optimistic about this project. For one thing, the creative team seems pretty amazing.

An upcoming New York workshop presentation of Prairie, a musical version of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, will star Patrick Swayze (Dirty Dancing) and Melissa Gilbert as Pa and Ma. The show will run April 16-17 in New York (but will be closed to the public), and producers are aiming for a national tour in spring 2008.

In her youth, Gilbert played spunky daughter Laura Ingalls in the LHOTP television series.

This was her then:

This is her now:

She grew up nice, didn't she?

Women appear to be running this show: the book was written by Beth Henley (who won a Pulitzer for her fabulous play Crimes of the Heart), the lyrics were written by Donna DiNovelli, Oscar winner Rachel Portman (Emma) composed the music, and Francesca Zambello will direct. … continue reading