Feb 8, 2005 By Ron Nehls For The 4 min read

In a small town, does it get any better than going downtown on Saturday night, going to a packed theater with hundreds of others, seeing a flawless Broadway type show, then going home and saying, “I was there.” If you haven’t heard of the Pontipee Brothers, the members of the audience at the State Theatre Center for the Arts on Saturday night can tell you who they are.

They’re part of the movie “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” that played in Uniontown back in the 1950s at the State Theater. It came back on Saturday night to the same theater as a stage production with the same story of lonely men (the Pontipee Brothers) out in the wilderness of Oregon in the 1850s.

They need wives to help them, and the story line of the stage production proceeds with foot stomping, high kicking music, dance and romance.

Seven brothers living together under one roof can create quite a mess, so the younger six boys finally persuade the eldest (Adam) that he should take a wife.

So while he is in town trading for supplies he soon spies a likely wife in the local restaurant. Milly is swept off her feet by this handsome mountain man and agrees to marry him on the spot.

The audience enjoyed songs by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Gene dePaul (music) such as “Bless Yore Beautiful Hide” “Wonderful, Wonderful Day,” “When You’re In Love,” “Sobbing Women” “Going Courting,” “June Bride” and the tender “Glad You Were Born.”

Charlie Mechling, who presented a Kenny Rogers style voice that was perfectly suited for the music in this show, played Adam Pontipee, the male lead character. His character was tough when it needed to be, but he also displayed the manly common sense and tender leadership of the clan at meaningful times throughout the show.

Alicia Albright played the role of Milly, Adam’s rapidly chosen wife, superbly. She accepted the brief words of proposal from Adam who asked, “How’s about marrying me?” She possesses a pleasant, theatrical quality voice similar to the popular modern styles heard frequently in newly released movies and her stage presence was commanding.

It didn’t take long for Milly to catch the sympathy of the audience as she is placed in the unbeknownst position of cooking, scrubbing and washing for seven brothers instead of being married to a handsome man and living in a “little cabin just for two.”

But instead of heading for divorce court, Milly soon takes over. She teaches the brothers etiquette and turns the “mountain men” into gentlemen, who suddenly decide that they too should have wives. Their solution, with the lead of Adam telling them about how the Romans did it in days of old, is to kidnap the girls in town and bring them back to their mountain cabin 12 miles away.

Milly, horrified at the crudeness of it all, ensures the safety of the girls by relegating Adam and the boys to the barn for the winter, her and the girls to the house.

But love finds its way, and with the advent of the spring thaw, the townspeople find themselves the reluctant guests at a six-way shotgun wedding.

Colorful costumes, fabulous sets, bold performances by the entire cast and an eight-piece orchestra made this a breathtaking production.

Indeed, the technical commodities helped make the show as enjoyable as the performance of the cast itself. A theater scrim curtain was cleverly used to divide the upstage area from the beautifully designed backdrops to give a variety of projected locations within the scene itself. Scene changes were quick and uninterrupted.

All of the actors were also dancers, and very good dancers at that.

“The show was energetic, exciting and just plain fun,” said Ginny Tanner, local choreographer. “The dancers were well rehearsed and their performance was flawless.

“In the ‘Goin’ Courtin’ number, the men showed a real flair for comedy as well as talent as dancers. Their acrobatic skills were displayed in the ‘Social Dance’ during the challenge section of the dance scene,” Tanner added.

The women didn’t dance as much but Tanner said, “The women showcased their ballet background during the ‘June Bride’ number. The lifts and partnering in each dance sequence added to the overall excitement of the show.”

She said the “Wedding Dance” finale brought the audience to their feet when the minister did an unexpected “flip” in the middle of the scene.

The producer of this national touring show is Windwood Productions Inc. Its founder is Paul Bartz, who provided incredible assistance to the State Theatre Center for the Arts when it opened its first season in 1990.

It was another night of magic and a most enjoyable experience for the large audience at the State Theatre Saturday night.