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SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1999) | ||
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Observer by Susannah Clapp (Sunday December 5, 1999) There won't be a better Christmas musical this year than BAC's Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. The director, Phil Wilmott, plays every thigh-slapping, petticoat-scrunching, high-jumping, rough-housing moment to the hilt. He does so in a small space, with a six-piece band and the barest of sets. He brings both Broadway and barn dance to Battersea. Seven Brides is, as so many musicals are, weird. In mid-nineteenth-century America, seven girls are carried off - one willingly, the others by force by seven backwoodsmen. Since they are in love with the guys, they manage to make them a bit more caring and a bit better mannered. It's a celebration of frontier grit which wears a big Hollywood grin. As Wilmott shows, this can be both sinister and endearingly ludicrous. This is the musical in which there is a chorus in praise of the rape of the Sabine women, though one of the brothers gets the Romans muddled up with the Mormons. And in this version, it contains an entire number sung by blokes marching around in their oatmeal-coloured combinations. But rousingly rendered, particularly by Kieran Creggan as the male lead, it fires, as the best romances do, a shot to the heart. -------------------- Guardian by Lyn Gardner (Tuesday December 7, 1999) It is unlikely that this winter will throw up more blissfully mindless entertainment than this revival of what must be the world's only musical to have been inspired by the rape of the Sabine women. Wilmott's production is a clever mixture of cheeky send-up and the absolutely straight, and as usual he makes a virtue of having no money. He also gets the casting just right. The leads in particular have real star quality. Fiona Benjamin's appealingly feisty Milly is clear-eyed and clear voiced. Kieran Creggan brings both a mellow voice and tortured charm to Adam, who is torn between testoterone-fuelled instincts and the love of his wife. -------------------- Evening Standard by Nick Curtis (December 3, 1999) Phil Wilmott's latest, low-budget musical extravaganza explodes onto the stage with the combined energy of a hoe-down and a cattle stampede. At first, I feared he had bitten off more than he could chew. Surely, after staging a couple of Rogers and Hammerstain hits - The Sound of Music, The King and I - at BAC with big casts and tiny budgets, the Cinemascope vistas and big routines of this frontier romance would defeat him? I had forgotten that Wilmott has the motivational charisma of a cult leader, and is at his best when challenged. As the title suggests, this show requires at least 14 actors. Wilmott's production features 34, plus children, all corralled into a cramped performance space with the audience on four sides. Not only is Wilmott's blocking masterful, but Jack Gunn's choreography also represents an impressive act of damage-limitation. It's astonishing that no one is injured in the furious dance-cum-brawl scene, where everyone is on stage, and six of the seven Oregonian Pontipee brothers meet their future spouses. The action is cramped, frenetic and ragged at the edges: that's part of the point in a Wilmott production. Seven Brides also requires decent singing and acting, though, the director again comes up trumps. Kieran Creggan's Adam Pontipee may look slight beside his bullish brothers, but his voice is bigger than all of them. Fiona Benjamin's Milly has the impulsiveness to marry Adam, the steel needed to reform and refine his oafish siblings, and a pristine, clear singing voice. This is exuberant, low-cost, high-entertainment theatre, easy on the brain and ravishing to the eyes and ears. West End producers take note. --------------------
The BAC has teamed up with The Steam Industry to raise the barn roof for a spur-spinning shindig with its musical production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The first scene begins with probably the fastest courtshhip in stage history, as the eldest Pontipee brother Adam (Kieran Creggan) goes into town to "git me a wife". A strong performance by Creggan provides the backbone for the show. -------------------- Morning Star by Michael West (December 23, 1999) The Steam Industry have done it again with a bright and successful musical for the festive season. The young cast give it their all as they sing and dance their way through an exuberant performance which cheers you up even after you've stepped out into the cold south London night. Kieran Creggan as Adam, the oldest of the seven brothers, and Fiona Benjamin, as Milly his bride, head a first-class cast. Brilliantly choreographed by Jack Gunn, this deserves all the critical praise because it is certainly one of the most enjoyable shows in London. It shows once again that there is a grat deal of talent on the fringe. -------------------- Whats On by Roger Foss (December 8, 1999) Darn it! After their previous seasonal musicals such as The Sound Of Music and The King and I, director Phil Wilmott and his team of Steam Factory critters have gone way out West and surpassed the West End and even their own track record with the best show in town this Christmas. From the moment hunky stockman Adam pontipee arrives in town a-lookin' for his June bride, and grabs young Milly as if she were a bag of meal, right up to the very last chorus, this delightfully fresh and convincing production never stops exuding energy, joy, genuine charm and pure showmanship. In fact, this rip-roaring show has got everything you'd expect, and more. You want acting? With no irony and not a hint of corn, Fiona Benjamin as the feisty Milly and Kieran Creggan as the macho Adam lead an ensemble of entirely believable characters. -------------------- Timeout (December 1999) Kieran Creggan heads the cast in Phil Wilmott's lively production which provides all the fun of a West End musical in half the space for less than half the price. -------------------- TheatreWorld Internet Magazine by Graham Powner (December 12, 1999) Seven Brides For Seven Brothers is a darn-tootin' not-to-be-missed evening of sheer unadulterated pleasure... It is a hit, a glorious tribute to those days of the musical's we all know and still love! -------------------- Musical Stages by Cerys Traynor (December 1999) Question: how do you transform a 50 year-old musical with new life and character? Answer: place it in the capable hands of the BAC and The Steam Industry and watch what unfolds. Phil Wilmott and his team have again achieved success with this spirited production. Leading the cast are Fiona Benjamin as Milly and Kieran Creggan as eldest brother Adam. Kieran's Adam has a fiery, unchallenged confidence and he effectively blends the stubborn chauvinist with a man softened by love, both aspects expertly portrayed in "A Woman Ought To Know Her Place" and in the more poignant "Glad That You Were born". Once again, The Steam industry have made the magic marriage between the large-scale musical and small-scale set, guaranteed to make them "Sobbin' Women" (and men) smile! -------------------- The Stage by Lisa Martland (December 9, 1999) When one thinks of the fun-packed movie version of the musical, it is hard to imagine the same action being transferred to such an intimate venue, but that is just what director Phil Wilmott, in association with The Steam Industry, has acchieved. Benjamin is sassy and sensitive, while Kieran Creggan, as her husband adam, is a thoroughly believable pre and post Neanderthal man. -------------------- TimeOut by Jane Edwards (Tuesday, December 7, 1999) Every year at Christmas the BAC abandons the wilder side of physical theatre and joys of acting in the dark to present an old-fashioned musical on a shoestring. "7 Brides" shuns the bright lights of sophisticated New York in order to praise the gritty determination of the outback. With such a small stage and a huge cast, the production could easily decend into chaos, but instead it is skilfully steered by director Phil Wilmott who, with choreographer Jack Gunn, cooks up a storm, especially when the brothers descend on the town to try their new fangled manners. Although the cast is superbly headed by Kieran Creggan as the backwoodsman Adam and Fiona Benjamin as the determined Milly, what's so enjoyable about this production is the way everyone makes their individual mark. -------------------- Whats On (January 2, 2000) Another resounding success for Phil Wilmott and The Steam Industry, with rip roaring rendition of the classic musical set in the pioneering Wild West. | ||
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