Theater preview | "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"

Seattle director Allison Narver laughingly admits she's not the "the go-to girl for big traditional musicals."

That could change with 5th Avenue Theatre's upcoming show "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," the stage version of the iconic 1954 movie musical set in the 1850s Oregon Territory.

The dance-happy, male-dominated romp set in the Pacific Northwest is getting its first airing at the 5th Avenue in more than 25 years. And shepherding it is a team of accomplished theatrical women: Narver, choreographer Patti Colombo and music director Valerie Gebert. The musical generally follows the plot of the film, about a band of rough-and-tumble brothers who cause pioneer mayhem by kidnapping a bunch of spoken-for gals they fancy.

The central roles of new bride Millie and her logger husband Adam are played, respectively, by Laura Griffith (a co-star of 5th Avenue's "Rocky Horror Show") and Ed Watts (who also played Adam at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse).

And it was Colombo's work for Paper Mill's recent run of "Seven Brides" that got Narver excited about the project. "I went online to see Patti's choreography, and it was thrilling, athletic, sexy, elegant — just amazing. It made me really want to do this," Narver recalls.

She also had a more personal motivation. "I have relatives on my father's side who came to Oregon as pioneers in covered wagons."

"When the actors playing the brides came in for the first rehearsal, I brought in journals and other documents about women crossing the country in covered wagons. I wanted them to know how tough, how tenacious, these girls were, how they relied on each other."

Narver is a proud daughter of the Pacific Northwest herself. She grew up in Seattle, attended The Evergreen State College and became the director of the experimental fringe hub Annex Theatre.

Narver went on to study at Yale Drama School, returning to Seattle eventually to head up Empty Space Theatre. Since that company closed shop, due to funding woes, Narver has freelance directed top-notch shows at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre and elsewhere.

Though she's specialized in offbeat musicals, Narver is no stranger to Broadway properties with splashy effects and large casts. After Yale, she did a stint as "house director" for the Broadway hit "The Lion King," which meant working in new cast members and keeping Julie Taymor's eye-popping staging spiffy.

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" is also a heavy-duty production, with a cast of 29 (19 men, 10 women) a slew of songs (some from the film, others created for the live version) and dances so rousing, says Narver, "they get an ovation in rehearsals."

Narver says she's in awe of the skill and gumption of the dancer-actors. "They leap, they jump, they do all kinds of log activities, but they're also ballet-trained, " she notes. "One of them, Karl Warden, is a former champion diver."

When "Seven Brides" debuted on Broadway in 1982 it got witheringly negative reviews. But a much-revamped version drew high marks in 2005, at Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House.

"I've heard on Broadway it was awful, because it played on all the potential weaknesses of the show instead of its strengths," says Narver.

One pitfall she's determined to avoid is turning the show into a "cheese ball," with a "coy, cutesy, backwoods" flavor. Narver wants to emphasize the "fun, love, passion and athleticism" of a "rough and rugged" pioneer community — much like the enclaves her 19th century relatives were part of.

"Working on this show we feel we owe a debt of gratitude to our pioneer great-great grandmothers," Narver declares. "They weren't wimpy, and we want to do justice to their strength and tenacity."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com