Oklahoma! DVD

When Mary Rodgers, daughter of the composer Richard Rodgers, was reported as saying she never wanted to see another Oklahoma!, it was her way of paying the highest tribute to Trevor Nunn's production at the Royal National Theatre which was subsequently taken into the studio and filmed. The camera follows the playgoers into the auditorium of the Olivier where in their company we watch the show and applaud the numbers as the real thing. Nunn treats Rodgers and Hammerstein's first collaboration with the utmost seriousness restoring the full text, running to three-and-a-half... hours, so that it comes across as a drama indebted to Eugene O'Neill. The documentary, viewed preferably as a preview, with Tim Piggott Smith the penny-plain narrator, allows one to relish in the smallest detail Nunn's scrupulous touch, which according to Maureen Lipman (Aunt Eller) included addressing the cast for two days at rehearsal, an approach that by her account paid off handsomely for the company. Although Oklahoma! unfolds at a leisurely pace, it is extraordinary how one is drawn into the drama under Nunn's direction. There's seldom a wish for true locations as the pace picks up and we move into the claustrophobic company of Judd Fry in his riveting encounter with the cowboy Curly. The close up camera work affords an experience the theatre can't bring and pays handsome dividends too in appreciating Susan Stroman's intricate and lively choreography that was dissipated somewhat on the big apron stage of the Olivier. Her dancers are a fine team, notably Jimmy Johnston who is outstanding as Will Parker leading the Kansas City ensemble. Hugh Jackman as Curly matches him in vocal prowess and looks, and Shuler Hensley sings the tricky role of Judd Fry very well. It's harder to place Peter Polycarpou's Pedlar, a considerably larger role than in the film version, whose accent strays from East End wideboy to the plains of Europe. Maureen Lipman, rightly deemed the lynchpin of the musical by Nunn, is a joy to watch. Laurey and Ado Annie are good but not special. Aside from an abrupt start to Act Two and the occasional voice off microphone, the production sounds good with a larger orchestra present than in the theatre. An Oklahoma! on an epic scale. --Adrian Edwards [show more]

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