Endless homespun enthusiasm

Andrew Loudon's production of Little Women is back, presumably by public demand: it previously played at Sadler's Wells in 2002.

Even so, much as one may have loved Louisa May Alcott's novel when one was ten, it's surely pretty hard a few years down the track to accommodate her relentlessly wholesome story of the March family living against the backdrop of the American Civil War.

Nor does Loudon's production make many concessions: from the moment the four bright-faced, over-enunciated March girls emerge on stage clutching dolls, you are pretty much forced to either buy into the inevitability of a cloyingly winsome evening or resign yourself to two-andahalf hours of agony.

Subject matter aside, there are problems exclusive to the production. Rachel Payne's wooden set resembles a garden shed, and Sarah Grochala's desperately laboured Jo finds the proto-feminism and her emotional turbulence but fails to find our sympathy.

Still, Diana Eskell's Amy and Ann Micklethwaite's Sallie reflect the surprisingly bountiful humour in Alcott's social observations, the pace is brisk and Emma Reeves's amalgamation of both Little Women and its sequel, Good Wives, is efficient. Can't say the endless homespun optimism sent me scuttling back to the novels, though.

Until Jan 15, Duchess Theatre, Catherine Street WC2, Mon to Sat 7.30pm, Wed and Sat mats 2.30pm, £10 to £27.50, £17.50 concs. Tel: 0870 890 1103. Tube: Covent Garden

Little Women