Writing the Book: An Interview with Sean Hartley

Interviewed by Joseph Whelan

JW: You came to this project after most of the songs had been written.  How did you find out about it?

SH: I was working for the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall, producing a concert about former winners of the Richard Rodgers Award, when I discovered the tape (the Little Women score won the award in 1998.) I happened to be in a BMI workshop with Kim and Alison and I approached them and said, “I heard the songs for Little Women and they’re good.  What’s happening with them?” They said, “Nothing.”  So I told them if they were ever interested in developing a new book, I’d like to work on it.  I don’t know if that rekindled a spark, but a few months later they commissioned me to write the book.  

JW: I understand there were more than thirty songs at that time.

SH: Sometimes they had written two or three songs for the same moment.

JW: How did you proceed?

SH: I started with the scenes that already had songs.  I read the novel and began to imagine how the songs corresponded to the book.  Then I focused on the really key scenes and worked those.  They became a framework for the house. That led to me a sense of what was missing, what we still needed to fill in.

JW:  What was missing?

SH:  There was no song for when Laurie realizes he’s in love with Jo.  It’s crucial because he goes from being a friend to being in love.  That’s an important part of the first act now.  I felt Jo’s relationship with Laurie needed to be developed.  I also felt we needed to make more of Meg’s wedding with John Brooke.  It’s crucial for Jo and Meg.  It’s the breaking point for Jo and Laurie.  Jo has to decide—what does she stand for.  I think we also develop the relationship between Jo and Professor Bhaer more fully.

JW: And there’s Jo’s relationship with Beth.

SH:  The Beth of the play is a fuller character than the quietly suffering, saintly sister of the novel. The impact Beth’s death has on Jo is especially important.  It galvanizes her and ignites a desire within her to be a better writer.  Through this experience, Jo gets to know herself and examines her convictions about life.  She discovers the difficulty of writing a story that’s deeper and true. Initially, I worked with Jo as a narrator because I felt it was an effective way to tell the story. But my experience of losing my own sister began to color everything for me.  I began thinking of it in terms of Jo losing Beth. That led to the scenes in the attic between them.

JW: Why is this story appealing?

SH: If you step back from some of the Sunday school aspects, you can see why the book is so popular.  The conflicts and problems are real, even though the advice and solutions are so goody-goody.  I think the truthfulness of the situations draws people in. There’s something in the material, itself, I think.  The characters start to feel like family members.  It starts to feel a little bit like this really happened.