Runs until May 3. WRITTEN in 1954 as a screen musical, Seven Brides had great stage potential from the start. The stage version had the freshness last night that the film had.

The dancing, without the advantage of cinematic retakes, was remarkably good. The scene in which the backwoods brothers take on the townies in a dancing contest that finally deteriorates into a fight, was almost as good as that of the memorable film version.

Veronica Page, who plays Milly, has the benefit of West End experience going back to the title of Charlie Girl with Dame Anna Neagle and Derek Nimmo at the Adelphi, and it showed.

She has a rich and easy voice as does Mark McKerracher, an American who brought a huge physical presence to the male lead as the eldest of the brothers, Adam Pontipee.

The six other brothers and their brides are all young people of great singing and dancing talent, full of energy and with a feel for the typical post-war musical of the Western genre.

John McManus, as Gideon, the youngest of the brothers, deserved to be singled out to take a bow, while the cast received five enthusiastic curtain calls.

This show, directed by John Newman, attempted to maintain the pace of a film show through a great many slickly-executed scene changes, perhaps too many for comfortable continuity.

Assistant director Stephanie Carter deserved great credit for her choreography, as did her assistant Peter King, who was also dance captain and one of the suitors and lumbermen.

It would be wrong to think that this vital production could only appeal to older theatregoers.

Doreen Crowther

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