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The celebrated modernity of Oklahoma! rests on the coordination of character and plot to music and the integration of the dance numbers. In this production, as rarely happens these days, the leads Curly and Laurey (Lindsey Bliven) display their musical excellence and pert repartee but also take on the four-part Dream Sequence that ends the first act. Choreographer Agnes de Mille’s landmark innovation almost stands as drama by itself and indeed is more affecting when we see the same faces in both.
Despite the significance of the show in the development of the dance musical, there are not as many dance numbers as in later examples of the genre, like West Side Story or 42nd Street. The first important one comes with the male chorus in the novelty number, “Kansas City,” where everything’s up to date. As familiar as this may have become in 73 years, it’s still startling to see husky-looking men sashaying in modern dance routines while wearing cowboy boots.
Musically, Oklahoma! is not as folksy as audiences sometimes assume, despite the second-act opener “The Farmer and the Cowman,” and the conspicuous non-standard grammar and rounded-off -ings. Indeed, some musical numbers put operatic demands on voices, such as Curly and Laurey’s prime duet, “People Will Say We’re in Love.” Both Bliven and Lukas are superlative, expressive singers with the discipline to take on Puccini as easily as Richard Rodgers. Bliven’s soprano sparkles in the operetta-like lyricism of “Many A New Day,” a number that could have been written a generation earlier.
Keeping with the show’s original liberal interpretation, Denis Lambert as outcast Jud Fry evokes more sympathy than dread. Meanwhile, two comic subplots flow near the surface, the first involving Ado Annie (Leslie Goddard), the most celebrated soubrette in American musical theater, and her forgiving boyfriend Will Parker (Danny Lindgren).
Goddard is shorter and hotter-tempered than other Annies, more a firecracker than a sexpot, despite her ability to encircle a male body with her legs in one flying leap. Her “I Cain’t Say No” has to stop the show, and it does. As Will, Lindgren brings the presence of vocal qualities of a leading man rather than a supporting player, and gets the maximum out of his lines.
The only cast member wearing a business suit and at ease in the cash economy is articulate peddler Ali Hakim (Matt Ban). He’s supposed to be Persian, but Ban plays him with hints of Sacha Baron Cohen. Program notes inform that Ban sang the role of Curly in a high school production, so he knows all the show’s secrets. His solo, “It’s a Scandal, It’s an Outrage,” often deleted in other productions, is a standout.
This is a tight, bright Oklahoma! without a slack moment that sheds its age by returning to the original model.
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