Oklahoma

Ulverston Amateur Operatic Society’s 2024 production was the old favourite “Oklahoma” – a story about love, rivalry, and the pioneering spirit of the American frontier, where cowboys and farmers clash in a tale filled with memorable tunes and heartwarming moments.  This is UAOS’s fourth production of Oklahoma and the Chairman’s message did question why it had taken them 34 years to present it for the fourth time, though I do wonder if the real reason is perceived audience interest.  I was delighted to see the show being produced myself and I looked forward to seeing it.  I do hope the numbers look good as it would be great to see more “old favourites” in years to come.

 

Chris Barker as Curly McLain was confident and showed great presence.  His strong singing held out well across the orchestra and he really looked the part.  His character was well developed and captivating.  Curly’s fight scene with Jud was well executed.

 

Claire Coulston played the independent farm girl, Laurey.  She played the character as strong-willed and self-reliant though her vulnerability with Curly shone through.  Claire played the character well and her singing was lovely to listen to.

 

Jud Fry was played by Adam Atkinson.  Jud is a very intense and brooding character and you could see by Adam’s portrayal that he did not fit in with the rest of the community.  This dark and unsettling character wasn’t missed when he was killed and the people around him seemed keen for the death to be covered up.  Though I enjoyed Adam’s performance and his singing, he also brought more shouting and anger than I would have preferred, but Adam has obviously worked hard on this character – it being a more difficult one to work with and the result was great to see.

 

Aunt Eller Murphy was played by Nicky Diggle. Aunt Eller is wise and matriarchal and Nicky played this beautifully.  Her performance was watchable and enjoyable.

 

Ado Annie Carnes is an especially fun character to watch, which was well played by Deborah Wilde.  She worked hard on a believable character, which brought a lot of humour to the show.  Well done, Deborah.

 

Will Parker was nicely played by Steve Thompson.  Steve played Will as a rather sappy character, which is about right as Will is somewhat naïve, getting entangled in the $50 wheeze.  Steve has some good acting moments in the show – he has a wide range of interactions with other cast members and these relationships were carefully worked out and handled nicely.

 

Ali Hakim was played by Andy Bond.  Andy did a super job with this role and it was enjoyable to watch.  His expressions breaking the fourth wall were fun to see and he was a definitely light-hearted crowd pleaser.  Well done, Andy.

 

The rest of the named cast were enjoyable to watch and put a lot of effort in getting moves that looked right and everyone clearly knew what they were meant to be doing – a well drilled performance that you could watch with confidence and enjoy the story and the songs.

 

The choreography was kept simple and effective and took into account the abilities of the given cast.  Katie Postlethwaite, as Choreographer has obviously taken care to engage the cast well and will be pleased with this production.

 

Musically, the orchestra sounded great.  The chorus were good and clear and the leading cast were mostly accurate and lovely to listen to.  You could tell that singing wasn’t the strong point of everyone on the stage, but they made up for this with buckets of enthusiasm and well drilled character performances.  The musical director for this show was Elisabeth Greaves and I’m sure she will be pleased with how well this sounded.

 

Directionally, some scenes looked a little static, with clumps of chorus lined here and there.  A couple of scene transitions were a little slow and tedious in the first act, but a lot better in the second.  I realise the Coro is not blessed with huge amounts of space in the wings and so some slow moments are understandable.  But if there was a single improvement I would try to work on, it would be to focus on those transitions and find ways to make that hurry along, though I do totally understand the set limitations.  I had very few issues with being able to hear words, but there were occasional performers who were prone to rather mumbling or going so far with their accents that they became unintelligible.  This is very common for many groups but something to work on for a few in this group as well. 

 

I understand that the direction was split between Russ Palmer and Brenda Hindle, with one continuing where the other left off.  This can present its own challenges, of course, as each will have their own vision to bring to the production, but overall I feel they should both be pleased with this production.

 

The set was fairly simple with a few cloths pulled in now and again, and a couple of trucks too.  Other than transition issues mentioned above it worked well. The costumes looked great, with everyone looking appropriately dressed and bringing life to the production.

 

No particular technical notes other than those already mentioned – sound was mostly good – perhaps a little loud, and lighting was nicely handled.

 

Overall, this was a good show – the singing was joyous and it was lovely to see Oklahoma making an outing once again.  It’s a classic for a reason, and even people who haven’t seen the musical cannot help but know half of the numbers in it.  Is there anything better than hearing live singing with a full orchestra sound? 

 

Well done on your production which audiences clearly enjoyed and thank you for the invitation.

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