O. Henry ‘Gift,’ Alcott’s Women and Santa Too

One lands in the world that the Laguna Niguel Playhouse has created for its Christmas show as if disembarking from a time machine. The amalgam of Children’s Theatre Productions and the old Laguna Niguel Community Theatre lies amid a sprawl of newish tract developments and a home design center.

Sit down, and whoosh, director Alicia Butler’s staging of “Little Women” takes you far from suburbia. Looking like a burnished yuletide card, this one-act miniaturization of Louisa May Alcott’s family saga is charming as long as the March sisters hold court.

Butler has a fine troupe in Christy Simonian as headstrong, tomboyish Jo (alternating with Katie Brittle); Deanna Balbas as Meg, the eldest; delightful Hailey Villaire as Amy, the youngest; and Ciara Hartman as quiescent Beth (alternating with Andrea Balbas). Chummy and competitive, and taking to proper 19th century manners with ease, this quartet imbues the characters with charm and pluck.

Simonian’s Jo is determined to put on her melodrama, despite Aunt March’s (Karen Franson) stern, anti-theater prejudice and the absence of her father, who is off fighting in the Civil War. Each of the novel’s big themes, from Jo’s drive to make a life for herself to the generational rifts, is foreshadowed in this brief playlet. Franson’s one-note harrumphing and Sharon Simonian’s bland Marmee, the girls’ kind mother, drain some of the early energy.

This “Little Women” also ends with a sudden, false-feeling note of Christian goodness--a sense that seems more authentic in the follow-up one-act, O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” Though Butler’s cast is notably weaker here, this is by far the more affecting Christmas story.

O. Henry (stiffly played by James Mulligan) introduces us to his struggling, loving couple. Despite the rote delivery, this ironic tale is a charmer. And it seems doubly ironic in a theater space set in well-to-do environs. The double bill is topped off with a visit from Santa, a treat for those who may not fully appreciate Alcott’s and O. Henry’s finer sentiments.

BE THERE

“Little Women” and “The Gift of the Magi,” Laguna Niguel Playhouse, Laguna Design Center, 23811 Aliso Creek Road, Suite 150, Laguna Niguel. Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. (714) 425-1771. $8-$10. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.