Oklahoma! - Young Vic / Wyndham’s

Exactly. Finding a theatre to house it which is free is the difficulty. I really hope it does as a majority of the cast are doing amazing work. Here’s hoping.

After seeing Friday night's show, what can I add to what has already been said?

The first disappointment was that this was a concert performance rather than being properly staged. That wasn't mentioned at any point in the marketing that I saw, so I wasn't aware. I just knew that it had been "re-imagined" and was different, and had created a bit of a stir Stateside, which sounded promising.

While I can be quite a traditionalist, I also enjoy being wowed by innovative and modern new takes. Sadly, this interpretation did not hit the mark for me. It adopted a surrealist air (the costumes especially with the Baby Jane ball gowns) that made the characters unreal and difficult to engage with emotionally. They continued to be cyphers, often being moody purely for the sake of it, and that just became tiresome after a while.

As for the extended black-outs and camera-up-the-nostrils projections and in-your-ears over-miked dialogue, this didn't just tip over into pretension, it was full-blown peacockery by the director, making Ivo van Hove look subtle and nuanced by comparison.

Quite what was happening as the prelude to Act 2 escaped me. Whatever it was, it went on for fourteen minutes, and seemed to consist of a young girl, who bore no resemblance to any of the other characters -- was she supposed to be a young Laurey? -- who simply ran in interminable circles around the stage accompanied by the score played on discordant electric guitar and synth, with the musicians not present. (Was this a pre-record?) This section detracted from rather than added to the experience.

Where this production succeeded was in the blend of musician's instruments and cast voices that were quite beautiful and soaring at times. There were some stunning renditions of the popular numbers. If I could have just had those, without the pseudo-intellectual interpretation of the interspersed script, this show would have been elevated to four stars.

On-stage blocking was atrocious. The thrust stage is so long and thin, that it is akin to traverse, unless you are seated across the narrow end. For the most part, characters were facing away from me or in front of another speaking character. The long walks as characters entered and exited were clunky and amateurish. This was crying out for an end-on presentation with proscenium.

There were sections, especially at the start, where the characters were deliberately not amplified when speaking. (- More unnecessary artistic pretentiousness from the director I felt.) Much of this dialogue could not be heard. The walls all round have been covered in MDF, and that hampered the acoustics. Further, the final four seats at the band-end of stalls back row D are directly underneath a very powerful air-conditioning outlet that, when on, was generating so much white noise, that none-amplified voices were lost.

I do echo what others have said about row D offering the best view. Row A is too close for a very wide stage, and rows B and C have much less rake. Your legs may be dangling however in row D if you are very short and cannot reach either of the two foot rests: one underneath the row in front and one below your seat. (Be aware that if you use the foot-rest in front, there is an out-of-sight gap in the row C seat-back that means you are in high danger of kicking the person sat there, as I discovered to my cost.)

Two stars.

Act 1: 19:36-21:00
Dream Ballet: 21:21-21:35
Act 2: 21:35-22:35

I enjoyed it overall: some of it didn't work, but I liked the way it tried different things. And I thought some bits were genuinely funny and interesting

It’s very, very rare that I go to the theatre and leave without having enjoyed what I’ve seen somewhat (I even enjoyed Legally Blonde last week!), but I’m definitely adding myself to the ‘absolutely hated it’ crowd. Couldn’t wait for it to end.

I asked this board months ago whether I should take my parents to see this (who love this musical), and I’m so glad I took your advice and didn’t get them tickets. When I was sat in the pitch black listening to people whisper into microphones for what felt like an hour I was thinking I would have been mortified if I’d have made them sit through that! And the less said about the dream ballet the better - my eyes rolled so far back in my head I almost lost a contact lens.

I could not stand it. I haven't seen the traditional staging or the movie and made sure not to read anything about the story either so I'd hear it for the first time. Knowing it was done concert-style and not like a traditionally staged musical, I was slightly disappointed even before I went in. I liked the songs but found that the pace of the story was excruciatingly slow, and the concert-style setting did not hold my attention for very long. The story itself seemed to lack depth; I don't know if the fault is in the writing itself or it's just the current production.

