Review: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers by Wimberley Players
by Michael Meigs
The charming musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers now playing on weekends at the Wimberley Players' stage makes me think of the waggish definition of a "theatre classic": something that's really good but that no one does any more.
Director Lee Colée Atnip has been working since February with members of this cast of 37, and that preparation pays off. Both the players and the members of the preview audience last week were having a tremendous time with this frontier tale.
The cast performs the show to recorded musical accompaniment, which provides players less discretion than with a live orchestra and musical director. But with that many performers packed in the wings, the Players would've had nowhere to put live musicians. The choreography is vigorously entertaining, especially for the town social that winds up in a comic brawl.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers has an MGM brightness to it, which should not surprise, because that's where it came from.
Stanley Donen directed the 1954 musical film based on the short story "The Sobbin' Women" by American colorist writer Stephen Vincent Benét (1898 - 1943). Benét's title and narrative were were a whimsical reference to Livy's classical account of how founders of Rome Romulus and Remus and their followers kidnapped the daughters of the Sabines at a festival and won their hearts, despite the indignation of their elders. Donen's film had spectacular choreography by Michael Kidd, built around everyday rural activities, including a barn-raising.
I noticed when we were living in Geneva, Switzerland, that the Geneva cinemathèque would show Donen's film about three times a year. That may have been in part because their collection was limited, but I like to think that the story and the 1954 film captured something of the legend of the American frontier.
Musical theatre versions of the story were staged in 1979 and 1982, including a Broadway edition that closed after only five performances. Like them, Wimberley's version draws on music and song from the cinema version but includes numbers written specifically for the stage.
The title tells it all: this show is a sweet story of courtship. A handsome frontiersman named Adam comes down from the Oregon mountains to a town twelve miles away with the firm intention of getting married. A chance encounter in a hash house gives him the opportunity to defend waitress Milly from the advances a local lout. She's grateful, he pops the question and he insists on an immediate wedding. Having no family and no attachment to the town, Milly shrugs and accepts. She doesn't know that Adam has six younger brothers, none of them married. Our valiant Milly is on her way to becoming mom at the 1850's equivalent of a frat house.
Milly more or less civilizes the boys despite a lot of goshes and gee-whizes on their part, and she gets them to the town social where they meet those charming girls. Adam instigates the kidnappings by retelling the story of the Sabine women. Milly entreats the rascals to return the girls to their families, enraging Adam, who storms off to a cabin in the woods, like a grumpy old bear. Winter closes the passes before the girls can return. They live with Milly in the house while the boys inhabit the barn. Not until the following spring can a posse of citizens storm the farm to try to interrupt the course of true love.
John Dearrington as Adam has just the presence, big frame and handsome looks required for his role as top dog at the homestead. Angela Irving neatly underplays him, giving Milly a frontierswoman's matter of fact approach. Once past the initial surprise, she steps with confidence into her matronly duties, providing a nice counterpart to the excitable young women pursued by the boys.
Irving has a lovely voice and appealing presence, particularly vivid in the second act number I'm Glad That You Were Born that embodies the aim of all this runnin' about and courtin'.
We never do sort out all seven brothers and all seven prospective brides, but they're all good looking young folk and we enjoy watching their shenanigans. Colin Ilff as Gideon, the youngest brother, is the most vivid. He's lively, with a slick kick of the heels up there on the tabletop, and he has an impressive part in the trio Love Never Goes Away with Irving and Dearrington. Director Colée and choreographer Pamela Schultz put plenty of action, dancing and clowning into the piece, and almost never do the performers have to hold a beat to stay with the recorded orchestra. In their multitude, their span of ages and their embrace of make believe, they give us a microcosm -- not only of 1850's Oregon but also of 21st century Wimberley.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers has a simple message with an indulgent wink. Men are real men, except when they're really just boys; girls want to be won and whirled away. The bold will prevail, as long as they're gentle and well mannered.
The moral of it all is the American proverb recaptured in the Irving Berlin song: A man chases a girl -- until she catches him!
EXTRA
Click to view excerpts from the Wimberley Players' Curtain Call newletter, September 2010
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
by Lawrence Kasha, David Landay, Gene de Paul, Al Kasha, Joel Hirsch, Johnny Mercer
Wimberley Players
