Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 2018

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Can you name the seven brothers in the title of the show, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? It’s not too hard of a trivia question if you’ve seen the show. The musical opened at Broadway at Music Circus on Tuesday, June 26, and will run through Sunday, July 1. The show is based on the 1954 Stanley Donen musical film, which featured songs by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer. When it was adapted for the stage in 1982, four of their songs were kept in the production, and new music was created by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn. The story is about those seven brothers, who live on their ranch in the mountains of Oregon. Each named in alphabetical order, after biblical figures, (does that help answer the trivia question?) they are hard-working, simple-living men, who realize their lives are perfect except for the lack of a good woman. A trip down the mountain and into town ought to fix all that. Edward Watts stars as Adam Pontipee, the oldest of the brothers (played by Howard Keel in the original film), who gets the show going with his wonderful baritone voice in the song “Bless Your Beautiful Hide” about the gal he wants to meet, and gets the story going by quickly finding and marrying a town girl, Milly, played by Paige Faure (Jane Powell in the film) and her own song, “Wonderful, Wonderful Day” about the handsome, rugged stranger who just swept her off her feet. But she soon learns that instead of just Adam, she has become a housekeeper for a house full of rough and sloppy men, in her song “I Married Seven Brothers.” Faure has a great alto voice to go with Watts’ baritone, and all the spunk and determination to whip the boys into shape. 

 The show reaches a great peak with the next two numbers. Milly decides to teach the brothers manners and etiquette enough so they can go to town and attend the next harvest social dance in the song “Goin’ Courtin’.” The scene is full of hilarious gags and fantastic dancing by the boys, who are played by Eric Stretch, Graham Keen, Brian Steven Shaw, Joshua Michael Burrage, Eric Sciotto, and KC Fredericks. (Sciotto is also the Dance Captain for the production, which was expertly choreographed by Patti Columbo.) Once the brothers are “civilized,” they are ready to head into town, with an even more amazing dance in the number “Social Dance,” together with six young ladies, and six town boys who will become their rivals. The sequence hits great heights of intricate choreography, with remarkable athleticism and grace, as the 18 dancers interact on the small, circular Music Circus stage. The opening-night audience was blown away by these two scenes, and gave the cast an extended, well-deserved ovation. 

Following the high-energy scenes, there is a nice moment when Adam talks to his youngest brother, and Milly, listening on, begins to feel forlorn about her situation. Edward Watts, Paige Faure, and KC Fredricks treated the audience to some very nice harmonies in the song “Love Never Goes Away.” The original inspiration for the musical was a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét called The Sobbin’ Women, a parody of the ancient Roman tale of The Rape of the Sabine Women, in which woodsmen abduct women from town with the object of marriage. That leads to the song in this show, “Sobbin’ Women,” in which Adam convinces his brothers that the girls they are head-over-heals in love with are there for the taking, and not to worry too much if they are “sobbin’, sobbin’, sobbin’ fit to be tied,” because “secretly they was overjoyed” and in the end they were “gonna make them sobbin’ women smile.” The song, and the whole story, for that matter, can be somewhat “problematic,” especially with today’s awareness of stalking, abuse, and dangerous abductions, but it helps that the boys—men, really—remain gentlemen the whole time, and Milly finally lets them “properly” court the girls (and that they go along with it.) It also helps that the song is so darn catchy you can’t help singing it as the show breaks for intermission. The “Brides,” played by Olivia Rene Sharber, Keely Beirne, Jamie Pfaff, Elyse Niederee, Ashley Arcement, and Rose Iannaccone, have some nice moments as well, singing and of course dancing, as in Act Two’s “Spring Dance,” more of a traditional and graceful waltz with the boys than the earlier barn-raisers, and again in the rousing finale, “Wedding Dance.” They are all lovely and graceful, and there is real chemistry between them and their partners. The rest of the supporting cast, especially the six town boys, or “suitors,” do a great job as well, especially when the whole company fills the stage. The 14-piece orchestra, led by conductor Dennis Castellano, are up to the usual great quality of Music Circus bands, filling the venue with perfect sounds for every scene and style. 

This production, directed by Music Circus’ Glenn Casale, is one of the most enjoyable, energetic, and fun shows I’ve ever seen, and well worth whatever it takes to get there for the short one-week engagement. While Music Circus audiences often rise to a standing ovation for a show’s stars, the opening night crowd for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers wasted no time in recognizing the whole company for their great performance, right from the first bows to the final exit. So did you remember the names of the seven Ponitipee brothers? Once you learn it, you never will forget Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frankincense, and Gideon. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers opened June 26 and runs through Sunday, July 1.  For tickets and information, see www.CaliforniaMusicalTheatre.com. Broadway at Music Circus continues the 2018 season with Newsies, opening July 10, followed by Gypsy on July 24.

