Oklahoma!

The well-known and popular Oklahoma! was the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on the 1931 play “Green Grow the Lila” written by Lynn Riggs.

The musical is set outside Claremore in Oklahoma Territory and tells the story of Laurey Williams and her two rival suitors. There is also a secondary romance between Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée Ado Annie.

Opening on Broadway in 1943 the musical rang for 2212 performances. The show opened in the West End in 1947 to rave reviews.

Although now 75 years old this show remains popular with societies to perform and audience members. Having seen this production performed by Studley Operatic Society it is easy to see why this is the case as this was a quality performance.  

From the moment the musical director picked up her baton the show promised to be of a good standard and indeed it was. Oklahoma is one of those shows whereby popular and well known songs simply follow one another throughout the whole show and each one of them was well delivered.

The curtains opened to show a good set with Liz Bird as Aunt Eller churning butter. She portrayed a wonderful character throughout the whole show with humour and facial expressions to match. The first musical number ‘Oh What a Beautiful Morning’ was indeed beautifully sung by Paul Mitchell as Curly who continued to sing every number especially well with great power and feeling including ‘The Surrey with the Fringe on Top’, ‘Poor Jud is Daid’ and ‘People Will Say We’re in Love’. He was most certainly Curly with some of the curliest hair ever! Alongside Curly was Sophie Hill as Laurey who gave a fine performance and sang well.

Laurey’s other suitor – Jud Fry, in only his second musical performance, was superbly played by Matt Bridgewater. He demonstrated an excellent portrayal of this misunderstood character.  The song ‘Lonely Room’ was yet another highlight of the show.

The second love match involved Alex McDonald- Smith as Will Parker with Jessica Horabin as Ado Annie. The saying two is company three is a crowd comes into play with Hugh Duck as Ali Hakim. The three of them worked well together. Duck had great comic timing especially during the scene involving the Persian goodbye!  Meanwhile both Alex and Jessica played their parts well including Ado Annie’s song ‘I Can’t Say No’ and Will’s ‘Kansas City’.

Other supporting roles were equally well cast. Allan Recardo had the right stature as Andrew Carnes and Yasmin Springthorpe the right ear-piercing laughter as Gertie Cummings. 

The chorus was without doubt large. The opening to act two ‘The Farmer and the Cowman’ was well managed considering the limited space and the sheer number of people. This leads on to the auction scene. This was well done – so congratulations to all on stage at the time. Also reference needs to be made to the fight scene between Mitchell and Bridgewater. This was well performed under the guidance of fight captain Matthew Recardo.  

The dream ballet at the end of act one was especially well done and depicted. The lighting during this scene was well worked out along with the smoke effects.  The choreography throughout the show devised by Donna Rhodes was good and looked natural.

Most scene changes were managed well and without disruption to the show. This was achieved by action down stage left and good lighting or in front of drop cloths.

I started by referring to the overture. Finally, the band consisting of 13 plus the musical director. For anyone superstitious having this number was most certainly not unlucky. The music throughout was at a perfect level, never too loud to drown out the singing but loud enough to hear the richness of the fabulous score. 

As for next year – well something a little bit different with Monty Python’s Spamalot in April 2019. I most certainly look forward to seeing this.

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