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REVIEW Review: 'Oklahoma' puts a bright golden shine on the stage Comment By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 5, 2015 at 3:29 PM Updated Dec 5, 2015 at 3:30 PM By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 5, 2015 at 3:29 PM Updated Dec 5, 2015 at 3:30 PM » Social News Nathan Monks, as the cowboy Curly, kicks Camelot Theatre’s new “Oklahoma!” into gear entering from the rear of the auditorium and bursting into a full-throated “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.” The song is an invocation of the bucolic in the landmark 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein creation that became the model for the modern Broadway musical, and it’s still scintillating. “There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow,” Monks sings in a rich baritone. “The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye ... ” There’s no corn of the vegetable persuasion in sight, but there’s plenty of the other kind of corn. The characters are rustics on the frontier of Indian Territory (soon to be Oklahoma) circa 1905 as imagined by a pair of New York sophisticates in the 1940s (check out the wink-wink lyrics of “Kansas City”). And Camelot’s take on the folksy classic, directed by Rebecca K. Campbell, doesn’t shy away from the cornpone. Everybody in the cast talks like he or she’s from Kornfield Kounty on TV’s “Hee Haw.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It just takes some getting used to when a character such as Curly, for example, talks like Slim Pickens but sings like Gordon MacRae. Setting “Oklahoma” apart from musicals up to the ‘40s was the fact that Oscar Hammerstein II’s lyrics for Richard Rodgers’ songs are integrated into the story and move the plot forward rather than causing a break in the action. With its non-comical villain and its clash between cowboys and farmers, the musical is also credited with opening the form up to less frothy stories that acknowledge a darker side of life. Most of the darkness comes in the form of the loner farm hand Jud (Aaron Garber), Curly’s would-be rival for the hand of lovely farm girl Laurie (Grace Peets). Garber’s Jud is pure id, a menacing hulk whose evil is all the darker for its contrast with the play’s overall sunny vibe. The rivalry between cowboys (like Curly) and farmers (like Laurie) lends a Capulet-Montague angle to the tale. The good and the bad — love and malevolence, Curly and Jud — are powerfully distilled in the “Dream Ballet” at the end of the first act. Laurie has bought “magic” smelling salts from the sly, itinerant peddler and lecher Ali Hakim (Erny Rosales). After dreaming about love in “Out of My Dreams,” she tries the “smelling salts,” actually laudanum, and falls into an opium pipe dream that’s dramatized in an extended fantasy ballet in which she’s joined by fantasy Curly, fantasy Jud and the ensemble. With the choreography of Campbell, assisted by dance captain Sarah Gore, and Tobin Roggenbuck’s fantastical lighting, the sequence takes a nightmarish turn. After all the sunshine, Jud’s readiness to rape Laurie and kill Curly is like a punch in the guts. It’s clear long before Curly and Laurie’s big duet, “People Will Say We’re in Love,” that Peets’ Laurie is a match for Curly in both stage presence and song. A secondary plot, the romance of naïve cowboy Will (Rigo Jimenez) and flirtatious Ado Annie (Gore), furnishes plenty of comedy, especially in the second act, when Will tries to take advantage of the promise of Andrew Carnes (Daniel Stephens) that Will can have her hand the day he’s worth $50. More than previous musicals, “Oklahoma” achieves a feeling of wholeness in part through the use of recurring motifs — the strains of “People Will Say We’re in Love,” the braying laugh of Gertie Cummings (Haley Forsyth), the frisson of danger with Jud lurking about. This “Oklahoma” is a big, bright production with a spirited take on the score by live musicians led by Karl Iverson. Anchored by Monks and Peets, the singing is strong throughout. The choreography is energetic and occasionally, as in the dream sequence, brilliant, although the dancing is somewhat uneven. Seeing a production of “Oklahoma” is something that belongs on the bucket list of anyone who is a fan of the Broadway musical (and who isn’t?), and this one joyfully captures that landmark unity of story, song and dance. Reach freelance writer Bill Varble at varble.bill @gmail.com. By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 5, 2015 at 3:29 PM Updated Dec 5, 2015 at 3:30 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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