The production of “Little Women: The Play” is big on talent at The Pennsylvania Playhouse.

The Playhouse production is charmed and charming with a talented cast skillfully directed by Melissa Miller.

Miller expertly navigates the sentimentality, the tragedy (what becomes of the March sisters) and the humor of young ladies as individualistic as their dreams.

Each actor creates a distinctive personality true to the script by Kate Hamill, adapted from the 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888).

The Kate Hamill play premiered off-Broadway in 2019 at the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City.

The novel was adapted for a play by Marian de Forest, which opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre in 1912, and revived on Broadway in 1917, 1931, 1944 and 1946.

A musical version, with book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland, opened on Broadway at the August Wilson Theatre in 2005.

I have not seen the Marian de Forest version, nor read the script of that play, nor seen the musical version.

The play by Kate Hamill is a contemporary take on topics inherent in the novel: sibling rivalry, friendship and love; the sisters’ individual longings, and pressures on the family in the socio-economic climate of its day. The play takes place in the sisters’ March family home in Concord, Mass., in the 1860s during the Civil War.

I have seen four of the theatrical movie versions.

There is the 1933 version directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn.

A 1949 version directed by Mervyn LeRoy stars Elizabeth Taylor, June Allyson, Janet Leigh and Margaret O’Brien.

A 1994 version directed by Gillian Armstrong stars Winona Ryder, Kristen Dunst, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon and Christian Bale.

A 2019 version directed by Greta Gerwig stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep and Timothee Chalamet.

The film pedigree of “Little Women” certainly fits the bill for the Playhouse’s 2025 season theme of plays as movies and movies as plays.

The novel, said to be semi-autobiographical, is considered one of the first coming-of-age fiction stories. The play concentrates on a more narrow timeline.

The Playhouse production, with Set and Lighting Design by Brett Oliveira, Costume Design by Safran Astra and Sound and Music Design by Amanda Haag moves briskly through a series of scenes that function as vignettes. The Dec. 7, 2025, performance was seen for this review.

The realism, a hallmark of the novel, that the actors bring to the Playhouse stage is impressive, believable and noteworthy. Director Melissa Miller balances the novel’s serious themes with the humor that playwright Kate Hamill culls.

In the Playhouse production, the March family of young ladies is portrayed with chamber ensemble clarity.

At the play’s center is Jo March (Mia Zappacosta). There’s always an area actor who appears in the firmament of the Lehigh Valley stage like a comet. Such is Zappacosta in her Playhouse debut. She made the character, by turns, audacious, humorous, serious, and pleased to receive $30 for her first newspaper article as the American Civil War swirls around the March family.

Angella Brown (Amy March), in her Playhouse debut, elicits many of the play’s laugh lines through her character’s misuse of words. Amy is the Miss Malaprop of the March Sisters, and Jo never lets her forget it as she jots down her sister’s verbal faux pas in her notebook.

Bryanna Pye (Meg March) projects the most even-keeled personality of the sisters. The character she plays is that of the family peace-maker and, sometimes, referee.

Emma Funderburk (Beth March), in her Playhouse debut, plays her role in such a fragile way that she is wan and wraith-like, successfully foreshadowing her characters’ fate. Her final scene, which brings the play to an emotional climax, genuinely starts the tears flowing, on-stage and off.

“Little Women” is not an easy drama to pull off and the Playhouse ensemble of Krista Metter (Marmee), Nana Nyanor (Hannah), Alec Gould (Laurence), Charlie Dalrymple (Mr. Laurence), Shawn McCoy (John Brooks), Amy Oselkin (Mrs. Mingott) and Daniel VanArsdale (Parrot) do so with exemplary performances.

The title, “Little Women,” almost becomes a pun on the big ideas that permeate the dialogue of the splendid Pennsylvania Playhouse production. There’s nothing little about these women.

“Little Women,” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20; 3 p.m. Dec. 7, 14, 21, The Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Road, Bethlehem. 610-865-6665, http://www.paplayhouse.org/