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A RECORD OF A PERFORMANCE
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This approach preserves the theatrical architecture of the musical in all its glory, with the swirling choreography executed in a seemingly confined space, but explosively inventive nonetheless. And Oscar Hammerstein's libretto, loyally based on the 1931 play "Green Grow the Lilacs" by Lynn Riggs, is revealed as a masterpiece of construction, every scene flowing to the next and through the matchless score of Richard Rodgers. The composer's daughter, Mary Rodgers, is on record with her view of Trevor Nunn's version: "It is a better production than the original. And I'm one of the few people who saw the original."
The main narrative strand concerns Laurey's choice of partner for the social. Will she go with Curly, the cowboy, or with the moody loner Jud Fry, the hired farmhand? That choice, and indeed that rivalry, between the cattle rancher and the farming community -- expressed in the rousing Act II opener, "The Farmer and the Cowman (Should Be Friends)" -- reflects what Nunn calls "the historical inevitability" of the musical and indeed what actually happened once this Indian territory became a new state in the Union. The contest was refined into pure theater at the end of Act I, when a ballet sequence -- staged in the 1943 premiere by the legendary Agnes de Mille -- takes us into the interior emotional world of courtship, seduction, and obsession in the love triangle.
Above all, though, "Oklahoma!" is about a new dawn for a new love, a new school, a new frontier, and a new state. This bursting sense of change is what characterizes the Nunn revival, and not even the slight pall cast on the proceedings by the ugly scenes following the wedding of Curly and Laurey can spoil the overall mood. A new society must discover how best to exercise the laws of justice, and the homely, conciliatory wisdom of Maureen Lipman's Aunt Eller will remain a crucial ingredient.
On Broadway three years ago, the entrance to the Gershwin Theatre was garlanded with a great banner quoting the title song: "We know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand." When the camera pans along the line of actors at Curly and Laurey's wedding feast and the female voices rise in melodic descant, we are witnessing the birth of a nation, no less.
This is the power and the glory of this revival of "Oklahoma!," and it remains as potent a statement in a world that has changed in so many ways as when the show gave so much joy to so many people on both sides of the Atlantic during and after the Second World War.
Americans still have plenty to be proud of, and "Oklahoma!" reminds them why.
Top banner photos: Josefina Gabrielle (Laurey) and Hugh Jackman (Curly); Maureen Lipman (Aunt Eller) and Hugh Jackman; Shuler Hensley (Jud Fry) and Peter Polycarpou (Ali Hakim)/photo by Simon Farrell. |
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The character of Ado Annie Carnes, played here by Vicki Simon, is introduced with the memorable song "I Cain't Say No." |
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In the role of Andrew Carnes, father of the amorous Ado Annie, is Sidney Livingstone. |
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This program is available on VHS and DVD, and the cast album is available on CD. |
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