Oklahoma! - Young Vic / Wyndham’s

WOS gave it 5 stars.

I voted one star because I paid for a top tier ticket and I could only see about 25% of the performance because of the terrible staging. All I could see was the band. And the parts that I could see weren't good in my opinion.

Oh, how I hated this on Broadway. I’m always one who is happy to see older shows like this take chances and do something new but this was a total miss for me on nearly every level. This show has some of the best dance numbers ever written and this production tosses them to the side for whatever reason they decided on (don’t get me started on the “dream ballet” which I believe they put where they did to avoid people walking out).

I just walked out of this wondering “Why”?

I'm going to nick that technique. Wise.

Back row of the side stalls, at the performance end (as opposed to the band end) if possible.

First level might be fine too, in which case you could go for the central seats, but you’re still a fair way back due to the positioning of the band.

Saw the matinee today, and was flabbergasted at how original it was, in a good way: it was as if every character became a sullen teenager, unwilling to smile or dance, with the decrease in agreeableness, echoed in the affectless anodyne unpleasing surface of the rehearsal room setting, somehow illuminating the interior intensity of every interaction.

Familiarity with the material, previous stage versions and concerts, as well as film versions (if you haven't seen any version before, I'd recommend watching one or two of the film versions first), will massively enhance the gut punch of the alien approach adopted here. . .

Some spoilers follow. . .

Having seen quite a few versions of this show, this is by far the least agreeable approach I have ever seen to this material, in the lack of exultant energy, and in the dearth of sexed-up surface. I mean, even the stripped back Albert Hall prom version was luscious and over-the-top in its exuberant staging and devil-may-care dancing, compared to this sulky, moody, affectless and challenging presentation.

Ironically, the uneffusive moodiness of the characters ultimately makes the moment to moment experience of the show more sultry and mysterious, and more interesting, than it usually is, even if it is less of a confection, less sweet and pleasurable, but more thrillingly dangerous and revealing.

Anoushka Lucas, terrific as Mary Magdalene in JCSS at Regents Park (in some moments, she gave Tyrone Huntley's exceptional Judas a run for his silver), is amusingly disinterested and sullen for almost the entire running time here, like an Amalia from "She Loves Me," but one who refuses to brighten. Except in song, where like any sullen teenager, the scent of sex is fuel for an interior intensity, that drives passionate vocal expression, belying a standoffish surface.

If Lucas is the anchor of the show, the standout performances in her orbit are undoubtedly those of Marisha Wallace and Patrick Vaill.

Although, in keeping with the production, Wallace is never ingratiating, she is the least sulky, most comically imposingly selfish of all the characters, and coupled with Wallace's fabulous voice (as seen in "Dream Girls") and pin point comic timing (as seen in "Waitress"), she thunders through this show like an hilarious hormonal hurricane.

Vaill's achingly alienated "teen" Jud is marginalised teen squared, sinisterly reminiscent of the sort of outsiders who threaten high school violence IRL. The production goes all Van Hove on him, blasting cinema screen size images of his disaffected self-loathing face onto the back wall, and I have never felt for any Jud as much as him, despite how scary and explosive he threatens to be.

Also, I loved seeing Greg Hicks in this, another chameleon of a performer, who tends to appear in hard-nosed productions, and is as hard-nosed as ever, in this, as the judge.

Overall, this show is so internalised, that it often fails to convey it's narrative, which must be bolstered by familiarity with the material, but it is a striking and original, strangely affecting and unforgettable version of the show. In my opinion.

4 stars from me.

The dream ballet in OAT Carousel was controversial last year, although I didn’t mind it personally. But I wonder why when a show is being reimagined so drastically they insist on keeping these ballet sequences in?

My visit started off with disappointment when I saw that my £10 seat meant I'd been allocated the unreserved gallery seats - before, every time I'd bought a ticket in a cheap category at the Young Vic before they'd finished seating plans, I'd ended up with a great seat regardless.

The view wasn't too bad though since the Young Vic is so small; you're still really close and just have to lean forward.

Apart from that, what a wonderful evening. This seems to be one of those productions you either love or hate, and I loved it. I can't remember the last time I sat in a theatre that was filled with such a palpabable tension. I thought the blackouts were used to great effect too - how chilling to hear Curly whisper suicide fantasies into Jud's ear in utter darkness.

Standout performance for me was Marisha Wallace as Ado Annie. I also caught myself thinking during the final song that I should really get another of the cheap gallery seats to see it again...

Don’t think that’s true. I neither loved it not nor hated it. I liked some parts. I loved some parts. I admired some parts. I didn’t like some parts. I hated some parts. I thought some things were worth trying but ultimately failed.

My son has gone today on our ten pound tickets and been moved to dead centre dress circle. I hope he enjoys it. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t.

Edit: he loved it and had some sort of theatrical epiphany. I don’t have the heart to recount the years of student drama I watched.

Nope!

Some of the comments here make for a rather fascinating read (for me, that is) - while I expected this to be divisive, I did not expect people to full on "hate" it on the basis that it's not what they'd want Oklahoma to look and sound like. 

First thing first, let me start by saying that I did enjoy this production of 'Oklahoma'.  Did I find it perfect?  No, but I'd definitely consider seeing it again to get a chance to focus on details I may have missed the first time. 

But I'm a rather unusual audience member, in that I have never seen the movie, nor had I seen another (more traditional) staging of the same material before.  I had tried at some point to listen to the original recording / watch the NT video and... I gave up after a few minutes out of boredom.  The material didn't seem to speak to me, it didn't thrill me, there was little I enjoyed in the way it sounded, etc.  So, for sure, I walked into the Young Vic with very fresh eyes and ears.  

This production gave me something that, from a musical viewpoint, intrigued me: the folksy/country orchestrations suddenly made the music sound like it belongs to geographical setting of the show, and the people on stage, with the clothes they're wearing and the way the look, move, and talk could actually be the inhabitants of a small town in that part of the world.  If you have ever travelled through rural parts of the US, where you can drive for hours through fields and nothingness, if you've ever stopped in one of those tiny towns where everybody knows everybody else, you may recognise that sense of it being stuck in that small world where the height of your social life is the local country fair...   

Yes, there's more than a touch of self-complacency in some of the staging choices: the use of videocameras and live projections à la Ivo van Hove, the alternate use of stark lighting and long black outs... I certainly appreciate it cannot be to everyone's liking, and some will just not enjoy it, and they have all the rights not to.  But I could see rather clearly that most of those "tricks of the trade" had been consciously chosen to try and tell an old story in a different way, and without shying away from its darkest parts (which traditionally would perhaps be hidden in the midst of saccharine-filled, dance-y ensemble numbers). 

Would it have been equally interesting to present the old 'Oklahoma' again?  

I can only think of my experience last year, when I went to see 'Anything goes', and I was left cold and not very much entertained at all.  In fact, I was primarily bored by it.  Everything was technically very polished on that stage, but nothing about that production thrilled me or made me think or feel things.   

By contrast, to me this production of Oklahoma is commendable in that it proves that theatre is alive and kicking and tries to evolve.  Sure, not all the choices and not all the routes taken pay off in equal measure, but - to paraphrase a very wise man - they are moving on and are giving us more to see...