GOIN’ A’COURTIN’ IN THE BACKWOODS OF GLENDALE
Glendale Centre Theatre continues its 64th season with a rambunctious production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the highly successful MGM musical from 1954. Although the stage version was a flop on Broadway, it has nonetheless become a popular staple for musical theatre companies.
Written in a sexist era about a previous, even more sexist era (1850s Oregon), songs such as “A Woman Ought to Know Her Place,” accompanied by the visuals of young men carrying their women off into the woods, could be a bit cringe-inducing to contemporary audiences, but charm helps to overcome such cultural throwbacks. Fortunately, this cast abounds in charm.
Husband and wife team Jason W. and Jennifer J. Webb play the roles of backwoodsman Adam and his bride Milly, making magic of the malarkey. Adam’s lair, not unlike a frat house, is overrun with six equally uncivilized brothers (Paul Reid, Brandon Heitkamp, Fernando Duran, Andrew Allen, Andrew Blake Ames, Grant Jordan). Left with the task of cleaning up after them, Milly comes up with the best solution – find them their own brides.
Her plan to civilize these boys and marry them off goes awry when, after her tutelage in dancing and manners, they invade the town in search of their house slaves – er, that is, their brides (Holly Childers, Emily Coddington, Ashley Mackel, Caroline Montes, Lindsey Rei and Libby Snyder). Singing, dancing, and fighting ensue, which all leads up to a 50s-style happy ending.
Director Robert Marra and choreographer Lee Martino are challenged at times by the theatre-in-the-round layout of the venue, and they mostly rise to the occasion. Martino finds plenty of ways to make creative use of the space, and her athletic cast handled her gymnastic combinations with aplomb (even if, at times, they seemed a bit boxed in).
Angela Wood takes her costuming cues from the film, donning the girls in dresses made of old quilts. Tim Dietlein keeps the set simple, since it needs to stay out of the way of the dancing. He was particularly ingenious in his resolution of creating the couple’s upstairs bedroom and the roof where Adam attempts to sleep.
So get ready to have an evening in the theater full of good, old-fashioned – really old-fashioned – and boisterous laughter and music. (But leave your copy of The Feminine Mystique at home.)
jeannehartman @ stageandcinema.com
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Glendale Centre Theatre
324 N. Orange St. in Glendale
ends on November 19, 2011
for tickets, call 818 244-8481 or visit GCT