Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay
lyrics by Johnny Mercer
music by Gene de Paul
new songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn (written for the 1982 stage tour & Broadway version)
directed by Robert Marra
choreographed by Lee Martino
Glendale Centre Theatre
through November 19
Tuneful and breezy with an avalanche of exuberant dancing could not better describe the family-oriented Seven Brides for Seven Brothers currently receiving a fast paced, energetic production at Glendale Centre Theatre under the expertise of Robert Marra and Lee Martino. From MGM in 1954 the film starred Howard Keel and Jane Powell and because of their beauty and director Michael Kidd's rip-roaring choreography, the movie, an Oscar nominee for Best Picture, was and still remains blockbuster entertainment. When the film became a Broadway show in the 1982, despite great work from Debby Boone and others, it failed to garner the audiences necessary to keep it afloat. Now after some 30 years, as long as we keep it in period piece perspective, Glendale's production of Brothers seems as good a choice as any for families as holidays approach.
I cannot stress how much choreography means to this show. Light on plot and characters, there's corny humor a plenty, but that alone does not sustain a show for two hours. Throw in some acrobatic dancing, and you become so riveted, you forget all else. Like Michael Kidd in the film, Lee Martino expects a great deal from her actors, and considering she only had two weeks rehearsal with the cast, she worked wonders. She worked their butts off is the perfect phrase suiting the lingo of The Farming Pontipees in 1850s Oregon. Marra's staging in the round gives the boys and girls plenty of running around to do up and down aisles as well as into nooks and crannies of the actual stage itself. With all of the movement added and the cast responding with close to clockwork precision, they succeed in putting on a show.
Jason W. Webb (Adam) and Jennifer J. Webb (Milly), real life husband and wife, make a dynamic duo and lead a wonderful cast. Andrew Allen, Andrew Blake Ames, Fernando Duran, Brandon Heitkamp, Paul Reid and Grant Jordan - a little dynamo as dancer and singer - are the innocent, unkempt, sans manners but lovable brothers. Holly Childers, Emily Coddington, Ashley Mackel, Caroline Montes, Lindsey Rei and Libby Snyder - the purdy brides. Suitors opposing the brothers include: John Paul Batista, Genaro Gutierrez, Robert Hartson, Kevin Holmquist, Raymond Matsumara and Steven Weber. General store owners Osa Danam and Korey Simeone and preacher Don Woodruff complete the big, brassy, affable ensemble.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is what it is, nothing more, nothing less: a genuinely entertaining slice of Americana that is bound to make you smile. I'm still humming "Goin' Courtin'" and "Wonderful, Wonderful Day". Glendale Centre Theatre is once again successful this year in mounting a musical with a big cast - also this summer's hit 1776 - pulling it off in grande style.
