As a kid, I had a crush on little Laura Ingalls from the television series Little House on the Prairie. I know, not exactly the poster model most guys were into. But I liked her gap-toothed smile, freckles, red hair and impishness.
So when I heard they’d turned the book and series celebrating the pioneer life made famous by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic books 70 years ago into a musical – I was intrigued. And when I found out Melissa Gilbert who played Laura on the show would be starring as Ma – I was hooked and bought first row AA balcony seats.
Playing at the Canon Theater in Toronto, the show wove stories around the joys and hardships of frontier life in South Dakota and centered the plot around Laura’s coming of age as she helped her sister Mary deal with blindness and a budding romance with her eventual husband Almonzo.
The music was nice though no number stood out as a showstopper. The set was sparse which makes sense for a travelling musical. Choreography seemed a little wooden. But despite all that, the story did move me and I`m glad Aline and I went to see it.