Little House musical to hit stage

Little House on the Prairie ran from 1974-1983

A musical based on the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder is being made for the stage.

Little House on the Prairie will open at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the state where the author spent her childhood years.

The books tell a version of Wilder's years growing up in America's Midwest in the 1870s and 1880s.

They were adapted into a long-running US television series from 1974-1983, starring Melissa Gilbert.

"Obviously we're hoping that if it's a success it will have a future life," Guthrie Theatre director Joe Dowling told Associated Press.

'National tour'

"We're looking at, in conjunction with our national partners, a national tour."

Musical director Francesca Zambello said she wanted to make a musical of the Little House stories from the moment she rediscovered them as an adult.

"Our musical focuses on the independent spirit of the teenage Laura Ingalls Wilder and her struggles to become an adult, alongside the story of the land as it becomes the American West," she said.

British composer Rachel Portman, who won an Oscar for her work on Jane Austen adaptation Emma, will write the music for the project.