In the beginning the actors all looked so intriguing, their facial expressions had an enigmatic, almost inscrutable quality, and so I kept waiting to see some substance or depth or real conflict that went beyond inane bickering, but no such thing ever came. The blackout scene - well I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to take away from it. If anyone could explain to me how that was supposed to contribute, I'd be happy to hear it - I really can't figure out what I'm missing here.

Long time lurker on the forum, first time poster!

I've been following this version of Oklahoma ever since it was announced to go to Broadway and have listened to the cast recording countless times in the past few years. Finally got the chance to see the show last night and it was everything I hoped it would be. Cast were all fantastic, standouts for me were James Davis and Marisha Wallace. I was slightly worried that no one would be able to live up to Damon Daunno's vocals but Arthur Darvill was great.

I think that being very familiar with the original musical might have helped me to enjoy the reinvention more - I went with someone who was pretty unfamiliar with the show and who left feeling that there wasn't much to the storyline or the characters which I disagreed with.

The only part of the show I didn't particularly enjoy was Aunt Eller's character who I also thought came out as the biggest villain of the piece. I'm not entirely sure why but something about the characterisation didn't really work for me, and the relationship between her and Laurey felt very strange.

Despite this, definitely a five star show for me. For what it's worth, I bought my ticket before having a seat allocated and ended up back row of the side stalls which had a great view,
and where we ended up getting sprayed with whatever was in those Bud Light cans!

Well apart from that god awful dream ballet (which made no sense where it was placed), I really enjoyed this last night.

Marisha Wallace and James Davis were the real standout performances, but I thought the whole cast was great. I haven't seen Arthur Darvill on stage before, but thought he did really well as Curly.

Really pleased I got to see this. My inly gripe was that it started 10 minutes late and then the interval ran slightly long, which normally is fine, but when it's a 3 hour show that starts at 7.30, is just a bit much. Especially when you then get stuck behind slow people trying to leave the building.

Apparently cancelled tonight?! No details yet

Confirmed

Gutting for those who were going tonight when the rest of the run is sold out! (And the cast of course!)

We had £10 Lucky Dip tickets for Monday this week (and were VERY* lucky with the seats we got). I was chatting to the usher while awaiting 19.29 when we were to be allocated seats or standing and he said they have no understudies. I asked what would happen if someone was absent and he replied they would probably have to cancel....

* We entered the Young Vic on Monday early at 19.00 - tickets stated 19.20-19.30 entry time - as there was heavy rain at the time and were directed towards the bar to wait. There was another man already there. It turned out we should have gone through one more door. By the time we realised there were two young ladies in front of us. I felt slightly peeved when they got seats in stalls row B but we were allocated two just as good in row D. The two ladies had just sat down when the people who had booked those seats arrived and they had to move. They ended up standing which could so easily have been us.

My understanding is that they sell 14 lucky dip tickets @ £10 for each performance. 7 people are allocated to each side of the auditorium. The lucky dips only guarantee a standing position and all seats are sold so if everyone turns up I assume all 14 lucky dippers have to stand and that's pretty high up. On Monday I think only the two unlucky ladies didn't get seats.

{ Seen this Oklahoma! twice and we have one further booking in a fortnight's time. I'm going to contact the Young Vic offering to return the two tickets if that allows a couple of people who have lost out tonight to see the show, though hopefully they'll put on an extra performance or two for all affected.}

Yes I think that was the difference, it was sold out on Monday and we weren't given printed tickets, they shut the doors at 7.28 and were shown to our seats at 7.29,  end of row D, band side by a performer entry door. Seconds later another door was opened, two people entered with a different usher and the two young ladies moved. I wonder what would have happened if they had refused ?

My other booking is in row C which as I recall was sold at a significantly lower price than A, B or D. I tried to work out why, as it doesn't seem any different to B or D. I'm only going to offer back my tickets if they tell me there's a waiting list of people from the cancelled performance as I would like to see it once more, mainly for Marisha Wallace who's the star of the show in my eyes. ( she's in concert with Collabro outdoors at Tonbridge Castle on Sunday 10 July, really looking forward to that one )