Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! is one of the most popular Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and evidence from the NODA Scotland archives suggests it is the most frequently performed musical in Scotland.  However, this production was in safe hands with Graeme Scott fulfilling an ambition to revisit Oklahoma and this time played one of his favourite roles, Curley McLain which he did with absolutely no difficulty.  Julia Shaw was perfectly relaxed as Laurey Williams and both together and individually, Julia and Graeme delighted the audience with their vocals. Tom Keeble brilliantly captured the helpless and more sinister side of Jud Fry’s character in particular in the Smoke House scene in his reaction to Curley as they reflected on ‘Pore Jud is Daid’ and then continuing with an extremely powerful rendition of ‘Lonely Room’.  Shirley McNulty gave a good performance as Aunt Eller and Chris Brooks performed well as Will Parker. James Cassidy provided an amusing Ali Hakim and played well against Victoria Daley as Ado Annie and Amy Sutherland as Gertie Cummings.  The dream sequence is often cut slightly due to its length, but this production presented it in its entirety involving all chorus members within the company.  This was well thought out and the choreography flowed extremely well from start to finish.  The overall set was minimalistic and costumes were bright and colourful. This was an enjoyable and entertaining evening.

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