Email This   Larger Font      Print This   Smaller Font Advertisement   If you go When: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Aug. 1-2; 1 p.m. Saturday and Aug. 2.   Where: Mountain View High School, 1500 S.E. Blairmont Drive, Vancouver. Cost: $12 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 60 and older and youth ages 16 and younger; and $9 per person for groups of 15 or more. Information: 360-696-1155 or newblueparrot.com. Milly (Margaret Lamb) and Adam (Wes Harris) are married by a preacher (Mike Heywood) after a brief courtship in The New Blue Parrot Theatre’s production of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” (Photo by Erri London)

Monday, July 21, 2008
By Mary Ann Albright, Columbian Staff Writer

No musical would be complete without two people falling in love against a backdrop of choreographed song and dance, but The New Blue Parrot Theatre’s current production ups the love quota significantly.

“You get to watch seven pairs of people fall in love, so it’s romance times seven,” said director Doreen Lundberg.

“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” is set in Oregon in 1850. The story begins with Adam Pontipee venturing from his cabin into town looking for a wife; he finds Milly. She agrees to marry him but doesn’t realize he lives with his six brothers in the 19th century’s version of a bachelor pad.

“When she arrives, she’s in for a pretty rude awakening,” said Beaverton, Ore.-based Lundberg. “Milly basically tames the brothers and helps them find brides for themselves.”

Despite Milly’s lessons in gentlemanly behavior, the brothers don’t quite grasp how to court women. They set their sights on six ladies and kidnap them. The women, understandably, are upset, but in time their anger turns to love.

The stage production is based on the 1954 MGM movie musical directed by Stanley Donen and starring Howard Keel and Jane Powell, with music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The stage show is an adaptation of a book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay, with additional songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn not featured in the movie.

The New Blue Parrot Theatre’s production features choreography by Elisa Kay and costumes by Jennifer Johnson, with Pam Turley conducting the orchestra and Beth Duvall providing vocal direction.

To fill the cast of 35, Lundberg called on performers from several local community theater companies, including The New Blue Parrot Theatre, Slocum House Theatre, Magenta Theater and Christian Youth Theater.

“Only a handful of the people I’ve ever worked with before, which is a little different for community theater because you tend to call on the same people and have the same people show up for auditions,” she said.

It was particularly challenging finding seven men with the singing and dancing skills needed to play the brothers, as well as men to fill six other key male roles, but Lundberg said she’s impressed by the talent that emerged.

Among those helping bring the story to life are Wes Harris as Adam and Margaret Lamb as Milly.

This is the third Clark County production for Vancouver actor Harris, and the first for Lamb, who recently relocated from Colorado to Portland.

The show’s frontier setting was especially appealing to Harris, who grew up on a ranch in rural southeast Idaho.

“Working together on the land, roping, branding and herding cattle, I can kind of relate to the cowboy experience,” he said. Harris also was drawn to the show because of an encounter with Howard Keel years ago. When Harris was in college, he got to meet and interview the actor for the student television station. Now he’s stepping into Keel’s shoes to play Adam.

Though she never met actress Jane Powell, Lamb felt drawn to the role of Milly and admires the character’s spunk.

“She’s a very strong, independent woman, and that’s not the norm for that time, so that was appealing to me,” Lamb said.

Mary Ann Albright can be reached at maryann.albright@columbian.com or 360-735-4507.