July 11th thru August 11th
Show times: Monday, Friday and Saturday
    evenings at 7:00 pm - Doors open at 6:30 pm
Matinee: Saturday, August 9th at 2:00 pm

SPECIAL DINNER/SHOW OFFER: "Come and get it!"
Come to dinner and a show at the Empress!! Every Friday and Saturday night, the Empress Theatre is holding an old fashioned, finger-lickin', lip-smackin', rip roarin', dutch oven dinner with our show, 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'! Come join us for a delicious outdoor feast at 5:45 pm.

Dinner AND the show: Adults $20.00; Children $18.00; Students and Seniors $19.00. You can purchase tickets online at EZTickets Live!. Dinner is optional.


The Story:

Set in Oregon in 1850, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers is the story of seven lonely Pontipee brothers. Adam, the oldest, goes to town looking for a bride. He finds Milly working in a restaurant and convinces her to marry him. But Milly's ecstasy quickly sours when she finds she is also to take care of Adam's six unkempt, burly brothers. Deciding to make the marriage work, Milly sets a plan into motion to marry off the brothers, first teaching them how to properly court girls.

At a town social the brothers meet some young ladies but end up 'squarin' off' with their suitors in a rousing challenge dance which ends in a brawl -- and with the brothers' banishment from the town! When Adam realizes all the brothers are in love but are totally frustrated by the banishment, he tells them to follow the example found in one of Milly's books -- do "like the Romans did with the Sabine Women" and just take the girls - and a preacher to marry them all! The term ‘Sabine women’ ends up loosely translated by the boys into ‘Sobbin’women’!

The boys kidnap the girls from the town and sequester them by causing an avalanche thus blocking the only pass to the farm. One small problem - they forgot to kidnap the preacher! The whole thing angers Milly who bars all the men – including her husband Adam – from the house, relegating them to the barn until the Spring thaw. Conflict ensues as Adam refuses to take Milly's orders and leaves, bound for a trapping cabin in the hills – as Milly discovers she is expecting!

During the winter, brothers and girls long for each other. By Spring, the brothers and kidnaped girls have paired up together and are now deeply in love. The arrival of Milly's baby prompts Gideon to go up to the cabin to get Adam to come home. Adam initially refuses, questioning his feelings about Milly. When he does finally return, Milly and the others are singing the baby to sleep.

The pass has thawed and Adam realizes that he was wrong, thus deciding to take the girls back to town. Learning of Adam's plan, the girls run and hide. They want to stay with their men! The townsmen appear just in time to misinterpret what's happening as the brothers pursue and find the hiding girls – a situation which appears far more sinister than it is.

All ends well as the townsmen “force” the couples to marry in a shotgun wedding.