Our meeting in September will be on Wednesday, 16th September 2009. All those who attended our June meeting are on the list so if you are unable to come, please let Mary know. Also, those not at our last meeting, and who wish to attend, please contact Mary Brooks.
Oklahoma at Chichester Theatre
The Chichester Theatre visit to see ’Oklahoma’ proved to be a delightful outing. If space allows, further reports will be included next time. Meanwhile, here is a report sent in by one of those attending Mary Brooks:
A warm, sunny day, a picnic under the trees with wine, and Oklahoma. A wonderful day out at Chichester. I’ve known the songs from since I was a child because my dad bought a boxed set of all the great musicals and we played them regularly, but I’ve only seen the film version. Chichester didn’t disappoint, the cast sang beautifully and with great energy. The set was bare - chairs, stools, a cart, a bicycle and best of all a swing were used effectively to suggest life on the open land. I would have liked some lighting effects to provide the ‘big sky’ and add atmosphere to the stage but no more.
Costumes were drab as they would have been, since life on the range was hard. It was easy to sit back and wallow in the music as all the leads sang well and the big chorus numbers made you want to join in. The dancing was restricted in such a relatively small space but still worked.
The character of Judd Fry was prominent in this production, he shuffled around at the edge of the action, isolated from the rest of the community and illustrating the dangers of the social outcast. He was rarely off the stage, a constant menacing presence that left the audience in no doubt that Laurie had to avoid him. Having Aunt Ellie on stage equally often didn’t seem to work as well.
She appeared complacent rather than benign as the director presumably intended. Both were present throughout ‘People will say we’re in love’ and this did seem odd. Curly and Laurie were able to play this scene around the swing and the audience didn’t need the distraction of other characters. I also wasn’t sure why Judd Fry was in the final scene when he seemed to have died earlier, but these are quibbles when so much else worked superbly.
The day even ended with a mystery tour as the coach driver’s satnav took us on an unusual route home .
I look forward to next year.
