| SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS - On Stage Vs. Film | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 11:45 am EST 03/09/21 | |
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| So last night I saw the film SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS for the first time. On the whole, it's a delightful, big MGM musical that's exactly what one might expect from such things in the mid-50's when it was made. The raison d'etre is the dancing and, thank goodness, Michael Kidd pulled out the big guns to make the dancing as spectacular as any in film history (except for one brother, of course, and I gather that that actor was forced on the production by the studio). But...the kidnapping scene in the middle of the film is a horror show. It's a completely different tone and style and execution from the rest of the film. It's jarring in a way that completely took me out of the film and made me re-evaluate everything that had come before and everything that came after. These women are terrified and screaming and sobbing and crying for their mothers. It was hard to watch, especially as the men are laughing and the women are sobbing. The explosion that was visited on the men later by Jane Powell didn't really assuage me too much, although I think that was the intent. So when the movie was adapted for the stage in 1978 (before finally making it to Broadway in 1982), times had changed in the real world, clearly. How did the show tackle this scene and how does the whole thing play on the stage? How did audiences react? The show was a quick flop on Broadway, but I've read that that was a tribute to the power of the TIMES at the time and its scathing review. Without ever having seen it on stage, my idea would be to put in some character development for the brothers and the women and to check in with the women prior to the kidnapping scene. where we'd see how bored they are with their more conventional suitors and how they're pining for the brothers. Then, when it becomes clear to them that the brothers have come to get them, give them the agency to decide to go with the brothers, while also putting on a public show for the town of being taken against their wills to save their reputations. The conflict later then arises from the men not actually bringing a preacher along to marry them and how stupid that is and how pissed off the women are to have gone through all this only to not be able to marry. Anyway, I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on how all this works on stage and what changes were made for the stage adaptation. |
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