By Emilie Laudie
“People may say I’m in love” with Syracuse City’s production of Oklahoma and they’d be right! This classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical won a Pulitzer Prize after its debut in 1943 and is still stealing the hearts of audience members 74 years later. Combine the perfection of the piece with the talent and the dedication of Syracuse City’s actors and production staff and you get a bright, beautiful experience that will make you think hard about the human condition as well as make your heart flutter to bursting. It really is well done and while there are some more mature elements in the script, director, Dixie Hartvigsen has creatively adapted the show’s darker moments to be quite family friendly.
We find ourselves in a small dusty town in the then territory of Oklahoma, circa 1906. Curly McLain (Jake Swensen), a young cowpoke, has set his cap for the lovely and confident Laurey Williams (Cassie White), his childhood friend, now all grown up. Though Laurey also has feelings for Curly, the pair struggles to make a romantic connection in the beginning of the story due to their longtime familiarity and rivalry. Laurey lives with her single, middle-aged aunt, known affectionately by everyone in the town as Aunt Eller (Monica Zimmerman.) In Aunt Eller’s employ is a farm hand named Jud Fry (Jon-Paul Klepacz.) Jud resides in the smokehouse on the farm and lives a very inward, brooding existence there, all the while fantasizing about having Laurey for himself. Laurey senses that Jud’s view of her is unchaste and possessive and so she does all that she can to avoid him. Curly comes to ask Laurey to the upcoming social but finds it difficult to come right out and say it because of the terse way they are accustomed to speaking with each other. As soon as Laurey is alone for a moment inside the house, Jud grabs his chance to ask Laurey to the social himself and she agrees to go with him out of fear. Curly decides that he won’t lose Laurey to Jud and sets off to win her and reveal to the town the type of man that Jud Fry really is.
The venue for the play is the auditorium of the brand new Syracuse High School. The
seats are comfortable and there is good visibility wherever you sit. It is well air-conditioned and the technological components for sound and lighting are up to date. Also, the concessions are very affordable and the ticketing and ushering staff are very helpful to patrons.
All of the leads and principal roles in this production are well cast and well played. Averie Hull who plays Ado Annie, the silly, immature and overly lusty friend of Laurey’s, is charming and believable as she goes about seducing whichever man happens to be the closest at hand. She does a great job with her character-defining song, “I Can’t Say No” and her lanky loose body language throughout it is so amusing. Phil Tuckett who plays Will Parker, Ado Annie’s often chagrined lover and hopeful future husband, is great at being sweet and dumb and hopelessly in love with a girl who can only bring him misery. I enjoyed Tuckett’s acting choices regarding Will’s innocence and awe of Annie. He is very likable in spite of his ill-reputable behavior at times.
Swensen and White have very good stage chemistry and convey a very realistic and warm romance throughout the show. White plays Laurey as both strong and naive, sassy and soft, and Swensen plays Curly as simultaneously macho and vulnerable, making the two a very bold but soft-hearted couple whose love story we love to see blossom. When they sing their duet, “People May Say We’re in Love,” my heart just melted. They both have excellent voices and contrasting yet very complimentary vocal timbres. More importantly, though, they both know how to act a song and don’t get so caught up in sounding pristine that they lose their humanity in the process.
Zimmerman does an amusing and endearing job with her portrayal of Aunt Eller. The one other performance of Oklahoma! I have seen made Eller a bit too masculine and, though the woman was a talented actress, I couldn’t relate well to her or find any grace within her portrayal. Zimmerman, however, plays Eller as quite motherly and dear, which makes for a fun and surprising contrast in the moments in the script where Eller has to be quite coarse and blunt with people who need to behave themselves. I enjoyed her performance very much.
As far as Klepacz’s portrayal of Jud Fry goes, at first, I wasn’t sure if I believed that he was brooding or obsessive enough to be worth all the worry that Laurey was feeling or all of the protectiveness that Curly was driven to, but shortly after Curly’s somewhat uncharacteristic song for a good guy, “Poor Jud is Dead,” Klepacz seemed to get more consistent and believable with his character. It does ring true with the very real fact that bullying and using intimidation tactics never helps anyone to become a nicer person. This is a very human, not so inspiring, moment from Curly and it can be a bit disheartening. As a parental heads up, this would be a great time for parents with kids in tow to help them understand that this was a poor choice from Curly and the fact that Curly is the good guy in this story does not make his choice to suggest that Jud take his own life is the right thing to do.
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Jeremy Howe does a great job in his portrayal of Ado Annie’s father and justice of the peace, Andrew Carnes. He sings well and is well cast as your typical shotgun happy, suitor intimidating father figure. He is very funny and charismatic. Raegan Bradshaw is also perfect as the oh-so-annoying Gertie Cummings. And last but not least is Cameron Ropp as the Persian Peddler, Ali Hakim. Ropp is a young actor with amazing maturity and refined talent. I was impressed with his Persian accent and even more impressed with a very smart acting choice he made toward the end of the show (which I will not spoil for you) that will kind of blow your mind. You’ll just have to go see it to find out what it is.
I thought the large family ensemble did a nice job of supporting the main characters and really taking their roles as citizens of a small territory town to heart. The dancing was good considering that the actors in this city production are not professionals and was handled well and appropriately by Choreographer, Jamie Godfrey. The decision to make Laurie’s dream sequence so very different from the way it is usually done was difficult for me to understand and was a little bit “other” for me. Laurie’s dream is usually very dark and scary with a lascivious theme so I can see why the directors wanted to tame it down somewhat in order to make a more family friendly show, but I’m not sure it was my favorite of their artistic choices. There may be plenty of people who enjoy this segment though, especially because there are lots of really cute kids involved and everybody loves cute kids.
The Syracuse Symphony’s live music was great and a nice surprise. So often community theater productions have recorded music, so this upped the enjoyment and impressive factor a great deal.
Overall, I really enjoyed this production. My husband Jim and I both loved the music, and the sincerity of it and, honestly, the fact that it lacks some of that perfect polish that we see in more professional theaters made it feel just, well, real. After all, it is a story of simple struggling people who live everyday lives and the fact that there might be a young child or two in the cast, kind of doing his or her own random little thing is actually more like real life than less. Go see Syracuse City’s Oklahoma! I am certain you won’t be disappointed.
Syracuse City Syracuse Arts Council presents Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
Syracuse High School 665 S 2000 W Syracuse, UT 84075
August 3-5, 7 7:30 PM Matinee August 5th 2:00 PM
Tickets: Adults $9 Children and Seniors $7
Contact: 801-896-8101
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Well written, you voiced exactly what I was thinking. Even down to the last little bit. The little boy with the red bandana was one of my favorites to watch.