cucullus non facit monachum: Review - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Last Saturday we gathered up the kids and made a trip to the theatre to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. We've had the tickets for a couple of months now and the kids have been looking forward to the show for a while and reminding/asking us about it for the past few weeks. This was my first "full scale" production at Center Point since it opened this past spring.

As a family we've enjoyed the movie musical version of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers for many years. Somehow we've managed to keep our kids growing up in the 60s and 70s in many ways. They're overjoyed to watch the cheesy dance numbers and overplayed romances coupled with melodramatic scenes of anger and laughter.

As we waited for the lights to dim, we read the playbill and looked over the cast. Based solely on the headshots, there were a couple of roles where we were worried that maybe we got someone not as well suited for the part. Let that be a lesson to us to "not judge a book by its cover." I'm not going to say who we were initially worried about because from start to finish every cast member did a fabulous job and was superbly cast.

The core leads (Adam and Milly) had great voices and stage presence and also had good chemistry (and romantic tension) between them. Each of the brothers and the brides were great as well and each couple seemed very well paired in terms of personality, physicality and general interaction. They all seemed to really meld well together. Our cast had one VERY acrobatic brother who astounded us with backflips, twirls, handsprings and more, all of which were woven well into the choreography. It definitely made me think of some of the hijinks from the movie musical of this play and others from the same era.

The costumes and sets were fabulous. Neither the set nor the costumes were elaborate or over the top (in fact, they were downright minimalistic at times) but they really helped set the mood and the environment without detracting from the acting itself.

If you haven't yet heard or seen the story, I'll try not to spoil it for you...but the basic idea is that a rancher with 6 brothers decides he needs a wife to help put his house in order (do the cookin', cleanin', etc). He finds the gal for him and things might turn out for happily ever after if not for the fact that he's far too chauvinistic for his own good and she's a fiesty woman who wants to let him know that her place isn't behind him, but beside him. In the especially chauvinist songs/scenes from Adam, the actor did a great job portraying the emotion and prejudice towards women in general to the point that I really felt uncomfortable for him. I was really drawn in to the tension and the emotion of the play...which was a great thing.

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1985 Original London Cast)

This play is just a lot of fun overall so I came to the theater expecting to be entertained and to enjoy the show. I left feeling like Centerpoint has gone above and beyond the level of talent and production value from their previous location/theatre/etc. Their prices increased a little bit with the new theater which made me a little sad, but the production value seems to warrant the increased price. I personally would still like to see the price drop a little bit back to "community theater" prices, but that's because I'm a cheapskate.

The play has one more week before it's done and I can definitely recommend that you go see it if you have a chance. And if that's not enough prep time, I'll put in recommendations to keep Centerpoint on your radar and check out one of their shows in the future.