Oklahoma! - The Road to Success

[jo]

So he did get recognized

[jo]

Lovely article about the fascinating Maureen Lipman. There is a part where she talks about Hugh's influence on her ( one must think it would really be the other way around ) --

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/10964593/Maureen-Lipman-Ive-been-rejected-by-TV.-I-dont-know-why.html

“I always say 'yes’ to everything because Jack always said everything leads to something else,” she says simply. “I also don’t want to let anyone down because, at some level, I suppose I believe what I do is quite bread-and-circuses frivolous,” she says.

She cites her fellow actor and friend Hugh Jackman, with whom she appeared in Oklahoma! at the National Theatre, as another influence. “Hugh has changed the face of Broadway because he says 'yes’ to everything,” she says. “When he’s asked to come and cut the ribbon at a shark aquarium or raise money for bewildered sheep in the Negev desert, he does it. So do I: a photograph of me on the loo with Beyoncé? No problem. You want to auction off my old spoons? Of course! Have my forks, too!”...

I would love to see them again together in a play or even something for TV ( maybe via BBC)!


Jo

[jo]

Hugh Jackman could have been Emile de Becque

I was watching the Making of Oklahoma! documentary ( part of the DVD / BluRay set) -- and it seemed that Trevor Nunn did ask the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization for the rights to both Oklahoma! and South Pacific.

So instead of Oklahoma!, it could have been South Pacific!

Presumably, Trevor would not have been too hard to convince that Hugh could do justice to the role of Emile de Becque, albeit he was only 29 when he came to audition for the RNT revival of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. His work as Joe Gillis ( as directed by Trevor in the Australian production) was already impressive.

So instead of Curly, it could have been Emile de Becque!




But...on second thought, I much preferred the Curly role and the RNT-reimagined staging of Oklahoma! as his introduction to international audiences. Also, as it was such a strong debut, maybe it was what totally charmed Lauren Shuler Donner when she saw it...and thought of that performance when they were looking for the Wolverine casting

And it seemed that RNT and Trevor had already decided on the staging of Oklahoma!, when Hugh came-a-calling on his friend Sir Trevor when he went to London...and that led to an audition with the whole board of the RNT.

Postscript: Trevor Nunn did stage a revival of SOUTH PACIFIC with the Royal National Theatre in 2001. Philip Quast was cast as Emile de Becque (who actually won an Olivier for his performance). But the production seemed not to have created as much interest as the revival of Oklahoma! did. The reviews did not have the fulsome praise given to the staging of Oklahoma! and another revival of Carousel ( directed by Nick Hytner)

www.londontheatre.co.uk/londontheatre/reviews/southpacific01.htm

There was no Broadway transfer and no filming of the show for public release. There was a non-profit archival filming but only for research purposes ( similar to the Lincoln Center Archives)... but a CD was released.

Where was Hugh in 2001? Busy building a career in Hollywood


Jo

[carouselkathy]

Didn't know about the Trevor Nunn SOUTH PACIFIC! The Lincoln Center version is my favorite, and thrilled to see that a LINCOLN CENTER.revival of THE KING AND I with Kelli Ohara, directed by Bartlett Sher, will be in previews during my spring break.

[jo]

The BluRay release in 2012 was reviewed by one critic for Rotten Tomatoes. But he does have a good insight on "what makes this Oklahoma! work even better than the movie and other productions" ( in his own words)!

moviemet.com/review/oklahoma-1999-blu-ray-review#.U80cuNGKDOU

OKLAHOMA! (1999) - Blu-ray review


Under Nunn (“Cats,” “Les Misérables”), the story takes a much darker turn and, surprisingly, makes more sense in the process.

James Plath


Thursday, November 22, 2012 - 2:20pm

If you can’t wait to hear Hugh Jackman sing the role of Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables” when it opens in theaters on December 25, you might consider picking up a copy of the 1999 London stage revival of “Oklahoma!” that’s coming to Blu-ray on December 4.

A year before he was drafted to play Logan/Wolverine in “X-Men,” Jackman sang and sashayed his way to critical acclaim as Curly in this timeless Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, and director Trevor Nunn had the foresight to film the production. It was broadcast on PBS and sold on DVD the fall of 2003. This will be the first time it’s available in high definition.

I’ll confess that I didn’t know anything about the London revival, and like so many I had only heard Jackman sing when he hosted the 2009 Oscars. So I popped this version into my Blu-ray player thinking it a curiosity. After all, how likely was it to equal the original Broadway production (1943-48), or the beloved 1955 film adaptation starring Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae?

Funnily enough, it turns out that this London production with an international cast is BETTER than previous versions, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Rodgers’ daughter is filmed on camera for one of the bonus features saying she also thinks it’s the best production to date. What makes it a terrific film version is that they didn’t just put three or four stationary cameras in the audience in order to capture a live performance. They filmed a performance under controlled conditions to get the right lighting, the right sound, and a cinematic style. There’s no applause, and although an audience from one of the performances is shown at the end giving a standing ovation, they weren’t in the seats for this particular show, which was treated as a closed set.

At first it felt a little strange having a high-energy number end and hearing not even the sound of one hand clapping. But then you begin to appreciate that there’s also no applause to affect the actors’ timing. Despite the show’s minimalist backdrop and props, to create a more cinematic feel the camera pulls in for tight two-shots and three-shots most of the time and deliberately eliminates the big-stage look, pulling back only to show us the stage revolves to produce a new set, or a big number that fills out the entire stage to remind us that we’re watching a staged performance. Otherwise, Paul Wheeler’s filming is so tight and the camera movements so cinematic that it really does start to feel like a film. Video coordinator Tibor Kuo really functions like a second director, and it shows in the final product.

