Jo The Little Women Musical

Theatre Royal Drury Lane - 25/01/2026

Interview with:

Composer and Conductor: Dan Redfeld

Co-lyricists and Writers: Christina Harding and John Gabriel Koladziej

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It's less than a week now until the ONE NIGHT ONLY concert of Jo - The Little Women musical. Is London ready for the beauty this new musical is going to bring?

This week, tickets sold out! London is eagerly awaiting the musical inspired by Louisa May Alcott's book 'Little Women'. Focusing on the character 'Jo March'. The theatre is going to be full of eager beavers who have been counting down the days for the concert since the announcement back in October. If you haven't had a chance to listen to the album on listening platforms, you simply must.

We haven't had a new musical with such an incredible classical feel to it in a long time. They will fill the stage with a FULL orchestra and use the theatres accoustics to it's full potential. We, theatre fans, simply cannot wait to hear what this show has to offer. It stars original cast members from the recording and new faces, such as Kerry Ellis as Marmee March. A star-studded cast of incredibly hard-working musical theatre professionals. It'll be an evening to remember.

What is the London audience in store for? Well, we were lucky enough to have a conversation all about the show with some inspirational creatives of this show. This interview was with Dan Redfeld, composer and conductor of the show and co-lyricists and writers Christina Harding and John Gabriel Koladziej. The amount of work the team have put into this musical so far has been incredible, and the noise for this show is BOOMING.

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Let's share what the three had to say about the new musical:

Q: What can London expect from this exciting concert?

A: John: The most exciting thing is the brilliant cast we are working with! We have a really phenomenal cast. We were spoiled with the album cast, obviously, and now spoiled again with this cast of lovely, talented and generous performers.

Daniel: Also, the orchestra! You rarely get to see an orchestra of this size in a pit. They are not in a pit; they are actually going to be on stage. The audience will get to witness them making their magic. The audience is going to get THE ENTIRE SHOW! It'll be semi-staged.

John: Every note of music, every word of dialogue and every song that you would get in the fully staged production. It'll be a taste of the whole show! Without the set and costume.

Christina: It's a taste of what is to come. With room for your imagination to fill in the blanks.

Q: What aspect of the concert are you the MOST excited to see?

A: Daniel: I'm excited to see the whole piece! We have not heard it completely since the last workshop. Of course, with the album, we recorded each note of the show, but missed out on 15 minutes of content from the show. It'll be nice to hear it all in context. It's to hear the underscoring, which we have never actually heard with the orchestra. The three have heard it, with us doing the dialogue on it, but to hear professional actors performing it! The part of the show the album hints at is there, but you don't really realise the other 15 minutes that are missing. The underscore is like a film, as characters say something or react to things, or things are happening, it sets up the show. You see the motives, themes, and it sets up the drama. You get to hear it with all the colour!

John: The big thing is that this is the very first time the show has been done with a full orchestra for a live audience.

Christina: What I am most excited to see on stage, outside of my own mind, is all of these characters physically connecting. Witnessing the unfolding of the combinations of love stories and character arcs taking place right in front of me.

Q: How has the musical developed since the album release?

A: Daniel: Nothing has changed. I think one line in the show has changed in one of the numbers. We decided to break a line up, as it was a mouthful of words and gave three words to another character. It will be exactly like the album.

Q: What do you want the audience to take away from the staged concert of the musical?

A: John: EVERYTHING!

Daniel: I want the audience to feel the way I felt after watching the film version that starred Winona Ryder. When you feel a warm embrace, you feel good, and you've been on an emotional journey. I want the audience to feel so elated that they want to go and see it again!

Christina: I want the audience to feel a sense of fulfilment, an evening well spent! Maybe even walk out and think about calling their mum or their dad or even hugging their dog. Taking away a feeling of affection or love!

Q: What do you want your female audience to take away from the show?

A: Christina: I would love for the female audience inparticular to take away a sense that as you are crafting an idea of your sense of self, your path in life and purpose, that there is NO wrong answer. Whatever choice you make about your life, you feel it is respected in your community and mostly inside of yourself. Any path you choose in this world is a good and right choice for you. I would like the entire audience to go away with that supportive counter piece of believing that it should be true for women! I want the men in the audience to feel allied with the female characters in the show and take that home with them aswell. That's what I would really love.

Q: What are your plans for putting the concert together within the next few days?

A: Daniel: I'm currently on my way to the studio for the first time, where JoAnn M Hunter, our director, has already begun work with her assistant, and the orchestra is being set up. I start rehearsals with the orchestra tomorrow! We then begin our intense rehearsals on Monday! We start with music on Monday and Tuesday, going through the whole score. It's going to be a whirlwind! I've done many things like this, concert-wise! Putting on a musical in a few days is like being shot out of a cannon.

Christina: I think it's going to be a whirlwind, and our director, JoAnn M Hunter, is working with some of the movement elements over the next few days. Monday is up and running with staging and full cast!

Q: What are you looking forward to seeing from the professional cast as your characters?

A: Daniel: For me, it's seeing what the actors bring to the roles. Watching how they use the music and script to make it their own. For example, one of the things we have been doing this week is recording sections at Abbey Road that are already in existence with a selection of our actors for their own promotional reasons. Just watching what each of them has created with the material and raising it. In some aspects, new actors, such as Tracey Bennett, performed a section of the material with a complete 180-degree turn around from what the previous actor on the cast recording had performed. Neither is wrong, both choices are really interesting approaches to the matierial and that part for me is always magical.

Christina: Tracey Bennett, what a fabulous and brilliant performer. I am very excited to see all the choices these actors will make together. I know personally, for me, and I think this will resonate with John as well, the dynamic between Aunt March, who is going to be played in this concert by Tracey Bennett, Amy March by Sophie Pollono and Laurie by Tobias Turley, watching the trio move through the play and come to an ending together. I am excited to see that arc.

Daniel: I'm also really excited to see the four sisters together! They worked together on the album, and a bond was already starting to be established. Now, they get to really spend time together, and I can't wait to watch what it will be like.

Q: How do you think the Theatre Royal Drury Lane will complement the show?

A: Daniel: It's the most beautiful theatre I've ever been in! To be on a stage where 'My Fair Lady' did its British premiere, 'Oklahoma' and 'Miss Saigon', big influences on all three of us! It's exciting to be a part of the history of those walls.

Christina: These western theatres are beautiful spaces, and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane feels like the crown jewel. I hadn't been in until a couple of days ago, and it was just staggering how enchanted it was and the long history of that theatre. I feel it is so special to present a story in it that has a long history of its own. I'm hoping the sound of the orchestra will fill that beautiful space up!

John: The space has a timeless quality, it's epic and classic! Modern in its own way. The story has these qualities as well, which is a very fitting and warm environment.

Q: What is next for Jo The Musical?

A: Daniel: We hope for a full production!

Q: What have you most enjoyed about putting the show together?

A: John: Seeing the talent taking the material and bringing it to life.

Christina: The collaboration as well! To expand that, the cast, designers and seeing all of these wildly creative people use their imagination to bring new elements to the story on top of the material that they are handed on the page. Making something three-dimensional out of that. It's been really cool.

Daniel: Watching the people in the background, like our general management team, marketing and social media. All the people working together to build the show for one night is an amazing experience. Everyone is working for the same goal.

Q: Describe what the musical means to you in one sentence?

A: Daniel: It's the sense of family and going after a dream: The three of us are connected to eachother and the writing process for us together is like the March family on a certain level.

John: It's about creating the life that you want with the people that you love, that is in the hearts of all of these characters and claiming their place in the world together.

Christina: The show is about bravely choosing to become your true self.