There’s nothing like revisiting an old classic especially one from Rodgers and Hammerstein. This is the duo that is responsible for those familiar toe-tapping tunes that somehow you know… but don’t quite know how you know, from groundbreaking musicals such as Carmen Jones, South Pacific, The King And I, and of course Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is set in US farm country and tells the tale of Laurey and the two ‘Boasy’ cowboys Curly and Jud competing for her affections and also of her friend Ado Annie navigating between the daft as a brush Will and the Peddler Ali Hakim.
The Young Vic is what I call a bare-bones theatre. Without using lavish sets and minimal props, it’s necessary to use your imagination to transport yourself fully into the play. It’s in a set-up like this that true talent comes to the fore. The voices are astounding- in particular Marisha Wallace (who plays Ado Annie). For me, her comedic performance with the hilarious James Davis (who plays Will Parker) completely stole the show and detracted from the main story which got a little unexpectedly intense.
There was some interesting live close-camera work and a random, but beautiful solo dance (performed by Marie-Astrid Mence ) that made this a modern version of Oklahoma! but all in all, I was pleased to see it was fairly true to its original form – you don’t really want to mess with a classic.
