Oklahoma! made history on its 1943 Broadway debut, and has been playing regularly across the country ever since. It ran for 2,212 performances, marked the first partnership of Rodgers and Hammerstein, won a special Pulitzer Prize and many other awards, was one of the first "book musicals" which meaningfully incorporated song lyrics and dance numbers into the plot line and character development -- a practice that has been followed ever since. -- It has been performed in Montgomery a few times in the past ten years; and its newest iteration is director Michael Winkelman's vibrant Pike Road Theatre Company airing currently mid-run at Faulkner University.
And, despite a nostalgic, homespun, "aw, shucks!" feel, along with an old-fashioned presentational style, its popularity has not waned. Even the most jaded theatregoer responds to its wondrous musical score's litany of hit songs: the signature "Oklahoma!", of course, "Kansas City", "Surrey with the Fringe on the Top", "I Can't Say No", "Pore Jud is Daid", and "People Will Say We're in Love" among others...solos, duets, and ensemble pieces delivered by PRTC cast members with assurance so audiences are always engaged with music, characters, and plot.
Oklahoma's "Indian Territory" is on the brink of achieving Statehood in 1906; times are changing, and people there are eager to catch up with the present. The challenges they face on their inevitable social change are highlighted through personal relationships and dealing with those they consider "other": farmers vs. cowmen, youth vs. age, an immigrant peddler, a disgruntled hired-farmhand, and predictably two love-triangles whose participants try hard to figure out their relationships. -- Sound familiar?
The central love story between Curly [Andrew Clem] and Laurey [Rachel Pickering] is complicated by their resistance to admitting they love each other and by the obsessive stalking of Jud [Jason Morgan]. The young couple instantly capture our hearts, and it doesn't hurt that both of them are gifted with excellent voices and some nice on-stage chemistry. And Mr. Morgan's dark scowling becomes more and more sinister as the action proceeds
A comical counterpoint threesome is among flirtatiously impetuous Ado Annie [Ash Shanks] and her ardently naive boyfriend Will Parker [David Rowland], abetted by the Persian peddler Ali Hakim [Eric Arvidson]. The whole tenor of the production changes when these three strut across the stage with energy to spare and laughs galore. It's impossible to take your eyes off this couple.
With Ado Annie's shotgun-toting father Andrew Carnes [Sam Wallace] ever present to ensure everything is on the up-and-up, and with Laurey's Aunt Eller [Stephanie Coppock] as the most reasonable person in the story to wield her authority, you know that all will turn out for the best.
They are given ample support by the ensemble players whose infections energy pumps up every production number's dances choreographed by Karen Johnson..
There remains an imbalance between the recorded score and the singers over-amplified voices resulting in noise rather than clear lyrics, though both Ms. Pickering and Mr. Rowland manage to manipulate their voices to better effect.
The vibrancy of the PRTC's production of Oklahoma! makes it a guaranteed success.
