Oklahoma!

I attended opening night of this production at Bolton Albert Halls which was pretty much full with an appreciative audience.

The set looked great with super props. The stage crew worked hard to keep the set changes flowing and there were no long hold ups. The costumes were lovely and suited the piece and costume changes were handled well.  The lighting and sound worked really well with no real hiccups.

The chorus had mixed ages and abilities so the choreography was kept simple for chorus numbers which in the main looked effective. On the dream sequence this gave the dancers a chance to show their skills which worked well.  As with all Rogers & Hammerstein shows the chorus numbers have plentiful harmonies which sounded lovely.

The principals were lead by the young Katy Clayton who played Laurey with a nice innocence. She had a crisp clear singing voice which worked beautifully in this role. She played opposite Ian Hawyes who put in a great performance as Curly. He was charming and cool in his acting and had a lovely tone to his voice. The duet’s between the two sounded lovely. Although both individually were well cast the thing I felt was really missing was chemistry between the two as I didn’t believe they really felt love for each other. Overall though very well done to both.

Daniel Sheader and Natalie Crompton played Will Parker and Ado Annie respectively and both did a fantastic job with these parts. Vocally both had great delivery and tone and Natalie was adorable as she flitted between her two suitors.

Irene Lunt did a good job as Aunt Eller and matriarch figure with good command in “The Farmer and the Cowman” song and auction of hampers scene.  Clive McCoy vocally as Jud Fry sounded excellent but for me wasn’t quite sinister or mean enough although his duet and harmonies with Ian as Curly on “Poor Jud is Daid” was great.

Martin Pearce played a dry comic role as Ali Hakim and his delivery and expressions worked really well. The accent took a while to tune into but overall a really good performance.

The show was well directed, both creatively and musically and was a very pleasant evening’s entertainment. Well done to all involved in this lovely production.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.