Desert Theatricals’ OKLAHOMA! Is Much More Than OK!
by Stan Jenson
Desert Theatricals just finished their 2024 season with Oklahoma!, and what a season it was. I loved Fiddler on the Roof and Damned Yankees. I’ve got to confess that I have seen Oklahoma!, the granddaddy of American Musicals, so many, many times that I had some hesitation going in, but as always, Producers Ray Limon (also Director and Choreographer) and Joshua Carr (also Musical Director and Conductor) managed to assemble a great cast and technicians to present a funny, delightful evening of acting, singing and dancing which breathed new life into this warhorse. And I am quick to note that the most common phrase I heard walking out at the end of the show was, “Wonderful Show!!”
Historically, in the first half of the last century, musicals opened with a rousing full-cast song and dance number that introduced the plot and most of the major characters. Rogers (music) and Hammerstein (lyrics) went against that mold in 1943 when they produced Oklahoma! It opens with an older lady called Aunt Eller (Beverly Crain) sitting upstage at a butter churn, pulling the paddle up and down. Then we hear on offstage voice and it sounds like it’s coming from heaven, but as we look around the Rancho Mirage Amphitheatre, we realize it’s coming from a tall, good-looking cowboy walking down the audience aisle. We soon learn his name is Curly (Jordan Killion). He is singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” but he’s singing it like we’ve never heard it before. The voice is loud, clear and extremely pleasant without any pretensions of being overly operatic or strained in any way. It is a voice that should define musical theatre.
He steps onto the stage and starts to playfully flirt with Aunt Eller, and she gives as good as she gets. They both know he wants to see her niece Laurey (Ava Sarnowski), but he doesn’t want to sound needy. When Laurey finally emerges from the onstage farmhouse, she and Curley in a cat and mouse game of “Maybe I’m not asking you to the Box Social,” and “Maybe I don’t want to go with you.” He tells her he will pick her up in a magnificent buggy – “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top.” Laurey and Aunt Eller join in on the song but they can’t really hold a candle to Killion’s Curley. The young couple finishes without a firm commitment as to whether she will be his date to that evening’s social.
Next we meet the comical couple, a stock fixture in most musicals of that period. The man is Will Parker (the long-legged Danny Hansen) who regales Aunt Eller and the assembled cowboys with tales of his recent visit to “Kansas City.” It leads into some full-stage dancing and we see that Hansen can kick those long legs up past his ears! Most of Limon’s choreography features steps that most actors can master, but they are exciting because of unity, energy, and a great use of formations across the wide stage.
We next meet Will’s purported girlfriend, Ado Annie (company powerhouse Lizzie Schmelling) who confesses to Laurey that she’s just a girl who “Cain’t Say No.” She delivers a throaty growl to some of her lyrics that sounds like an alley cat in heat – a perfect tone for her character. A traveling peddler, Ali Hakim (Jeffry Scott Adair in a wonderful characterization that we love to hate) is in town and he’s trying to hook up with Ado Annie. She interprets that to mean that he wants to marry her, though his intentions are much more fleeting.
We also meet a scruffy, surly handyman named Jud Fry (Jim Hormel) who lives in the farm’s smokehouse, and who has developed a fondness for Laurey. In fact, he gets her commitment that she will let him take her to the Box Social that evening. Hormel’s handyman is indeed a laborer, but he imbues the character with a hunky male’s needs, and eventually delivers a full-bodied baritone voice as he describes his “Lonely Room.”
The main dramatic conflict of Oklahoma! is “Who will take Laurey to the Box Social?”. I don’t agree with those who describe it as “The Birth of Modern Musical Theatre,” and I am mystified when people say the songs help propel the plot. Still, Desert Theatricals’ production breathed great energy, voices, comedy and dance numbers into a score where virtually every song is embedded into the Great American Songbook. In fact, during the overture I looked around and saw several people mouthing the words to the songs as they recognized them.
When the dramatic conflict has been resolved (hint: I give the cowboy with the pretty singing voice looks high odds), the people all gather and sing that the couple will soon be living in a brand new state called Oklahoma. The developing statehood theme has not been mentioned anywhere else in the show, but it does give rise to the title of the show and of course the title song, which most of the audience was mouthing or singing along to at the show’s conclusion. The ensemble starts by singing the verse of the song, “They couldn’t pick a better time to start in life. Then when we get to the chorus, “Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain,” Jordan Killion’s Curly delivers it with his huge, beautiful voice, and it’s like a wave of sound that pushes the audience back into their seats. I probably upset my neighbors because I broke out with a gleeful laugh at the wonderfulness of it all. Then, when the sopranos sing their obligato that truly sounds like wind on the plains, I was awestruck. Music Director Carr brings a balance of ensemble and orchestra that is magic, and a very strong note to end the show on.
The unit set lasts throughout the show except for a brief scene inside the smokehouse. Anthony Paulin’s set and prop designs are functional and leave the majority of center stage open for the numerous dance numbers. Gavan Wyrick’s lighting design and Sean Gabel’s sound system work fine and are appropriately unnoticed. As is usually the case, Nick Wass’s projections are exemplary. His projections actually had wheat plants that blew in the wind, and occasionally a flock of birds would fly across the sky.
Having a 13-piece orchestra offstage is a luxury that no other local theatre company offers. Currently the orchestra is offstage. However, a theatre remodel is planned, and eventually we will be able to actually see the orchestra. In fact, the overhaul is so significant that the theatre will probably be under reconstruction during what would have been next year’s season. The company will offer some cabaret performances at the Rancho Mirage Library. When they return to the Amphitheatre,one of the shows they will start with is Chicago. I guess we’ll have to wait for that, but hopefully they can also expand their performances to two weekends, or at least add Thursdays. Currently, a lot of people miss out on tickets because houses are justifiably sold out.
Photos by: Jennifer Yount Photography