Little House on the Prairie, starring Melissa Gilbert as “Ma”, opens tonight in The Buell Theatre!  In celebration of the opening, we’ve brought you a couple YouTube videos about the show. 

 

First, scenes from Little House on the Prairie:
 

 

Next, here’s actress Kara Lindsay’s vlog about the show.  Kara plays Laura in Little House on the Prairie and was a cast member of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s production of Quilters during the 2008/09 season.

Enjoy!

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Borrowed from Broadway Fan Club’s November Newsletter

 

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE,

the beloved children’s book, is now a new musical that is currently touring the US.  Melissa Gilbert, who rose to fame playing “Laura” in the 1970s TV series based on the book, stars as “Ma.”   We asked Donna Di Novelli, the show’s lyricist, to share one of her lyrics with the Fan Club. She gives us some insight on the writing process for lyrically adapting a book for the stage.

 

The Prairie moves,
All around it moves
All the time it moves.

 

The land transforms
Every day reborn
Every morn.

 

Its grasses bend and bow
Its flower petals blow
Its stars will sow another prairie night.

 

The bison thunder by
In a whirl of dust and sky
Barely shy of a swirling storm.

 

We’ll build a home
A homestead home
From where you’ll watch the prairie move.

 

Through windows open wide
To catch the morning air

 

You’ll see the mustangs ride
You’ll see the leaping hare
And geese that fly beyond the countryside.

 

Along with them you’ll grow
Learning lessons as you go
From the glory the prairie’s own

 

We cannot stay the same
As we rise with each new day
On a land that the wind has grown.

 

-From “The Prairie Moves,” lyrics by Donna Di Novelli. Reprinted by permission.

 

Q: Why did you and your collaborators choose this moment to be a song?

 

A: This was one of the first songs Rachel Portman and I wrote, almost four years ago. Prompted by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s words, we started our collaboration by writing two love songs: one to the sky, one to the land. “Endless Sky” did not make it into the final script but “The Prairie Moves” did because of its strong dramatic function.

 

What were you trying to accomplish in this particular musical moment?

 

Several dramatic moments come together at this point in the musical. On the most basic level, Pa is trying to convince Laura that her restlessness can find a home on the prairie, that she doesn’t need to keep moving because “The Prairie Moves.”

 

On another level it is an ode to the beauty of the land, which is not static but alive with movement. The land and all its motion is a gift in song that this father gives to his daughter.

 

And on a third level, it is Pa trying to convince himself that HIS wanderlust will find peace on the prairie. At the end of the song what was second person singular addressed to Laura: “Along with them you’ll grow learning lessons as you go, from the glory the Prairie’s own” becomes third person plural “We cannot stay the same as we rise with each new day, on a land that the wind has grown.”

 

Why is this one of your favorite lyrics?

 

You can’t write a work called Little House on the Prairie without falling in love with the Prairie–and that beautiful French word. This song is also emblematic of the entire piece. The land will transform and the settlers will be the ones that change this open grassland to farmland. The struggle to tame the land parallels the story of Laura’s taming and her resistance to that. The entire staging of this musical is about the Prairie’s movement and transformation: the people, the sky, the set, the protagonist. 

 

To what extent, if at all, did you base these lyrics on text from the novel?

 

We based it both on the books and on historical research. “The bison thunder by in a whirl of dust and sky, barely shy of a swirling storm.” The swirling storm is, of course, in reference to the buffalo’s inability to outrun their own destruction. While allowing the actual geography of the plains into the song, the dramatic function comes from Laura’s desire to go “on and on” and follow the sun. Pa and Ma are always dealing with this middle child’s defiance of convention and decorum–it’s woven into her character, and reining her in is part of theirs.

 

Was the lyric or music written first for this song?  How were most of the songs written for this show (music or lyrics first or alternating)?

 

Rachel Portman likes to work lyrics first, but at an early point in her composing, she often asks for the lyrics to adapt to her developing musical structure. There are a few songs, “Old Enough,” “Thunder,” “Faster” which were set basically “as is”, but mostly we alternate after the lyrics are initially on paper and go back and forth until satisfied.

 

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LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE recently announced that it is launching a nationwide partnership with Habitat for Humanity.  As the tour travels across the country, the cast and crew are committing to spend time helping on a Habitat build in each city they visit.  They’ll also make a donation of at least $1,500 in each city to help the work of HfH.  They started in early August with a build in the Bronx in New York City – you can see a clip of them working here.

 

LITTLE HOUSE star Melissa Gilbert noted that the message of the musical (and the books and television series that preceded it) is “the importance above all of a home and a strong family” which aligns perfectly the mission of Habitat.

 

We’re very excited to hear about this partnership, and when the show reaches Denver this December, we here at the DCPA will partner with the show and Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver to contribute to Habitat’s efforts here in our city.  This will be especially important in December – hopefully we’ll be able to help a family start a great new year in its new home.

 

Want to learn more about the new musical version of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE?  Visit its website.

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