What’s more, the music and choreography have been completely modified, and I would have to say successfully. This version of “Oklahoma!” seems more fluid and high-energy as a result. But the biggest change is the tone and basic storytelling. All of the characters seem better developed.

While I liked the music in “Oklahoma!” and loved Shirley Jones in the film version, I have to admit that the musical always struck me as an odd bird: or rather, a cheery birdbath interrupted briefly at the climax by a vulture that flew in and set fire to the place because he wasn’t one of the lovebirds. It was a story about Curly, a cowboy, who sang songs and tried to court the virginal Laurey, while loose-girl Ado Annie found herself going for whatever guy she was with—and in the play, that was a traveling salesman named Ali Hakim and a cowboy named Will Parker. Laurey’s Aunt Eller was the sage and comic relief, and Jud was Aunt Eller and Laurey’s hired hand who seemed brooding and obviously had a thing for Laurey. But the character of Ali Hakim always seemed out of place, and the brooding Jud and the song Curly sings with him, “Poor Jud Is Daid,” seemed artificially inserted to create some sort of obstacle to the happy couple and their “Surrey with the Fringe On Top.”

Under Nunn (“Cats,” “Les Misérables”), the story takes a much darker turn and, surprisingly, makes more sense in the process. He explores the darker sides of both the Ali Hakim character and Jud, with the latter no longer just a brooding guy who wishes he could get the girl. In this version of “Oklahoma!” Jud is a stalker, a menace, a guy with a history like John Steinbeck’s Lenny in “Of Mice and Men” so that he seems a danger in every scene. He’s psychotic, and in the “Poor Jud Is Dead” scene there are some chilling moments between Jud and Curly. It’s even chillier when he’s alone with Laurey, and in a scene where people bid on “box lunches” and picnic baskets and get to escort the maker of the box/basket to the town social, a bidding war between Curly and Jud carries a similar sense of underlying tension.

My 10-year-old daughter loves musicals, but this one frightened her. Though there’s no rating, I’d have to say that it would probably merit a PG because of the dark menace that Jud projects. Happily, there’s enough music and comedy to balance those moments, and while on the one hand “Oklahoma!” doesn’t stray so far that it’s unrecognizable, the changes are significant and profound. With them, the story makes more sense, and you also get a sense of the uneasy coexistence that farmers and cowboys experienced in Oklahoma when it was still a territory.

“Oklahoma!” was the first musical collectively written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, and it was the first musical to give so much prominence to narration and story development. It also surprised theater-goers with a 15-minute “dream” ballet that was cut back for the Oscar-winning film adaptation but reinstated and re-choreographed here with Jackman and Gabrielle doing their own dancing—unlike previous productions that used doubles.

Jackman is superb as Curly, and Shuler Hensley is positively spine-tingling as Jud. This production also offers an Ali Hakim who wasn’t just an assumed name taken by a white snake-oil peddler to sell exotic wares. In this case it’s a real “foreigner” (Peter Polycarpou) who’s played as less the fool and more the cunning seducer of women. As Ado Annie, Vicki Simon sometimes drifts between a hayseed accent/dialect and a pure stage voice, but she seems right for the part. That’s not the case with Josefina Gabrielle, who seems too sophisticated to be the rosy-cheeked, fresh-faced Laurey. Her facial features are a little harsh and angular, and she wears a little too much make-up (with plucked and penciled eyebrows) for a barefooted farm girl. Despite this one misstep in casting—for she acts and sings her heart out, like everyone else—this version of “Oklahoma!” is a stunner.

Jackman as Curly gets to sing the opening “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’,” as well as “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” with Laurey and Aunt Eller, a duet with Laurey (“People Will Say We’re in Love”) and Jud (“Poor Jud is Daid”), and he whoops it up in the ensemble numbers (“The Farmer and the Cowman,” “Oklahoma!”). But he’s not the glue that holds this production together. Even when he’s not involved, a song like the men singing “Kansas City” is a show-stopper, while “Many a New Day” sung by the women is toe-tappingly memorable. So is Ado Annie’s “I Cain’t Say No” and Jud’s ballad of the “Lonely Room.” The cast really brings this production to life, and Nunn’s decisions to go darker and to film it cinematic style pay big dividends.

Video:
There was only one hitch in playback at the start of the dream ballet sequence. And several of the two-shots posed a problem for the cameras to focus. But the AVC/MPEG-4 transfer shows no ghosting, no excessive DNR, no banding issues, and only slight crush in several scenes. It’s a solid video presentation, with the 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio just the ticket for a stage production like this. Colors are true-looking, and normally difficult-to-film stage lighting has been supplemented by key lighting that makes the scenes look great. The “Poor Jud Is Daid” song and that entire sequence in Curly’s bunkhouse is filmed in very low light for dramatic effect, but no detail is lost and there’s no grain or noise to mar the image.

Audio:
The audio is an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 that feels more robust than the average 2.0, but it’s still not nearly as dynamic as the 5.1 or 7.1 tracks you’re used to. But remember, there are no boom mics, and the sound is dependent upon the mics that the cast members are wearing. As with the video there are a few hitches, but they’re brief and nothing to detract from the experience.

Extras:
There’s not much here—a brief “Making of ‘Oklahoma!” the only feature to speak of, and it feels like a promo.

