Presented by The Treehouse Collective
Music by Mike Reid
Lyrics by Sarah Schlesinger
Book by Sarah Schlesinger, Mike Reid, and John Dias
Directed by Katie Swimm
Music Directed by Jeff Kimball
Digital Playbill
October 24 – November 2, 2025
The Plaza Theatre
The Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
Critique by Kitty Drexel
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes with one intermission
BOSTON — The curious story of cattle ranching and mining pioneer Little Joe Monahan was brought to light when the trailblazer passed away in 1904. Monahan had lived and died as a successful male business owner in Idaho, Oregon, and northern New York. After his death, an unprofessional undertaker preparing Monahan for burial leaked to the Buffalo, NY, press that Monahan was born AFAB. His legacy reminds us that trans people have always existed despite some cis folks’ intentions to erase them.
There is a lot we don’t know about Little Joe Monahan. Much has been lost to time or otherwise sensationalized by early journalists. Monahan was first memorialized in the 1981 play Little Joe Monaghan by Barbara Lebow. A 1993 movie of the same name starring Heather Graham, Sir Ian McKellen, and Rene Auberjonois further romanticized Joe’s story (and borrowed heavily from Lebow’s play). The Treehouse Collective presents another romanticized adaptation, The Ballad of Little Jo, through Nov. 2 at the Boston Center for the Arts.
This photo of official hottie, “Little Joe” Monahan, was published in a Buffalo newspaper upon their death in 1904. Photo via Wikipedia.
In the musical, 19th-century young woman Josephine Monaghan (Andrea Moore) takes a train from Boston to San Francisco to make a new life for herself and the baby boy she’s left behind out west. After a tragic event at an Idaho train depot, Josephine from Boston reinvents herself as Jo, a young man going West to stake his claim for silver. In his new home, Joe slowly befriends Sarah (Perry Albert), a no-nonsense barmaid, and her mining fiancé, Jordan (Ron Phillips). She finds a modicum of success as a prospector over the years, but letters from her sister, Kate (Brit Garner), back in Boston, remind Jo of her past and the son she left behind. Jo is ready to leave her past for good until a stranger’s (David Kim) arrival changes everything. The ensemble also includes Joe LaRocca, Max Weinberg, Brittany Kamson, Molly Doris-Pierce, Jim Ansart, Brandon Lee, and Ohad Ashkenazi as Lawrence.
The Ballad of Little Jo is a musical too big for its britches. Its creators want us to think this musical contains philosophical depths, but its ideas fall apart under scrutiny. Its characters will state a pithy but superficial truism about the difficulty of living and will then break into song without fully developing their thoughts during the song or after. Then, the characters move on to the next big event in the musical without expanding on their previous idea. While we could argue that Schlesinger, Reid, and Dias are merely replicating the thought process of simple mining folk, I’d argue that this argument doesn’t give mining folk enough credit. Their lives were complex, their educations were meager, but that didn’t make the people of Idaho simpletons. It’s more likely that the creators were disinterested in further editing their musical.
Speaking of editing, the creators don’t decide if Little Jo was trans or a cis woman in hiding. They are so busy flip-flopping between either option without explicitly telling the audience to interpret as we will, that we don’t know what to think. We’re forced to conclude that the creators are poor writers and don’t have an opinion. That’s not fair for anyone, creators or audience.
If The Ballad of Little Jo passes the Bechdel test, it’s just barely. Every important conversation is about a man, boy, or trans man.
Despite Little Jo’s issues, Treehouse Collective does the best they can in a space that’s too small for its ensemble, band, and choreography. There are chillingly beautiful harmonies in the musical’s opening moments and other group numbers. Songs like “Hand in the River” and “Hi-Lo-Hi” are steeped in the folk and Southern gospel traditions. The cast, leads and ensemble both, sing the music with emotional depth and vocal vitality. The show’s choreography makes good use of the space and the cast’s skills. Complete trainwrecks were avoided, and only a few cast members were crushed in the dance circle.
Andrea Moore as Jo has a flexible soprano and a distinct acting style. She’s developed a habit of shaking her head side to side when she engages her vibrato during a held note. It was a distracting element of an otherwise strong performance.
The band is well-appointed by conductor and music director Jeff Kimball. We could mostly hear the solo vocalists. Treehouse Collective leadership should consider investing in clear partitions to dampen the band’s sound or micing the cast so they don’t fight to be heard.
