ENTERTAINMENT

MINNEAPOLIS – Melissa Gilbert has finally come home to the prairie – or at least to the big city near the prairie. She has yet to sink her feet into Plum Creek, next to the dugout where the real-life Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in the 1870s.

MICHAL DANIEL/The Associated Press

Melissa Gilbert (left, as Caroline 'Ma' Ingalls) and Kara Lindsay (as Laura Ingalls) star in the musical Little House on the Prairie at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Ms. Gilbert, who spent most of her childhood portraying the bold pioneer girl on television, is cast as the proper and reserved Caroline "Ma" Ingalls in the Guthrie Theater's musical version of Little House on the Prairie.

She sings. She dances. She teases out Ma's wild side. Previews started Saturday, and the show opens Aug. 15. Advance ticket sales have broken the theater's record, and the run already has been extended two weeks to Oct. 19.

The role sent the 44-year-old actress back to her Little House books for a fresh take on material she first dug into at age 9, underlining in crayon.

When it comes to Ma, Ms. Gilbert sees "a whimsical loss" in the family matriarch – glimmers of a headstrong girl tamed by life. "There's the girl she used to be that she sees in Laura," said Ms. Gilbert, who played Laura on TV from 1974 to 1983 and now has two sons and two stepsons. "But she has to be able to model how to find a way to be satisfied with the life that's ahead of her. There were no other choices for women back then."

On television, Ms. Gilbert grew up in Walnut Grove, Minn., the setting of the book On the Banks of Plum Creek.

In real life, she has yet to visit any of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood homes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Kansas or Iowa. The TV show was shot in Simi Valley, Calif. The red-haired actress first came to Minnesota in February to start work on the musical.

Anticipation is high for the first major new interpretation of Little House in a quarter century, with fans lining up for tickets. Ms. Gilbert is performing alongside Steve Blanchard as Pa and Jenn Gambatese as Laura's sister Mary. Newcomer Kara Lindsay plays Laura.

Ms. Gilbert said she wasn't sure at first that austere stories of family life in the 1870s and 1880s would work as a musical, but the script and score won her over. Rachel Sheinkin wrote the musical, with music by Rachel Portman and lyrics by Donna di Novelli. It's directed by Francesca Zambello, who guided The Little Mermaid to Broadway last season.

Ms. Gilbert's next challenge was singing. Though she grew up loving such musicals as Gypsy and Annie, she didn't share her mother's confidence in her voice. Still, she worked with a vocal coach and it came together.

After Ms. Gilbert worked on her singing, she asked Ms. Zambello to come listen to her. Ms. Gilbert said she wanted Ms. Zambello's approval before joining the cast. The director said Ms. Gilbert had raw talent but needed to work on her technique.

"You're always looking for actors who offer multiple layers to roles," Ms. Zambello said. "She was interested and had never been in a musical. It was a big challenge for her to rediscover the stories but from a completely different angle."

Ms. Gilbert, who lives in the Los Angeles area, has been staying with her 12-year-old son on a lake near Minneapolis this summer. The actress said she has invited other cast members over to barbecue and watch movies, although she nixed a screening of old Little House on the Prairie episodes. ("Oh no. Ouch.")

Martiga Lohn,

The Associated Press