Bottom line:
This version of “Oklahoma!” won Outstanding Musical Production, Best Set Designer, Best Choreographer, and Best Supporting Performance (Hensley) at the 1999 Laurence Olivier Awards—Britain’s version of the Tony Awards. Though he wasn’t recognized, Jackman beats MacRae and all other Curlys hands down. He headlines a talented cast in a production that finally makes all of the elements of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical come together logically.


Ratings


Video

8


Audio

7


Extras

2


Film Value

8

A pity that this filmed stage musical did not get all that much promotion when it was released in 2003 and 2012, except for the PBS publicity.

Jo

[jo]

And I just found this LA Times article on Oklahoma!, with some insights on Hugh from the perspective of the creative team and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. Amazing account of how Hugh conquered everyone with his talent and charisma !

articles.latimes.com/2003/nov/16/news/tv-coverstory16

Cover Story

Jackman Is Better Than OK in 'Oklahoma!'


Australian actor relished his role as the iconic cowboy in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Broadway classic.

November 16, 2003|John Crook | Special to The Times



Hugh Jackman must be feeling a little time-warped these days as he sits in his dressing room inside Broadway's Imperial Theatre.

Each night, the 35-year-old actor revives the glorious, glittering excess that was flamboyant entertainer Peter Allen in the new musical "The Boy From Oz," which has earned Jackman ecstatic reviews.


Recently, however, he took a short break from his whirlwind schedule to reflect on one of the roles that helped launch his international career: Curly in Trevor Nunn's acclaimed Royal National Theatre production of "Oklahoma!" Jackman's star quality lights up a "Great Performances" PBS telecast of that production (filmed in 1999) Sunday on KVCR and then Saturday on KCET.

Jackman recalls that he jumped at the chance when Nunn offered him the job.

"I was blindly enthusiastic. I was excited without even having to think about it," he says. "I had worked with Trevor Nunn on 'Sunset Boulevard' and was excited to have the opportunity to work with him again. No director makes you feel more confident."

And confidence is key in a role that calls for a natural swagger, as well as vocal nerves strong enough for the show's unconventional opening, in which Curly is heard singing the first measures of "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' " without the orchestra.

"It's a pretty naked beginning," Jackman agrees, "but the first phrase of the song is sung in the wings, and by the time I was on stage, the butterflies in my stomach were gone."

Theodore S. Chapin, the president and executive director of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, says Nunn had Jackman in mind as his "Oklahoma!" leading man from the very start.

"Shortly after I met Trevor, he said, 'I have the Curly. You are just going to have to trust me,' " Chapin recalls. "He sent me a little piece from an Australian TV show on Hugh Jackman, and I put it on in the office, and very soon all the women in the office were coming in going, 'Ooooh, who is he?'

"When we went over to see what I think was the first dress rehearsal, I could tell Hugh was really exceptional, although I am still convinced English audiences did not 'get' Hugh's Curly the way American audiences will. In a funny way, he is so straight as Curly that you know he is completely undone by this pretty girl and has no idea how to handle her. It just makes the character so incredibly real."

That credibility also carried over into the realistic fight scenes between Jackman and costar Shuler Hensley, an American actor who earned ecstatic notices with his dangerous yet surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of Jud Fry, Curly's rival for Laurey.

"I was in heaven, with these two big, strapping men who really knew how to move," laughs Susan Stroman, whose lusty, fight-based choreography is another highlight of the piece.

"Hugh and Shuler got to be good friends during rehearsals, so there was a level of trust that allowed them to really throw themselves into that last fight scene, which really looks kind of dangerous," Chapin adds.


What left audiences gasping was just another source of fun for Jackman and Hensley, however.

"I know it might be hard to believe, but Shuler Hensley is one of the funniest men I have ever met," Jackman says. "The fight scene rehearsals were like the WWF, and I enjoyed that more than any other serious theater enterprise that I have been a part of."

The performances of Josefina Gabrielle as headstrong Laurey and character actress Maureen Lipman as crusty Aunt Eller also were well-received by London critics and audiences, but PBS viewers will note that this "Oklahoma!" is undeniably Jackman's show. With his sunny grin as broad as the prairie itself, the star radiates a joy in performing that is all too rare.

"Hugh has strength and vulnerability at the same time," Stroman says. "By the time we finished rehearsing 'Oklahoma!' it was shaped through the eyes of Curly, and audiences saw it through his eyes. I never had felt that with any other production of 'Oklahoma!' and it had everything to do with Hugh Jackman.

"He comes out and he has the audience in the palm of his hand. Hugh has that as a human being too. He lives in the present and is right there with what is happening around him, whereas, sadly, many other actors always seem to have one foot out the door toward the next job when they are rehearsing or even performing. I think audiences feel that."

For all this London success with an American work, Jackman's heart remains Down Under, which is why his current Broadway gig in "The Boy From Oz," an Australian-crafted musical about an Australian entertainer, is providing a very special reward.

"Peter [Allen] had an honesty in his songwriting that just touches you," Jackman says, "and being an Aussie, singing 'I Still Call Australia Home' every night is, of course, very special to me.

"I remember very clearly once watching Peter sing the song, which is now like a second national anthem in Australia. The first time he sang it was at the launch of a 15,000-seat entertainment center. Peter had on this waistcoat with an Australian flag behind him.

"My father was watching with my brother and I," the actor recalls. "We looked up, and Dad was crying. Peter had that way with everyone -- old, young, men, women, gay, straight -- which in Australia was not always that easy."

John Crook writes for Tribune Media Services.

