Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
BAC, London
Rating ****

It is unlikely that this winter will throw up more blissfully mindless entertainment than this revival of what must be the world's only musical to have been inspired by the rape of the Sabine women. This is an evening where the sexual politics move from the Neanderthal to the early Stone Age. But the songs move from one hummable number to the next as pioneer farmer Adam Pontipee and his six lovesick brothers learn that the only way to a woman's heart is to learn some manners. I was particularly taken with the ballad that began, if my ears did not deceive me: "I'm lonesome as a polecat."

But as ever, it is Phil Willmott's inventive staging that really counts here. If you saw this 50s confection produced end on in a big theatre, you'd dismiss it as tosh. But played as it is here in the round - or rather the square - and infused with the kind of energy you only get from squeezing a masterfully drilled cast onto a stage the size of a cow-pat, the whole thing becomes a vigorous celebration of the toe-tapping musical.

Whether this offering has quite the wide appeal of last year's BAC hit The King and I or 1997's The Sound of Music is debatable. There is possibly too much emphasis on lurve to excite the younger members of the audience. But Willmott's production is a clever mixture of cheeky send-up and the absolutely straight, and as usual he makes a virtue of having no money.

He also gets the casting just right. The leads in particular have real star quality. Fiona Benjamin's appealingly feisty Milly is clear-eyed and clear-voiced, and Kieran Creggan brings both a mellow voice and a tortured charm to Adam, who is torn between testosterone-fuelled instincts and the love of his wife.

Until January 15. Box office: 0171-223 2223