This 21st-century production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic is more unashamedly sexy than wholesomely home on the range
Daniel Fish’s production of the first collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein arrives in the West End from Off and then On Broadway via The Young Vic. As a daringly imaginative staging of this iconic musical, it deserves all the plaudits it's earned along the way.
The "bright golden haze on the meadow" of the musical’s opening lyric is visible through panoramic kitchen windows (scenic design Lael Jellinek and Grace Laubacher). Warm woods line the kitchen walls and the theatre boxes above the auditorium, all of which, in their turn, have a more sinister lining – rows of rifles. A stunning band of nine players in the intimate orchestra pit provide both acoustic and electric strings, including evocative banjo and drums, with MD Huw Evans on accordion.
As the lights raise on the kitchen of Aunt Eller, Liza Sadovy’s commanding and sexy matriarch of this little community in the nascent Oklahoma state, the band is joined by chiselled cowboy Curly (Arthur Darvill, beloved from Dr Who) singing the iconic opening number ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’’, accompanying himself on guitar with true rockstar pzazz.
Beautiful it may be and there is no doubt that the mostly young community members are attractive – especially to each other. This makes for an underlying tension, both between the sexes, as the guys and gals eye each other up and more, and between male rivals for the attentions of the same young woman. This is a fiercely traditional community, where the big event coming up is a "box social", for which the women prepare boxes of refreshments and the men bid for them.
Curly has his sights set on Laurey, Aunt Eller’s feisty niece, still finding her stride as a confident young woman, played with delicately defiant verve by Anoushka Lucas. She's not averse, but neither is she willing to be an easy catch. She makes fun of Curly’s offer to woo her with a ride in a glam little carriage he describes in the song, ‘The Surrey with the Fringe on Top’. Then there’s Jud, a disturbed young man – ‘on the spectrum’ as we would say now – whose complicated feelings for Laurey look to lead inevitably to a confrontation with Curly. Patrick Vaill is heartbreaking as this strange outsider, here blonde and vulnerable rather than the usual dark and sinister.
Laurey and her suitors are contrasted with Ado Annie, the "girl who can’t say no", as the song goes. Here, the spectacular Georgina Onuorah does not see why she should say no. James Patrick Davis is almost to be pitied as her determined wooer Will Parker, for first he must woo her stern and unyielding father Andrew Carnes (almost chilling Greg Hicks). Annie has fun with alternative wooer Stavros Demetraki’s Persian trader Ali Hakim, who somehow seems quite at home rather than exotic in this melting pot of folk.
John Heginbotham’s choreography is extraordinarily versatile, in-yer-face alluring when the guys and gals dance together, or graphically illustrative of mood as in the dream ballet sequence in which lead dancer Marie-Astrid Mence acts out Laurey’s doubts and fears through dance. Terese Warden’s costumes are lush and lacy for the gals, with leather chaps over tight shorts for the, er, chaps.
As the action comes to a shockingly violent end, all involved thoroughly deserve the standing ovation that comes from a pleasingly young audience, who, if they were seeing this musical for the first time, may not realise that Fish’s production is at once groundbreaking and exhilaratingly graphic.
By Judi Herman
Photos by Marc Brenner
Oklahoma! runs until Saturday 2 September. 7.30pm, 2pm (Wed & Sun only). From £25. Wyndham’s Theatre, WC2H 0DA. oklahomawestend.com