"Great Performances: Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!" airs at 2:30 p.m. Sunday on KVCR, San Bernardino. It will air at 7 p.m. Saturday on KCET, Los Angeles.

Cover photograph by Hugo Glendinning

Can't find the cover photo

I wonder if Trevor already had Hugh in mind even before Hugh came to see him to ask about any opportunities in London musical theatre?

The story about the ladies at Ted Chapin's office "ohh-ing and ahh-ing" about Hugh reminds me of the story narrated by Lea Salonga when she and Maria Friedman sat entranced at this stage newcomer singing OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNIN' during rehearsals for Hey, Mr. Producer

Susan Stroman was point on when she talked about the impact of Hugh on the production! That same charisma charmed another lady, Lauren Shuler Donner, which led to the key milestone in Hugh's career ( "XMEN").

Had XMEN not been there, would Broadway have discovered this leading man much earlier when the show transfered to the Great White Way? It would be likely that the show revival would not have closed that early!


Jo

[jo]

More reminiscences of when the show opened in London!

www.shulerhensley.com/perfect_oklahoma!.htm

LONDON WELCOMES A PERFECT OKLAHOMA!



"Happy Talk"

The newsletter of the
Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization
Vol 6 Issue 1, Fall 1998




Snapshots of London, Summer 1998: Tourists flock to Buckingham Palace and Harrod's, the Millennial Dome begins to rise in nearby Greenwich, and at the austere Royal National Theatre on the South Bank, the corn is as high as a elephant's eye.


A new production of Oklahoma!, directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Susan Stroman, opened at the National's Olivier Theatre on July 15. And on July 16? "The Royal National Theatre awoke to a ‘beautiful mornin'," wrote Matt Wolf in Variety, "as the raves poured in." Robert Gore-Langton in The Express pledged, "If this doesn't give the National a blazing hit, I'll hang up my spurs." From Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph: "It is a real pleasure to report that the National has a huge hit on its hands." And from Susannah Clapp in The Observer: "Vocally soaring, visually glowing, it is the most sure-fire musical success since Chicago."

Scheduled for a straight run through October 3, Oklahoma! took in over £60,000 the day after it opened — topping a Royal National Theatre record set by Carousel five years earlier. Breaking its own record repeatedly over the next 3 days, Oklahoma! then surpassed even the most optimistic expectations: At stake was the National's best-day record of £91,000 for ticket sales from all three of its theatres combined; on the Monday following its opening, Oklahoma! generated £104,000 in ticket sales by itself.

By early August, less than a month into the three-month run, the National announced that all remaining performances were sold out. "This perfect Oklahoma!," reported the Wall Street Journal, "follows the precedents of the company's Carousel and Guys and Dolls in both artistic quality and in playing to guaranteed full houses that will contribute to balancing the National's budget."

For Trevor Nunn — not only this show's director but also the National's newly appointed Artistic Director — the sound of cheering critics combined with a booming box office could not have been sweeter. Though Nunn was head of Britain's renowned Royal Shakespeare Company for 18 years, and is equally at home in opera and film, he has made his mark globally as the director of such mega-musicals as Cats, Starlight Express and Les Misérables. Meanwhile, during the tenure of his predecessor, Richard Eyre, the National had become, to quote the Daily Telegraph, "as noted for Oscar Hammerstein II as for David Hare," with landmark revivals of Carousel, Guys and Dolls, Lady in the Dark and Sweeney Todd to its credit. As new head of the National, beginning in October of 1997, Nunn was determined to continue this policy.

In December of 1996, as he prepared for his inaugural season, Nunn visited the R&H office in New York. "It was a bit of a surprise when Trevor came to see me," R&H President Ted Chapin recalls, "because, frankly, I hadn't thought Oklahoma! was a show that would interest him much. But a few weeks later at lunch with Mary [Rodgers] and Jamie [Hammerstein], Trevor was extraordinary. He told us his key into Oklahoma! was Aunt Eller's line in ‘The Farmer and the Cowman': ‘I don't say I'm no better than anybody else/But I'll be damned if I ain't just as good.' Trevor spoke the line with great weight and said, ‘Revolutions have been launched over statements like that.' Clearly, we would be seeing an interesting production."

One factor that would make his production interesting: Nunn's desire to replace the Agnes de Mille choreography — so intrinsic to this musical — with the work of a contemporary choreographer. R&H consented, and wholeheartedly approved his choice: two-time Tony winner Susan Stroman, subsequently dubbed "the de Mille of the Nineties" by Observer dance critic Jann Parry. When Nunn offered her Oklahoma!, Stroman recalled to the Daily Telegraph, she "nearly stopped breathing. In the States it is revered, sacred ground...[But] we have approached it as if it were a new work."

In the spirit of "a new work," Nunn and Stroman looked for fresh faces to bring their Oklahoma! to life. Heading the cast of mostly newcomers were Hugh Jackman as Curly and Josefina Gabrielle as Laurey (Gabrielle had danced the role of Dream Laurey in a ‘94 U.K. tour, though this time a Stroman innovation had the principals dance their own ballet roles). They were joined by Shuler Hensley as Jud, Vicki Simon as Ado Annie, Peter Polycarpou as Ali Hakim, Jimmy Johnston as Will Parker and the indefatigable Maureen Lipman as Aunt Eller. The company of 34, wrote Mark Shenton for InTheatre, is "one of the most formidably talented casts currently to be found in London."


