Rodgers and Hammerstein‘s 1943 Broadway musical Oklahoma! was the primary fully-integrated musical play and outlined the format of musicals that we nonetheless see at present.
After a vastly profitable revival on Broadway in 2019, a model new manufacturing transferred to London the place it loved a profitable run on the Young Vic. Now, the manufacturing has transferred in to the West End the place it’s enjoying at Wyndham’s Theatre.
I went to see the present to resolve if it was ‘I don’t need to go Okla-home-a’ or ‘I couldn’t wait to go Okla-home’. Sadly, as I left the theatre and was handed a badge that stated ‘ok’, I realised that was the one potential technique to describe it.
The solid are superb – there isn’t any doubt about that. Anoushka Lucas (Laurey), Georgina Onuorah (Ado Annie) and Liza Sadovy (Aunt Eller) had been all elegant and Patrick Vaill (Jud Fry) performed the psychopath completely. Arthur Darvill was nice as Curly McLain however felt very a lot the identical as his guitar enjoying character in Once. Perhaps I’ve not seen sufficient of his work however it could be good to see him play a special kind of character.
The set design was good, if just a little minimal however I favored the way in which the auditorium felt prefer it was within the spherical (because it was on the Young Vic). The costumes on the finish gave a burst of a lot wanted color to the dreary finish and slowed down, depressing rendition of the title music.
The determination to maintain the auditorium lights on all through the present was totally different and did make extra of an impression throughout the two (properly marketed) black outs. Sadly the rationale for these prolonged intervals of darkness was misplaced on me and gave the impression to be there for the sake of it reasonably than to accentuate the story. I felt the identical about the usage of a video digital camera, projecting on to the again of the stage. Where this works in a present like Bat Out of Hell, it didn’t appear to serve a objective right here.
The opening of act 2 is weird. A 15 minute fashionable ballet carried out by X who will not be in any other case within the present. This Billy Elliot-esq sequence is made much more complicated when cowboy boots start to fall from the ceiling and on to the stage with a loud bang. It is defined within the programme notes that that is speculated to signify Laurey’s wrestle to resolve between the 2 males she is in a love triangle with – however I didn’t perceive that from watching it.
Before I went to see Oklahoma! a number of folks stated “oh it’s wonderful, I loved it” however once I defined the above points I had with it, I discovered all of them agreed with me and so I’m uncertain why so many individuals are raving about it.
Oklahoma! is actually totally different and I can’t say I didn’t take pleasure in it however as I left on the finish I needed to decide my jaw up off the ground, making an attempt to grasp what I had watched. Perhaps if I returned for a second viewing may make extra sense to me however at nearly three hours in size, I’m unsure I may ‘okla-handle’ it!
★★★
Reviewed by West End Wilma