“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”
Written by Stephen Vincent Benet
Showing: Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison St., Forest Park, through Dec. 23
Tickets: $26
Phone: (708) 771-0700

By Lawrence Bommer

CFP theater editor

Recycling classical stories into a modern movie musical, writers David Landay and Lawrence Kasha combined the legend of the Romans’ “rape” of the Sabine women (who, after being kidnapped, supposedly adored and wed their abductors) and Aristophanes’ sex strike in “Lysistrata.” Adding a rollicking score with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, the MGM film was based on “The Sobbin’ Women,” a folk version by Stephen Vincent Benet that moved the action to 1850s Oregon. Everything old was new again.

As the title implies, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” is a courtship comedy where love at first sight is soon followed by an enforced elopement: Inspired by their older brother Adam Pontipee’s instant romance with and marriage to waitress Milly, his six equally randy siblings win over the hearts of six color-coordinated maidens at a church social, then spirit them to their farmstead where a convenient avalanche isolates them from retaliation by the outraged townsfolk. To preserve the women’s reputation (and because the boys forgot to capture the preacher), the “Lysistrata”-like continence lasts all winter until the pass is clear and wedding bells can ring.

Capturing the high spirits of the movie’s testosterone-fueled choreography, Kevin Bellie’s rootin’, tootin’, hell-for-leather stage version raises the roofs along Madison Street. Though lacking the gymnastic stunts of the original (to dangerous to do in one “take”), the roughhousing, color-coordinated “social dance” still pits the town against the boisterous brothers, and the outcome is obvious. Shaking up their calico and gingham dresses, the sextette perform everything from Agnes De Mille-like dream dances to sultry square dances and the break-out frenzy of the inevitable “Spring, Spring, Spring.”

Though mostly just a regulated romp as rhapsodic as its lovely “Wonderful, Wonderful Day,” this mating dance has some moments of soft-core truth, especially as Eric Lindahl’s would-be patriarch Adam and Rachel Quinn’s feisty Milly tame and domesticate each other. It happens to all the boys: Lacking parents, the six sons in effect rely on the women to civilize them. Here courtship equates to civilization. The wooing number “Goin’ Courting” is only the first test. The big one is a winter of abstinence that gives special meaning to “Love Never Goes Away.”

Once again, it’s little short of a miracle how much action and emotion director/choreographer can unleash on Circle Theatre’s small stage. Raising crowd control to an Olympic sport, Bellie’s large ensemble turn Forest Park into the Oregon wilderness as far as the eye can see.