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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
‘Seven Brides’ @ the Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” Grade: B
8 tonight-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday. 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Theater of the Stars, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-817-8700; ticketmaster.com.
The verdict: The best little Western musical in town.
If you want to see a creaky, old-fashioned musical get a rip-roaring physical and vocal workout, check out “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” at the Fox Theatre through Sunday.
The preposterously plotted, based-on-a-film, pre-“Brokeback” Western about the rough-hewn courtship of seven goofus mountain men and their willing women has turned Theater of the Stars’ 55th season opener into the summer’s most supremely likable family hoedown.
The all-new production somehow manages to gloss over the fact that the convoluted adaptation of Plutarch’s “Rape of the Sabine Women” has never been much of a contender in the musical-theater realm, despite some delightful tunes from the 1954 movie by Georgia lyricist Johnny Mercer and composer Gene De Paul.
Bless their beautiful hides, director Scott Schwartz and choreographer Patti Colombo deliver an exhilarating entertainment filled to the bursting point with athletic dancers, soaring singers and a seriously fine-looking ensemble of slap-happy cowpokes and pokettes.
Looking as tall as an Oregon evergreen, Adam Pontipee (Edward Watts) has no trouble seducing orphan mess cook Milly Bradon (Michelle Dawson) with his burnished mahogany baritone and form-fitting duds. He’s scruffy at first, but he sure cleans up nice. Yet instead of retiring to a blissful honeymoon under the whispering pines, poor Milly has to grab all six Pontipee bulls by the horns and rebrand them as eligible bachelors for the civilized belles of the nearby town.
Dawson is a divine soprano and terrific actress, and her Milly works wonders with the hungry and isolated Pontipee clan (“Goin’ Courtin’ ”). Not to short-change any of the able bride-actresses, but this show really is a vehicle for Adam, Milly and the Pontipee boys. As portrayed by a sextet of nimble character actors, each brother becomes a rich and indelible character study — from Karl Warden’s muscular, long-haired Daniel to Luke Longacre’s sweetly strapping Caleb to Christian Delcroix’s girlishly pretty Gideon.
Though Tuesday’s opening had a few distracting moments of slow-moving set pieces and wandering spotlights, Anna Louizos’ representations of the log-cabin landscape are nicely cushioned by John McLain’s lighting, and Jess Goldstein’s cowboy breeches and prairie gowns are fun and fetching.
But the real gift of this wedding banquet is the splendid choreography — a crazy quilt of high-kicking hootenanny steps, graceful ballet maneuvers (even by the giant male dancers) and splendid gymnastics involving backflips, somersaults and knockabout fight scenes. “The Challenge Dance” is designed to work the audience into a frenzy, which is exactly what happened Tuesday night.
In 1982, “Seven Brides” had the misfortune of arriving on Broadway at a time when Andrew Lloyd Webber was king. The show closed after five performances but has since staged a comeback as an unstoppable regional-theater fave. A co-production of New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars and Boston’s North Shore Music Theatre, this version makes the case that “Seven Brides” is an underappreciated gem.
To paraphrase the song about the Roman women of yore, you may be sobbin’ if you don’t see it.
