Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! – Wyndham’s Theatre, London

Something of a marmite production, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! uses all the tricks in the book plus some new ones to shake up this classic musical.

Oklahoma!

I do like approaching productions from a place of determined ignorance. Sometimes (like my annual outings to A Christmas Carol) I know the plot of the thing I’m going to see inside out and backwards. But if I don’t, I don’t typically read up about it beforehand, preferring to be surprised. So it was with Oklahoma! I knew it was a musical set in, well, Oklahoma. I knew the song Oh What a Beautiful Morning, and the first line of the title song Oklahoma! And I knew that this version, which I missed last year at the Young Vic, was not a typical production but instead had been modernised and was considered ground-breaking.

That was it! I was prepared to really like it – I am very susceptible to getting carried away when it comes to musicals. Something about the uplifting songs that manipulates me into rapturous applause. It worked for Anything Goes in any case. And My Neighbour Totoro as a more contemporary example. You can probably tell what I’m building up to, though: I did not like it, dear readers.

And this is where I believe this production of Oklahoma! is theatrical marmite. I can see why many critics love it and it’s won a lot of awards. It’s radical in how it rethinks the musical without changing the songs or book. The staging is truly innovative: there are techniques in there I’ve not seen done before. However, the experience of watching it was, for me at least, not a pleasurable one.

We’re Not In Oklahoma! Any More

Ok, so we are still in Oklahoma. In fact, as I just mentioned, the plot is the same as it always is. As the Oklahoma Territory prepares to join the United States around the turn of the last century, we find ourselves in a small rural community. There’s a box social coming up, and Laurey must decide who to go with. Curly, a boastful cowboy, or Jud, a slightly menacing farmhand? The whole first act revolves around this question as we get to know the characters. This includes my favourite subplot, simple minded Will Parker and his quest to win the hand of the rather sexually empowered Ado Annie.

Here is where this production, for me, really didn’t work. The first half, as described, doesn’t actually have a lot of action. And in this production, devised by Daniel Fish originally as a student production at Bard College in New York State, most choices had the effect of creating a distance between myself as an audience member and the characters. The lighting design (Scott Zielinski) alternates between harsh with house lights up, and pitch black. The set design by Lael Jellinek with Grace Laubacher is stylised plywood with guns and party decorations. And the characters sit sullenly (or menacingly?) looking on when they’re not speaking. I had little to invest myself in, and as a result found the first half really rather dull.

In the second half things get going. Traditionally it begins with a Dream Ballet, originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille and featuring a dream version of Laurey working through her choice between the two suitors. Ground-breaking in its time for the use of dance to advance the plot in a play, here it is completely reworked by choreographer John Heginbotham, and ably danced by Lead Dancer Marie-Astrid Mence. The ballet, not to the liking of all audience members when I saw it, is viscerally psychological and challenging. The rest of the second half keeps up a more frenetic pace, but overall I couldn’t shake my feeling of disconnection.

Final Thoughts

I do feel somewhat conflicted on this production. There were some great performances. Anoushka Lucas as Laurey is great: both a wonderful singing voice and the ability to transmit her character’s internal struggle. Patrick Vaill, who has played Jud since this production was first developed, brings a lot to the character. And James Patrick Davis and Paige Peddie as comic relief Will and Ado Annie are superb.

And yet. I come back to the fact that Oklahoma! was not an enjoyable viewing experience (for me). Plenty of audience members seemed to like it, but then plenty of people like marmite, too. I was one who didn’t: for me it was too alienating despite the fact that I understood what they were doing. Reading the interesting interviews and articles in the programme did help to increase my appreciation, but only marginally. I don’t know that I would see any production of Oklahoma! willingly in future (among other detractions the whole thing being centred around a box social, essentially auctioning picnic baskets as proxies for women, is not a plot for the post-Me Too era). But I would certainly not rewatch this production. Unless it was just Marie-Astrid Mence in the Dream Ballet, give me that any day.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 2.5/5

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! booking until 2 September 2023