Critics praised not only the cast, but the entire production. This Oklahoma!, pronounced the International Herald Tribune's Sheridan Morley, "is the best we are ever likely to see in the rest of all our lifetimes." David Benedict in The Independent called it "not so much a re-creation as a full-blown rediscovery." Georgina Brown in the Mail On Sunday called it "a revelation," and Robert Gore-Langton in the Express said, "In Trevor Nunn's production, Oklahoma! looks newly-minted...It's brimming with unexpected joys and exquisite craftsmanship, a fine production that simultaneously celebrates and reinvents the musical's own heritage."

And from the side of the pond where Oklahoma! was born, a few critics who crossed over to London had this to say: "Leave it to the British," wrote USA Today's David Patrick Stearns, "to rediscover what made the show work originally — and then move it forward to speak more directly to our times." Laurie Winer in the Los Angeles Times said: "Once again, the National has approached Rodgers and Hammerstein with the same care and intellectual respect it would show to Ibsen. And once again, Rodgers and Hammerstein prove worthy." Benedict Nightingale of the New York Times observed: "In Mr. Nunn's superlative production, you feel much the same sense of peace and truthfulness that refreshed the Broadway crowd in the war-riven world of 1943," and Clive Barnes in the New York Post, who recalled seeing the original 1947 London stage production as an R.A.F. veteran, "fell madly in love with it all over again."

So did the rights holders. Mary Rodgers told the Evening Standard that this version was "better than the original." She continued: "There is such truth in this production that I don't want to see another," and in Variety she said simply, "Trevor's a bloody genius." Jamie Hammerstein told the Mail on Sunday why he was leaving London before the opening: "I'm so confident in the show that I don't need to stay any longer. It's a terrific, historic production, with a passion I have never witnessed before." To the Daily Mail he said, "I'm full of admiration for Trevor — and for my father."

"When director Nicholas Hytner picked up the Olivier Award for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel [also at the National]," David Benedict observed, "he remarked that all he had done was direct the subtext, and Nunn does the same." Asked by the Daily Telegraph to explain what drew him to Oklahoma!, Nunn said, "It's pure and simple and ‘folk,' but very profound. These people find themselves settling in God's acre, in a kind of paradise. They must decide who is going to live there and on what terms. It's a kind of turbulent question. There's a war going on, a war about fences between the cowmen and the farmers. It's a nervy time."

As he concluded the interview, Trevor Nunn - director of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Hugo, Stoppard and Mozart - tapped a script of Oklahoma! lying on his desk and said, "It's all there."

LOL - and to think that I did not know all these things happening ( how the show was welcomed)! Too busy then with stresses of work. By the time I bought tickets to the show ( after it transferred to the Lyceum), all I wanted was to see for the first time a live production of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ( I had forgotten that I had seen the first revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center, with Florence Henderson). I was lucky to have gotten tickets ( but too far for my poor vision -- front row of Dress Circle/Front Mezz)...and saw the show during a busy and stressful business trip to London -- it was the time of the Asian financial crisis and I was asked to make a corporate presentation to foreign fund managers for our bank -- but I guess going to the theatre was what I needed to take my mind off from work. And what a lucky break it was this time


Jo

[mamaleh]

Thanks for unearthing these pieces, Jo. Interesting that Hugh references the "WWF" in describing his fight scenes rehearsals with Shuler H. I guess when he appeared on "WWE Raw" and said it was the fulfillment of a longtime dream, it wasn't one of his, uh, occasional exaggerations. He was really into it.

Ellen

[jo]

Hugh is sports-mad. And it seemed it included contact sports like boxing ( Wasn't his Dad a college boxing champ?)...so being interested in wrestling (even with Pro wrestling and its antics on the ring) would not be unusual for him.

Jo

[alma]

Thanks, Jo!

Love all things Oklahoma!... with Hugh. smiley-love067

Alma

[birchie]

Loving the Oklahoma! tidbits, thanks Jo. As you know Oklahoma! and Les Miserables are my favorites so I love revisiting them whenever. I certainly agree with the reviewer, and Mary Rodgers, who thought it was the best version of Oklahoma! ever. For anyone who has read the source material Green Grow The Lilacs, the Trevor Nunn/Hugh version is much more in keeping with the style of the original play. I remember reading somewhere that Trevor Nunn had the cast read the original and also some histories of Oklahoma statehood days as well as stories about the dust bowl. So the cast was very well prepared to go to the darker places.

Most people think it's so different that it must have been changed from the original 1943 R&H offering. But the ironic thing, as Mary herself said, it's exactly the same words & numbers, it's was just how the actors said them & performed them that made the difference. And having the actors doing the dancing also added to the realism, for me. So many people think the '55 movie is the exemplar, but that one actually isn't word for word and the main actors don't dance. Oddly enough I think the only one we see dancing is Rod Steiger in one scene if I recall correctly. LOL! It's been a while since I watched that one. I did love it when I was young but once I saw the version with Hugh I never looked back...and started looking for everything I could find starring that wonderful Hugh Jackman smiley-love067 smiley-happy096
Great memories!
Sue

[alma]

Oklahoma! was MY introduction to a Mr. Hugh Jackman too, Sue!!

And we were hooked. smiley-love029

Alma

[birchie]

I discovered this site about a regional theater production of Oklahoma! and found it quite interesting! I was intrigued at how much it was influenced by the '98 RNT staging in London. You can see by the graphics at the top of the page how closely the staging follows Hugh's production. I remember in the behind the scenes DVD that someone, I think Mary Rodgers, talked about the new staging as something that would become THE way to stage the show but I haven't seen a live production since then so I was happy to see her prediction has come true. Also they did a pretty good video of a dance rehearsal. Interestingly, they seem to have used "alternates" as Dream Curly & Dream Laurey dancers. I guess it's still a rarity that Hugh & Josefina did their own dancing in the RNT production, kudos to Trevor Nunn & Susan Stroman as well for that! In the video the Director/choreographer talks about seeing that production and how much he was influenced by it. He also comments on why the dream ballet seems to work better in Oklahoma! than in other productions.

