REVIEW
Oklahoma!
Festival Players
Runs until Dec. 30
Festival Place
100 Festival Way, Sherwood Park
Tickets: $25 to $40. Call 780-449-3378 or visit festivalplace.ab.ca
It was the turbulent Second World War era of 1943 and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II released the golden era musical Oklahoma!.
It was a smash hit and singlehandedly revived the art form. Using a fresh approach to musicals, its makers created a blueprint that seamlessly blended themes, plot, character, choreography and score into a compact storyline.
Last Friday, Sherwood Park’s Festival Players revived the influential musical, a quaint piece of nostalgia about uncomplicated times and unsophisticated people.
Based on Lynn Rigg’s 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs, it’s a liberal coming-of-age story set in an idealized western frontier just as Oklahoma joins the union.
Drenched with a heavy dose of American corn, the storyline focuses on the romantic and sometimes frustrating courtships of farmers, cowboys, a travelling peddler and the young womenfolk whittling away suitors before finding the right one.
The plot is set in farm country around the town of Claremore, Indian Territory in 1906. It tells the story of Laurey Williams and her two rival suitors, the charming cowboy, Curly McLain, and the unhinged farmhand, Jud Fry.
Although it begins with Curly’s sunny and timeless number, Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’, Oklahoma! later takes a surprisingly dark turn. Since the production was created during wartime, this duality may have expressed both people’s fear and hope for a peaceful future.
The charismatic Joel Sims, with clean-cut look and a rich tenor voice, brings out Curly’s cockiness and vulnerability. And leading lady Maren Richardson, who plays the passionate yet naïve farm girl Laurey Jones, is a product of the early 20th century – both feisty and tender.
Their chemistry translates across the stage lights, culminating in a couple of beautiful duets including People Will Say We’re in Love, now a classic that mixes velvety music with edgier lyrics.
On their own, they are equally strong with Sims singing the amorous The Surrey With the Fringe on Top while Richardson’s honeyed soprano captivates in Many a New Day and Out of My Dreams.
In a secondary love story, Kathleen Sera stars as Ado Annie, a seemingly innocent farm girl who wrestles with her sexual tendencies in one of the musical’s most famous numbers, I Cain’t Say No.
Paired with Sera is David Son. He tackles the role of Will Parker, a not-too-bright lassoing cowboy who worships the ground Ado Annie walks on. Son brushes his character with a boyish coating while Sera adds some well-placed screwball comedy.
Colin Stewart, a regular at St. Albert Theatre Troupe usually cast in sweet-guy roles, sets a new bar through the menacing fury of farm hand Jud Fry, the abused and misunderstood villain.
And Francie Goodwin-Davies as the spry, gun-toting Aunt Eller is a leather-tough woman equally adept at making an apple pie as breaking up fights.
Kudos to Shelley Tookey’s snappy, high-kicking choreography and the 14-piece live Edmonton Pops Orchestra for their spot-on musical accompaniment.
Oklahoma! runs at Festival Place until Dec. 30.
