STAGE REVIEW : A Live ‘Seven Brides’ Is No Match for the Movie : Just like some other classic film musicals--’Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’--the magic is lost in the translation.

It happened with “Singin’ in the Rain,” it happened with “Meet Me in St. Louis,” and it happened with “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”: On screen, few musicals are better. But when they tried to adapt it to the stage, the magic didn’t translate.

From the onset, the young cast of the Yorba Linda Civic Light Opera production of “Brides” faces the same problem, one that’s partially overcome by old-fashioned exuberance--especially in several spirited dance sequences, including a “challenge dance” at a town social, where six of the brothers vie with six other suitors for the six would-be brides.

Elsewhere, this thinly plotted tale about brothers who kidnap a batch of brides is at most a fair to middlin’ production. Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, circa 1850s, and utilizing a storyteller (the very assured Craig Lillywhite), the play derives plenty of humor from its slant on the quaintness--and corniness--of romance in olden times, when, we’re told, “men were men and women were . . . scarce.” But what it could dearly use is some warmth. And, in the case of its lead performers, a little more projection, please.

As backwoodsman (and eldest brother) Adam Pontipee, Dirk Rogers displays a fine, booming voice during the slower songs including “Bless Your Beautiful Hide.” But he tended to drop from earshot in the quicker-paced, “The Sobbin’ Women.” As his feisty bride, Milly, Laura Gotto-Patterson could work a little more on projecting her emotions.

As Gideon, youngest of Adam’s brothers--and the only one to get a solo--Larry Johnson has so much feeling that the others might borrow a little. And, all six brothers do a good job in singing “We’ve Got to Make It Through the Winter,” all about the pangs of having to keep a safe distance from their women until a preacher arrives in the spring. Olden times, indeed.

‘SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS’

A Yorba Linda Civic Light Opera production. Book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay. Lyrics by Johnny Mercer, music by Gene de Paul, new songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn. Directed by Greg Hinrichsen. Choreographed by Lee Martino and John Vaughan. Musical direction by Mark Henson. With Laura Gotto-Patterson, Dirk Rogers, Craig Lillywhite, Larry Johnson, John Scott Chase, Tim Kashani, Antonio Arratia, Angelo Collado and J.R. White. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays through June 16 at the Forum Theater, 4175 Fairmont Blvd., Yorba Linda. Tickets: $10 to 12. (714) 779-8591.