I think the choreography looks pretty good in this and & I enjoyed the commentary by the director:


Link to the show page: www.pcpa.org/plays/plays/oklahoma.html
Sue

[jo]

Thanks, Sue. It is always nice to see new stagings of the show. It is also amazing to see how much goes into the production of a stage musical! LOL - but I would rather see cowboys in cowboy gear executing those dance steps than in musical theatre rehearsal casual wear, especially for the male cast

The photo gallery shows us the casting -- click on the Photos link.

www.pcpa.org/plays/plays/oklahoma.html

And from the Production notes --

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Director and Choreographer, Michael Jenkinson, is thrilled to be working on Oklahoma! for the third time in his career, having previously played Curly and choreographed on other productions of this quintessential piece of American Musical theatre. Oklahoma! served as one of the anchors for America’s “Golden Era” of musicals, and now inspires Michael and his design team to both pay homage to the historical and aesthetic significance of this piece, while bringing it to a new generation of theatre-goers.

Michael’s goal in bringing this production to the stage is to be as simple and honest as possible, focusing on the story and the wonderful characters that were written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. During the initial design process, Michael asked the creative team to build a real, working world inside which the cast could live. Rather than mimicking the the fantastical, romantic sensibility that was seen in the film adaptation, Michael asked the team to investigate the creation of a somewhat more rugged world, made out of things that we would actually find on a farm. The costumes were to be functional for actors and dancers, while honestly representing the period of the piece. Keeping the story and the relationships of the characters in primary focus was the filter used to arrive at all the stylistic choices. While the music and the choreography are a huge component of how the story is told, Michael’s goal is that it should always move the story forward. While maintaining their technical, aural and visual beauty, these elements shouldn’t take precedence over other parts of the story. The world in which these characters live has a practical grit and emotional complexity that sets it apart from many musicals that came before. Oklahoma! represents life’s heartache, hard work, love and tragedy with a candor and freshness befitting its story’s rugged pioneer spirit. The hope is that this feeling of authenticity will aid in keeping this great, historical gem vital and immediately ‘relate-able’ for today’s audience.

Collaboration is Michael’s favorite part of the process. The team working together across all disciplines in the development of the piece is the best, and only, recipe for the creation of stellar art. The sense of community and connection that it takes to make a great play is the same spirit that is celebrated in the story of Oklahoma!

Maybe the director/choreographer could have paid tribute to the RNT Oklahoma! as what had inspired his staging. From the NOTES, it somehow seemed that he himself created the new vision for the staging of Oklahoma!

And perhaps they could have drawn inspiration from the costumes from the RNT revival which were quite attractive but period-correct ( but did not seem too expensive)...Or maybe some of the cast in this production could have lost weight because the costumes were sometimes not very flattering

And where's Curly's perm

It seems that Trevor Nunn's decision to film the RNT production has yielded much benefits to those who wanted to study or want to copy that staging. I have also read many comments on how other productions were quite influenced by the RNT revival, not just for the dramatic enhancements...but also for the physical staging -- following the refreshing turn of this revival. It wasn't just the directorial vision of Nunn which refocused the show but that Susan Stroman was allowed to revisit the numbers created by Agnes DeMille and reshape the choreography to the RNT fresh look at the music. In a sense, the RNT revival made people look at OKLAHOMA! in a much better and desirable light, as against other Rodger and Hammerstein musicals ( movie or stage), from which it suffered in comparison in the past.


The RNT was lucky that Josefina Gabrielle had a true ballet background - if I recall right, she was a principal dancer for the Portugal Ballet Company. Her moves were beautiful, given her dance background ( the dream Laurey from the above video seemed more like a typical musical theatre dancer...and did not have the same grace that Josefina showed).

And RNT was even luckier to have found such an insanely charismatic Curly in the person of Hugh Jackman! He could sing, act, dance...and look very masculine! And even look good with a perm! It was fortunate that they found someone who could do full justice to the four showstoppers ( Oh What A Beautiful Mornin', The Surrey with the Fringe on Top, People Will Say We're in Love, and Oklahoma!) and bring such a strongly etched characterization to the role of Curly!


Jo

[mamaleh]

Not exactly OKLAHOMA!, but Shuler related. He's the new Grinch on stage this fall-winter, in both NY and Chicago.

www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tony-Winner-Shuler-Hensley-to-Star-in-Dr-Seuss-HOW-THE-GRINCH-STOLE-CHRISTMAS-in-NYC-Chicago-this-Holiday-Season-20141008

Ellen

[jo]

A musical theatre connosieur recognizes a gem!

www.bnd.com/2014/10/26/3473308/muny-season-mixes-classics-fresh.html

Muny season mixes classics, fresh shows

By Lynn Venhaus

For the News-DemocratOctober 26, 2014


Big splashy classic musicals will bookend The Muny’s 97th season, with several contemporary favorites and a few fresh new premieres to be staged throughout next summer.

Executive Director Mike Isaacson recently spoke to the BND and made the seven-show announcement, to be released today.

