Synopsis
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical with a book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay, music by Gene de Paul, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn. It is based on the 1954 Stanley Donen film of the same name which is, itself, an adaption of the short story "The Sobbin' Women," by Stephen Vincent Benet, based on the Ancient Roman legend of The Rape of the Sabine Women. After a U.S. tour, the musical opened on Broadway in 1982 and then in London After alteration a more successful London production followed, and revised versions have met with success in U.S. regional theatres and in amateur productions on both sides of the Atlantic.Act 1
In 1850s Oregon, Adam goes into town seeking a wife to run the household that consists of just himself and his six brothers. There he meets Milly, a waitress at a local restaurant. Milly and Adam rush into marriage and immediately return to Adam's remote ranch in the mountains. As soon as they return home, Adam reverts back to his true self: an ill-mannered and inconsiderate slob. Milly meets his six brothers, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank and Gideon, all of whom also share Adam's love for all things disorderly. Milly decides to reform the brothers and help them change their ways. She teaches them to dance and then takes them to a barn-raising. There, the six brothers meet six girls they like and start courting them. Conflicts arise when each of the six girls turns out to have her own jealous suitor. Upon returning home Adam reads his brothers the story of The Rape of the Sabine Women, inciting them to kidnap the girls and bring them back home with them.
Act 2
The brothers kidnap the girls and then cause an avalanche to fall and block the suitors' way, making the brothers' house unreachable until Spring. The girls are crying and furious by the time they reach the house. An angry Milly scolds the boys and sends them all to live in the barn, and Adam flees up to their hunting cabin in the mountains to live by himself. They live there all through the Winter, but by the time Spring arrives, the girls miss the brothers' attention and find themselves to be in love. Gideon goes to the cabin and attempts to get Adam to return home by telling him that Milly had a baby girl. A changed Adam returns home to find his wife and newborn daughter waiting for him. The snow clears up and the angry suitors make their way up to the house in the mountains to find that the girls are happy and want to marry the brothers. The story ends with a shotgun wedding of the six remaining couples
