Little Women: The Musical has opened its doors with a premiere at Park Theatre in Finsbury Park.

The musical, produced by Katy Lipson, is based on the 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott and follows the adventures of the four March sisters: Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy.

Jo is an aspiring writer who, after receiving a rejection from another publisher, weaves together a story of how she and her sisters grew up in civil war-era America. The resulting tale is one of love, loss and hope.

West End star Savannah Stevenson, who played Glinda in Wicked for three years, plays Marmee, the beloved mother of the March sisters.

Savannah said: “This piece really is about these young women trying to find their place in the world.”

While the musical premiered in Manchester in 2017, the production has never been in London until now. Director, Bronagh Lagan, hopes to capture the audience with a new cast and a completely redesigned set.

With only 200 seats, Bronagh promises an “intimate experience of really being in the home with the March family”.

She said: “The show is something a lot of people will connect with, particularly the relationships of the family. We have just come out of the pandemic where we have been locked up with our loved ones, or indeed parted from them. I feel that this family story could really connect with an audience.”

The director is one of four sisters herself, and grew up listening to her mother read the novel to them all. She leaned on these memories for inspiration.

She said: “Sharing your own personal stories is a good way to open up to the cast and allow them to put real truth behind their choices because they’re putting their own lived experiences into the work, and that’s what Little Women is about.”

As well as family, a strong theme in the musical, both on and off-stage, reflects female empowerment.

Lydia White, who plays Jo, said it was important for her to emphasise the feminist tones in the play through her character.

She said: “The novelist wrote herself as Jo, and she was an abolitionist, a feminist and very forward-thinking, I wanted to hold myself up to those expectations of Louisa and her values.”

The show will run from November 17 to December 19 from Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm and Thursday and Saturday at 3pm. Tickets can be purchased at www.parktheatre.co.uk