The season will kick off with Lerner and Loewe’s timeless “My Fair Lady,” followed by the Tony-winning 1960s sensation “Hairspray,” a lively adaptation of John Waters’ cult film.

Next is “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn,” a new production adapting the 1942 Fred Astaire-Bing Crosby film for the stage. The film was turned into the popular “White Christmas” movie and subsequent musical.

That will be followed by the regional premiere of “The Buddy Holly Story,” which ran in London’s West End for years.

The tuneful Disney favorite “The Beauty and the Beast” will fill the children’s slot while the season wraps up with the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein chestnut “Oklahoma.”

Isaacson said he must take into consideration many things to line up a season. “We look at what we can bring to a show, if we can do the design in our space, what the audience survey says,” he said. “We’re really proud of it.”...



As for “Oklahoma!” Isaacson recalled seeing a relatively unknown Hugh Jackman as Curly in the acclaimed 1998 Royal National Theatre production in London.

“I heard this voice off-stage, and I thought ‘Did they get a real cowboy?’ That production was relevatory.”...

Hugh did sound like the real character he was portraying - masculine and a bit cocky, with that soaring baritone, but with such a realistic conveying of emotions!


Jo

[mamaleh]

Hugh certainly made a big impression on those who saw that production.

The writer of that piece erred in stating that HOLIDAY INN was turned into WHITE CHRISTMAS. The only thing they share was the latter song. Otherwise, the stories are totally different as are the songs. The former concerns the rivalry of two guys for the affections of the same woman and the launching of an inn that operates only on holidays. WC, as likely more people know, involves two star entertainers and their girlfriends who help out the guys' old commanding officer from their army days, who has a failing lodge in New England. Very different.

Ellen

[jo]

Update on Oklahoma!'s leading lady, Josefina Gabrielle --

www.broadway.com/buzz/179190/josefina-gabrielle-on-twitter-dreamcasting-confusing-her-kids-in-londons-charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory/

Josefina Gabrielle has three Olivier nominations to show for her wide-ranging musical theater career, which includes Laurey in Oklahoma! on both sides of the Atlantic as well as London revivals of Chicago, Sweet Charity, and Merrily We Roll Along, to name a few. She’s now signed for an extended run as Mrs. Teavee in Sam Mendes' epic staging of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Broadway.com caught the ever-delightful performer between shows to talk about acting with children, Hugh Jackman, and her Merrily colleagues on a dreamy-sounding revival of Follies...



I have to ask, do you keep up with a certain former co-star by the name of Hugh Jackman, with whom you co-starred in Oklahoma!?

Very much so! He and Deb [Jackman’s wife] were here when he was filming Blackbeard [in the new film Pan] and we got together and it was like nothing had changed. I remember during that production he made you want to be the best person you could be on stage, and it was incredible because here was this super-talented, drop dead good-looking guy who can do it all and he also gives so much joy and encouragement and generosity to the people around him...

[jo]

I found this 1998 review of the London OKLAHOMA! by their then London theatre critic --


variety.com/1998/legit/reviews/oklahoma-2-1200454383/

Review: ‘Oklahoma!’


July 20, 1998 | 12:00AM PT

In 1992 at the Royal National Theater, Nicholas Hytner reclaimed "Carousel" as a tale of almost unbearable sorrow and wisdom allied to a score whose pleasures just wouldn't quit. Trevor Nunn, in his musical debut at the National, makes a nearly comparable case for Rodgers & Hammerstein's more popular "Oklahoma!."


Matt Wolf



In 1992 at the Royal National Theater, Nicholas Hytner reclaimed “Carousel” as a tale of almost unbearable sorrow and wisdom allied to a score whose pleasures just wouldn’t quit. Trevor Nunn, in his musical debut at the National, makes a nearly comparable case for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s more popular — though perhaps less probing — “Oklahoma!,” written two years prior to “Carousel.” Nunn’s achievement is such that he need put no particular spin on a 1943 American warhorse that the National’s tourist contingent will no doubt know by heart. Instead, he simply applies the rigorous attention to text that has marked all his best work and leaves the rest to some astonishing American collaborators — the choreographer Susan Stroman and a sensational, operatically trained newcomer named Shuler Hensley chief among them.

If you never thought the romantic triangle among Curly (Hugh Jackman), Laurey (Josefina Gabrielle) and Jud Fry (Hensley) could at various times recall “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Peter Grimes” and even “Porgy and Bess,” it’s because few production of this musical bear the imprint of a director of Nunn’s experience. Perhaps it takes someone of Nunn’s seasoning to treat a potentially folksy show head on, without patronizing the material or the audience.

Whatever the reason, the thrills of the evening are inextricably linked to the abiding truthfulness of it. This remains the most rousing and optimistic of shows, but I’ve never before seen an “Oklahoma!” where the rexuberance of that exclamation point seemed so hard-won.

The production veers toward tragedy from the entrance of Hensley’s brooding, begrimed farmhand Jud, whose glowering countenance acknowledges few of the “beautiful mornin’s” of which his rival, Jackman’s open-faced cowboy Curly, is forever singing. It’s easy to dismiss Jud as a hulking simpleton with, as is remarked of him, “a heart as big as all outdoors.”

But glimpsed in his cramped home poring over pictures of women when he hungers for the real thing, this Jud bears more than a trace of Benjamin Britten’s anguished, repressed Grimes, coupled with the thwarted nobility of spirit that could be said to define the Porgy of Gershwin’s masterwork that preceded Rodgers & Hammerstein’s by eight years. (It helps that the production restores Jud’s defining solo, “Lonely Room.”)

