Oklahoma! (Leeds Grand, 20/04/10)

Monday night was Alphabeat, Tuesday night was Oklahoma! at Leeds Grand, for a slight change of pace, with no lack of camp... The last musical I saw at the theatre was Blood Brothers in London, starring Melanie C, in November last year, so it's about time I saw another one! We saw that Oklahoma! was playing so we thought we'd give it a shot, knowing nothing about it other than the title song, and Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'. It turned out to be a good choice. 

I'd heard of Marti Webb, who played Aunt Eller, but I was excited on buying the programme to discover that Mark Evans was playing Curly, the male lead! He came second to Jade Ewan on last year's Your Country Needs You, so he almost represented the UK at Eurovision and narrowly missed out on the ignominy of being a Sugababe... He was also very attractive and had a great voice, which he showed off to the full in Oklahoma! (along with his strangely scrawny-but-muscular body during a fight scene that had the Grand audience all a fluster). Marti Webb was good in the matronly role of Aunt Eller, although she didn't get enough chances to sing. 

The plot was a bit of a typical boy-chases-girl fairytale, set in 1907 in Indian Territory that is soon to become the State of Oklahoma! The reason for the setting was not readily apparent, as there was little mention of politics, so I suppose it was picked to allow Rodgers and Hammerstein to write a cowboy musical. I enjoyed the humour and the songs were all performed with gusto, although some were more memorable than others - the numbers involving most of the cast were the best and most energetic, much of the dancing was spell-binding and I watched agog as people were picked up and thrown around. 

Act I

• Overture - Orchestra
• Oh What a Beautiful Mornin' - Curly
• The Surrey With the Fringe On Top - Curly, Laurey, & Aunt Eller
• Kansas City - Will, Aunt Eller, Male Ensemble
• I Cain't Say No - Ado Annie
• Many a New Day - Laurey and Girl ensemble
• It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage! - Ali Hakim and Ensemble
• People Will Say We're in Love - Curly and Laurey
• Pore Jud is Daid - Curly and Jud Fry
• Lonely Room - Jud
• Out of My Dreams/Dream Ballet - Laurey and Dream Figures

Act II

• Entr'acte - Orchestra
• The Farmer and the Cowman - Andrew Carnes, Aunt Eller, Curly, Gertie Cummins, Will Parker, Ado Annie Carnes, Laurey, Ike Skidmore, Cord Elam and Ensemble
• All Er Nuthin' - Will and Ado Annie
• People Will Say We're in Love (Reprise) - Curly and Laurey
• Oklahoma! - Curly, Laurey, Aunt Eller and Ensemble
• Finale Ultimo (Oh What a Beautiful Mornin' and People Will Say We're in Love) - Company

I was a little concerned by the morals of the story, however, and found the leads, Curly and Laurey to be fairly bland characters. There is a 'baddie' character of sorts, Jud, who is the lonely farm-hand who dotes after Laurey, and is treated badly by everyone else. He's eventually killed and no one really cares, which is a shame as I think the character was just misunderstood and cast aside for being slow. That said, it was a rousing musical and I'd like to see the Hollywood version now, and more from Mark Evans too!