Oklahoma

Starting with a moving overture which introduced the characters of the show you had an idea this show was going to be a success and it was.

The show then went into the usual opening with Curley singing off stage, Matthew Clarke looked and sounded every bit the part the part with his fine singing voice, acting abilities and of course good looks, I am sure he won the hearts of the entire audience. Joining Matthew on stage was Amelia Davies as Laurey, again with a very sweet voice and pretty looks Amelia went all the way to produce a very convincing character. I especially enjoyed her duet with Matthew, Surrey with the Fringe on Top, you could almost feel the air blowing through the countryside as they rode along.

In this show, as with many Rodgers & Hammerstein shows there is a lynch pin, a character who holds the whole thing together, in this case it is Aunt Eller and you could not get a better actor to play this than Judith Turner, she was perfect and you could imagine her as the matriarchal figure in the local town who everyone loves.

Again as with most shows there has to be a villain and here we had a truly evil villain in the guise of Christopher Adamson as Jud Fry. He was so evil you could almost feel your skin creep when he came on to the stage. The smoke house scene was a little short of brilliant especially the duet between Jud and Curley Pore Jud is Daid and following when you could see and feel Jud’s temper rising.

Bringing in the comedy we had three excellent performances from Amanda Andrews as Ado Annie, Matthew Hillman as Will Parker and Beverley Sharp as Gertie Cummings whose laugh was so irritating you could quite easily have  got on to the stage to tape her mouth up, she as with Amanda and Matthew was perfect.

Another comedy part in this show is Ali Akim and praise must go to Zak Simpson in this part. His accent could not be faltered, in fact we did wonder if that was his own but speaking to him after the show it was very clear this was not the case. It is not easy to keep one accent up all the way through a show when everyone else is using a totally different one but here Zak never once slipped into an American accent, Zak not only had a great accent, his comedic timing was also perfect to make this part his own.

All in all a great show and credit must go to everyone involved in the Dream Ballet, this is not a dancing society but they managed to pull it off.

One small criticism I must make is the ladies hair styles and the lack of wigs and hair pieces. In this era ladies would not have had modern short styles, they would have had ringlets, long hair with some taken up, just a small point but one I think is important in this type of show. This did not apply to all the ladies as quite a good number had gone to town with their various styles.

Many congratulations to all involved on a very enjoyable evening.Starting with a moving overture which introduced the characters of the show you had an idea this show was going to be a success and it was.

The show then went into the usual opening with Curley singing off stage, Matthew Clarke looked and sounded every bit the part the part with his fine singing voice, acting abilities and of course good looks, I am sure he won the hearts of the entire audience. Joining Matthew on stage was Amelia Davies as Laurey, again with a very sweet voice and pretty looks Amelia went all the way to produce a very convincing character. I especially enjoyed her duet with Matthew, Surrey with the Fringe on Top, you could almost feel the air blowing through the countryside as they rode along.

In this show, as with many Rodgers & Hammerstein shows there is a lynch pin, a character who holds the whole thing together, in this case it is Aunt Eller and you could not get a better actor to play this than Judith Turner, she was perfect and you could imagine her as the matriarchal figure in the local town who everyone loves.

Again as with most shows there has to be a villain and here we had a truly evil villain in the guise of Christopher Adamson as Jud Fry. He was so evil you could almost feel your skin creep when he came on to the stage. The smoke house scene was a little short of brilliant especially the duet between Jud and Curley Pore Jud is Daid and following when you could see and feel Jud’s temper rising.

Bringing in the comedy we had three excellent performances from Amanda Andrews as Ado Annie, Matthew Hillman as Will Parker and Beverley Sharp as Gertie Cummings whose laugh was so irritating you could quite easily have  got on to the stage to tape her mouth up, she as with Amanda and Matthew was perfect.

Another comedy part in this show is Ali Akim and praise must go to Zak Simpson in this part. His accent could not be faltered, in fact we did wonder if that was his own but speaking to him after the show it was very clear this was not the case. It is not easy to keep one accent up all the way through a show when everyone else is using a totally different one but here Zak never once slipped into an American accent, Zak not only had a great accent, his comedic timing was also perfect to make this part his own.

All in all a great show and credit must go to everyone involved in the Dream Ballet, this is not a dancing society but they managed to pull it off.

One small criticism I must make is the ladies hair styles and the lack of wigs and hair pieces. In this era ladies would not have had modern short styles, they would have had ringlets, long hair with some taken up, just a small point but one I think is important in this type of show. This did not apply to all the ladies as quite a good number had gone to town with their various styles.

Many congratulations to all involved on a very enjoyable evening.

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