In an English theater debut audiences will be talking about for years, Hensley plays every moment of Jud’s “crawlin’ and festerin’ ” existence as if his life depended on it, which, of course, it does. This is a man left out of the pioneering America that Hammerstein’s libretto celebrates, who looks as if he might be more at home in that other Oklahoma-set (at least partly) classic, “The Grapes of Wrath.” Jud’s specific bad luck is to have comically paraded in front of him a funeral — in a deliciously performed “Poor Jud Is Daid” — that he will end up cruelly undergoing well before time.

And yet, death must be a release for someone who cries, “I can’t help it; I can’t never rest,” even as the rest of the community is surrendering to the idyll of a box social. Among other things, his fate suggests the indebtedness of the story to that favorite English topic, class, when Jud spits out a resentful, “You better, you so much better.”

No one in the cast betters Hensley, though it’s hard to imagine a more immediately charming Curly than Jackman, an Australian performer inheriting a role that in lesser hands can seem oddly smarmy: He’s as pliable, the staging suggests, as Jud is rigidly doomed, and Jackman makes an appealing (and beautifully sung) case for a man who won’t be left behind by the winds of change in “this here crazy country.”

There’s a trace of Benedick and Beatrice to his defensive banter with Gabrielle’s Laurey, a woman beset by indecision who — the production suggests — needs to achieve the same personal self-definition that will mark the Indian territory itself as it slides into statehood.

Though she has a pleasant enough (if somewhat syrupy) voice, Gabrielle is primarily a dancer. So it’s little surprise that a somewhat inexpressive performance takes wing in the dance numbers. The ballet that closes the first act replaces Agnes de Mille’s historic contribution with a vintage piece of signature Stroman that begins with hands poking out from behind a field of corn to lure Laurey into a dream-cum-nightmare danced by the three principals, not their traditional alternate fantasy selves.

Elsewhere, Stroman allows Jimmy Johnston’s bubbly Will Parker to lasso the audience’s affections (and himself) during “Kansas City,” while second-act opener, “The Farmer and the Cowman,” makes a dizzying whole out of a land that, the song reminds us, for all its freedom contains no lack of fences.

It’s that suggestion of divisiveness — of the darkness beyond the turquoise front curtain and mammoth blue sky of Anthony Ward’s typically elegant, clean sets — that shadows this “Oklahoma!,” even as one is moved by librettist Hammerstein’s generosity towards all his characters, including an Aunt Eller (gamely played by a miscast Maureen Lipman) far less starchy than she first appears. (Peter Polycarpou’s itinerant peddler, Ali Hakim, turns out to be a fast-talking mensch.)

Is that to freight “Oklahoma!” with more reality than it can bear? Not at all. It’s just that in a show about dreamers, Nunn has done what no one dared dream, paying equal homage to the great outdoors and — in the rapturous world of Rodgers & Hammerstein — to that even greater heart that most of us keep locked within.


Oklahoma!

National Theater's Olivier Theater, London; 1,125 Seats; 32.50 pounds ($ 53) top

[alma]

Precious! Thanks, Jo!

Alma

[jo]

The TONYs presentation of THE FARMER AND THE COWMAN from the 2002 Broadway revival of OKLAHOMA! --

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WUHlqmD7jM

It's slightly different from the choreography of the Jackman OKLAHOMA!...plus they have given Laurey ( in her dream ballet costume) a brief part to include her in the performance for the TONYs. Btw, you can see Warren Carlyle applauding at the end of the clip -- he was probably brought in to Broadway to help in he choreography ( as he did for the London Oklahoma!). Isn't that Susan Stroman seated beside him?


Here's the Royal National Theatre version ( London) --

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjVQqGlj4A8&list=RDIjVQqGlj4A8#t=115


The latter one was directly filmed from the actual production while the TONYs version might have been slightly altered from the actual staging of the revival.

[jo]

There's a completely different and reimagined OKLAHOMA! playing at a summer festival along the Hudson.

www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/theater/oklahoma-is-reimagined-at-bard-colleges-summerscape-festival.html?hpw&rref=theater&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=b&_r=0

[jo]

Oklahoma! was a musical piece of American history as the forebears moved west. Nothing typifies the pioneering spirit more than the joyous THE FARMER AND THE COWMAN.




Happy FOURTH OF JULY to all our American friends!


Jo

[mamaleh]

Fittingly, in celebration of Anericana, PBS repeated Hugh's OKLAHOMA! night before last. The TV description began "In his breakout role, Hugh Jackman...." It certainly did bring him international attention, and of course the rest is history.

Ellen

[jo]

It seems that OKLAHOMA! opened quite a few doors for Hugh Jackman. Not only did it make him an international theatre star, but it also introduced his talent to quite a few people.

Among those who saw him perform were producer Lauren Shuler Donner ( who pushed for him in the first XMEN movie, over Bryan Singer's initial indecisiveness), Harvey Weinstein ( who cast him in Kate and Leopold), composers Kander and Ebb...and Patrick Whitesell who has now enjoyed a long and fruitful professional relationship with Hugh and who has also become a longtime friend!


www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c7fd8106-1f6f-11e1-ab49-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3gKkkqL90

He still represents several long-term clients. “He came to see me performing in Oklahoma in [London’s] West End in 1998 and said he could see a movie career for me,” says Hugh Jackman, who has become one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. Few agents would want their clients sacrificing blockbuster movie pay-days for roles in theatre productions, he adds. “He’s always encouraged me to think long term and for me that’s included doing stage work.”

Jo