There’ve been some mixed reactions to the Royal National Theatre production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s sturdy and revolutionary "Oklahoma!" Some are hailing it as a revelation, others are calling it "Poke-lahoma!"–no, not a salacious nickname, but rather a dig at the show’s casual pace.
For my money, the production, which arrives by way of London, is somewhere in the middle.
On the one hand, it is an accurate reflection of the new-wave style of both performance and direction, which often seeks to reinterpret these classic musicals through a filter of naturalism–that is, the kind of naturalism a musical will support, which is the insinuation of more authentically humanistic onstage behavior, favoring a kind of heightened verité over the broader "we’re in a musical" style of acting that was once more traditional. As the best "R&H" musicals are about "real" (e.g. prosaic) people, this approach seems to fit them rather well–at least to my taste. (Brit director Nick Hytner’s 1995 "Carousel" was even somewhat revelatory.)
On the other hand, Trevor Nunn’s direction of "Oklahoma!" seems too conscious of the technique, so painstakingly concerned with creating the illusion of naturalism that it either (a) denies the musical’s own energy or (b) calls inadvertent attention to the conceit.
An example of the former is the title song for which the chorus stays seated for what seems an absurdly long time as the leading man ambles among the group, in weird contradistinction to the driving pulse of the music. (Especially weird when the famously inventive Susan Stroman is your choreographer.)
An example of the second is the interesting but ultimately self-defeating staging of "People Will Say We’re in Love". As most of you may know, it’s a classic song of denial, the type Rodgers himself dubbed "an almost love song." Curly (former "Full Monty" lead Patrick Wilson) and Laurie (Josefina Gabrielle) sing to each other of behavior they dare not exhibit, lest they give people the impression that they’re mutually smitten. The music is sweet and soaring, indicating that the true sentiment be played sincerely, and that the lyric should do the work of dramatising the as-yet unreleased romantic tension. The words are enough.
Yet, as staged by Mr. Nunn, Curly and Laurie go through almost the entire length of the song in a manner that is playful, mischievous and devoid of romantic tension–their behavior so assiduously casual that it in fact has the opposite effect, deflating the tension. The two negatives–the denial of the lyric combined with the denial of the behavior–make a positive. The lyric, perversely, is thus rendered truthful. And that, theatre fans, is why one should never war a hat on top of a hat.
All this acknowledged, the production still has its extreme pleasures, among them a cast that seems age-appropriate in a very literal sense–you believe this Laurie is not quite out of her teens; this Curly a young, rambunctious buck–and a panoramic design (sets and costumes by Anthony Ward) that evokes the wide open vistas of the west very convincingly. And a great respect for the material; if the production errs too much on the side of subtlety, that is far better than the shamefully, intrusively overdirected approach that has been slathered onto other revivals in recent years. Also nicely cast are Andrea Martin (Aunt Eller), Jessica Boevers (Ado Annie), Justin Bohun (Will Parker) Aasif Mandvi (Ali Hakim) and–strikingly–Shuler Hensley (Jud Fry). If you’ve not sampled "Oklahoma!" live before, this is a lovely introduction.
On a final note…curtain rises unusually close to the hour at this revival, don’t count on the usual few minutes’ margin for error. The production runs long and if the producers let it go past eleven, they’re paying overtime. So get to your seat safely before the wind comes whistling down the lane…