Ken Kiunke  6/27/2018 Originally published in GoldCountryMarketing.com. Reprintable with attribution to Gold Country Marketing and Ken Kiunke 

Enduring nearly 100-degree heat in Sacramento helps make you welcome a nice indoor rainstorm, and the Music Circus, now known as “Broadway at Music Circus,” the Broadway Sacramento summer series at Wells Fargo Pavilion, is kicking off the season with Singin’ in the Rain, the popular musical based on the 1952 Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor iconic movie. The story, of course, is about a Hollywood silent-film actor who falls for a girl, and is so happy that he spontaneously breaks out into song and dance, even though it’s pouring rain and his only partner is an umbrella, creating the title to the famous song, movie, and stage musical, the rest of which has nothing whatsoever to do with the rain, but tells a fanciful tale of cinema’s transition from silent to sound, with its love story, singing, and plenty of dancing. The musical follows the movie pretty closely, with some additional music. Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are silent movie stars for Monumental Studios, and famous for period costume drama love stories from old Europe. Though Don has no feelings for Lina, the studio and Lina play up their imagined romance. But when The Jazz Singer premiers and “talkies” become the rage, the pair’s latest French drama is halted to convert to a sound film. It all goes quite poorly, and Don, played by Noah Racey, his best friend Cosmo, played by Matt Loehr, and the producer, R.F. Simpson, played by Ron Wisniski, enlist Don’s new love, Kathy Seldin, to overdub Lina’s squeaky voice and singing and save the production, and the careers of Lockwood and Lamont. 

Kara Lindsay plays the role of Kathy, the Debbie Reynolds part in the movie, and does a great job playing the young lady who meets Don on the street and pretends not to know him, thus making him intrigued. She really shines in her first solo song, “You Are My Lucky Star,” and later when she sings the song “Would You” to overdub Lina’s screechy version for the movie. Outside of the romance, Singin’ in the Rain is a “Buddy Story” about Don and Cosmo growing up (played by child actors Luke Lowe and Michael Stark), and then hitting the Vaudeville stage, as Racey and Loehr deliver the corny comedy number “Fit as a Fiddle.” Matt Loehr takes on Donald O’Connor’s comedic timing and great over-the-top dance moves in “Make ‘Em Laugh,” and he and Noah Racey have great fun with “Moses Supposes” as Don learns proper pronunciation from his diction coach, while they show off their tomfoolery and tap dancing skills. Loehr has great stage presence and can dominate a scene, but, like Cosmo, knows when to back off. Noah Racey, with the classic good looks of a 1920’s movie star, sings in perfect style with “You Stepped Out of a Dream” and “You Were Meant for Me” about Kathy, the girl he has been searching for. The highlight of the show is the two numbers that close act one. Don, Cosmo, and Kathy team up for the great song-and-dance tune “Good Morning,” which leads to Don’s taking to the rainy streets to recreate the famous “Singin’ in the Rain” scene, complete with showers covering the stage, Don high-stepping it through the puddles, and the first rows of the in-the-round audience in ponchos! Racey does a terrific job with the song and dance, reminding us of, but not imitating, Gene Kelly. (And it’s a good time for intermission, as the wet-vac crew had to soak up the stage effects.) 

The fourth leading role is the thankless part of Lina Lamont. Jennifer Knox has to both perform the part well, while showing a decided lack or singing, acting, and speaking talent. She makes the most of the dialog, often stealing the stage with her whiny Brooklyn accent, getting plenty of laughs as she spews out her romantic lines like fingernails on a chalkboard. In her solo number “What’s Wrong With Me?,” which was not in the film, Lina wonders why she is suddenly not good enough for Don, or for the movies. Knox does a great job singing both beautifully, and not so beautifully (after all, she’s supposed to be a bad singer—but she can’t actually sing badly.) She also brought sympathy to her character, a woman who is on top of the world, but begins to see it all crashing down around her. Another bonus of the in-the-round setting of the Wells Fargo Pavilion is that Knox as Lina gets to interact with audience members to get some reassurance about her beauty and performance. (They were generally supportive…) Other notable performers include Ron Wisniski, a Music Circus veteran, as producer R.F. Simpson, who keeps the story moving and gets a few laughs on the way, along with Nick Santa Maria as director Roscoe Dexter, who wants to be in charge, but is mostly frustrated, especially by Lina’s incompetence. Kristine Bendul is the featured dancer in several numbers, especially in the grand “Broadway Melody,” an excuse in both the story and the show to include a more modern dance scene in the productions. She has an elegant, stylistic, and yes, even “exotic” dance style. Bendul also serves as the company’s Dance Captain for the many enjoyable full-company dance productions. And J.D. Daw sings a nice solo as the “Production Tenor” leading the company in the song “Beautiful Girl.” The show’s orchestra, conducted by Craig Barna, creates the great big sound needed for this show, amazing for a relatively small 16-piece ensemble. The opening night crowd had plenty of good laughs, despite the universal familiarity of the story, and rewarded the cast with an enthusiastic standing ovation. Singin’ in the Rain opened June 12 and runs through Sunday, June 17.  For tickets and information, see www.CaliforniaMusicalTheatre.com. Broadway at Music Circus continues the 2018 season with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, opening on June 26, and Newsies, opening July 10. 

Ken Kiunke  6/13/2018 Originally published in GoldCountryMarketing.com. Reprintable with attribution to Gold Country Marketing and Ken Kiunke