Neely Caudle cradled a folded blue-jean jacket in her arms to represent her baby while she and Joe Coker sang during rehearsal for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
The Conway High School juniors are playing Milly and Adam, the lead roles in this year’s musical, directed by drama teacher A.J. Spiridigliozzi.
“We are super, super talent heavy,” Spiridigliozzi said.
The show will be performed April 21-23 at the James H. Clark Auditorium on the high school campus, 2100 Prince St.
He said the musical — with a cast and crew of about 150 — is sure to be a crowd-pleaser, even though at first, he didn’t want to perform it.
“I never wanted to do it before because I didn’t know it,” Spiridigliozzi said. “I just thought it was old.” The movie was released in 1954.
Conway Junior High School music teacher Kayla White encouraged Spiridigliozzi to consider Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which had been performed once before, in 1977, by Conway High School. He agreed it would be a good musical to bring back for audiences.
“It’s something that appeals to a large demographic of people,” Spiridigliozzi said.
Spiridigliozzi said that when he tells people the name of the musical, he gets one of two reactions: “People either say, ‘I’ve never seen it,’ or ‘Oh, my, gosh, I love that movie!’”
Neither Caudle, 16, nor Coker, 17, had seen the entire movie. Caudle said she had heard of it, and Coker said he had watched one scene.
“I had seen a very iconic scene where they’re dancing at a barn raising, and I wondered how we were going to pull that off,” Coker said.
“The dancing we do have is very fun,” Caudle said.
“Very high intensity,” Coker said.
Spiridigliozzi said the story is about Milly, who works at a boarding house in town in the 1850s.
“Adam comes to the town, and he wants a wife. They hit it off, and he sweeps her off her feet,” Spiridigliozzi said. Milly marries Adam and moves to the mountains, where he lives with his six younger brothers — a fact Adam neglected to mention to his new wife.
“They’re slobs; they don’t have manners, so Milly basically domesticates them and teaches them manners and how to live among civilization — and how to court women,” Spiridigliozzi said.
At a big dance, the six brothers meet six women to whom they become infatuated, but the women already have suitors, thus introducing conflict.
Caudle said the couples are identified by colors, so she is in white, and Coker wears neutral colors.
“It’s a really clever idea, actually,” she said. “I get two dresses, and they’re going to be very pretty.”
Coker is featured in four or five songs and sings in a couple of others. He said the show includes songs from the movie that people will enjoy, as well as new songs “that I think people will be pleasantly surprised with.” Caudle said she has about six featured songs.
The students said there’s never a dull moment during the show. “There’s lots of humor — it’s lively,” Caudle said.
“It’s a very big show,” Coker said. “There are very rarely fewer than six people on stage.”
The juniors are at home onstage. Coker, the son of Sarah and Keith Coker, played the Rev. Shaw Moore in last year’s production of Footloose. Caudle, the daughter of Kim and Jeff Caudle, was Wendy Jo in the same musical.
In the high school’s production of Peter Pan, Coker was Captain Hook, while Caudle played one of the Lost Boys.
Spiridigliozzi said the youngest cast member in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is 4 years old, and another cast member is 11.
“We like to incorporate the little guys,” he said.
The six brothers are played by Wilson Gifford, Trey Smith, Caleb McCormick, Seth Guidry, Dawson Brown and Kaymon Neal.
The brides are Savannah Raup, Yessica Serrano, Mary Nail, Claire Gilaspy, Andrea Beggs and Reilly Mullaney.
White is the music director, and she is assisted by Patty Oeste and Sam Huskey. Robin Ratliff and Roshell Cobb are in charge of the pit orchestra.
The student director is Connor Lichtenwalter, the head stage manager is Emily Brock, and other stage managers are Avery Glover and Emily Lively.
Performances will be at 7 p.m. April 21 and 22, and at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. April 23.
Tickets, which can be purchased at the door, are $6 for adults and $4 for students, 4 years old through the 12th grade.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.