Review: Oklahoma, at the Young Vic, London

You know Oklahoma right? The first musical from Rodgers & Hammerstein that was also their first hit, and the piece that changed how musical theatre was seen and made forever? 

Good, ok fab! Now take that classic text, not change any lines, but really strip it back, examine it, and come up with a brand new production in a way no-one has ever seen it before? 

And again gets the theatre world talking about this classic.

This is exactly what Daniel Fish did. His 2019 production of the show was the talk of New York, winning the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical that year. I guess it was inevitable that London audiences were going to receive it. Fast forward to 2022, and that same production comes to the Young Vic - one of the best possible spaces they could have chosen, the only other one coming to mind being Kings Cross. 

Before we go any further, let’s clarify one thing: this is not your Aunt Petunia’s Oklahoma!

(Hehe I made a Harry Potter pun!)

Now I have always liked Oklahoma for being a lot darker than people realise - like I mention with a lot of R&H shows that many people think are quite light and frothy. Oklahoma in this instance discusses a lot of sexual issues: objectification of women, pornography, that kind of thing. 

This is where the darkness really comes from, and they ramped it up to 11 with the reading and performing of the text - remember what I said before, they haven’t changed a single word of the text. But this is not the case of Person A just wanting to marry Person B blah blah blah. 

Naw; let’s be honest here. They all just want to f**k.

Now this can have both positive and negative aspects to the story. In the negative aspect (let’s get that out of the way), some of the chemistry between Curly and Laurey is lost a little for me; though it is hard to beat Nathaniel Hackmann and Scarlett Strallen’s fire in the PROMS version. This Curly, played by Arthur Darvill (yes as in former Dr Who companion Rory), is let’s be honest, a bit of a d**k, and you even start to think for the first time ever, that Jud MAY be a better fit for Laurey than Curly. 

For all of 5 seconds though don’t worry.  

Speaking of Jud, Patrick Vaill reprised his role from the Broadway production, and they really upped the sad, bitter loner aspect of him; reminded me of Snape to be honest (what is it with the HP references today!). You could cut the scenes with Jud and Curly, just as Poor Jud Is Dead, with a knife they were that tense. 

And what added to a lot of that was the lighting, sometimes lack off. 

I must admit there were definitely some interesting lighting choices. One of which being them keeping the house lights on for a lot of the time.... 

Or take the pre-mentioned Poor Jud Is Dead: they did the dialogue before hand in total darkness, but then grew it gradually when the video effects came into play. I think they could have done it with that tiny bit of light and it would have been fine. I don’t want to give anymore tricks away; but let me honest and say some of it is great, and some of it is really random. 

As the down-to-Earth voice of reason Aunt Eller, Liza Sadovy (who hopped over straight from her Olivier winning performance in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club) definitely deserves a mention, as does the soulful Anoushka Lucas as Laurey. 

But I need to bring in the one aspect EVERYONE agrees on: no matter what they think about the weird lighting, the musical arrangements etc. 

What they got 1000% right, and who benefits the most out of everyone being so horny, is Ado Annie. 

I hate it when Ado Annie is played as a dumb blonde: she knows she’s attractive, she knows she has the guys after her, including having Will Parker wrapped around her little finger. And guess what? SHE ENJOYS IT! She is a lot smarter than people give her credit for. 

In New York, Ali Stroker became the first person in a wheelchair to win a Tony for playing THIS interpretation of THIS part. And as soon as I heard Marisha Wallace (Hairspray) had been cast, I had a feeling this was going to be good…. Oh my WORD! She wholly understood Fish’s vision for this part - she was flirty, she was sassy, she knew what she wanted at she GOT it. She ROARS I Cain’t Say No like you will have never heard it before - no wonder she got the first big applause of the night. 

And she was the first Ado Annie that made me truly want to say to Will “Nah honey, she’s not worth it”. Forget hitting the nail on the head, Wallace blew it off with her daddy’s shotgun! 

Just as this is an Oklahoma you haven't heard before, the same can be said in how it SOUNDS too. 

Forget the big orchestrations you traditionally associate Oklahoma with - this is a small band with banjo, violin, bass, guitars, drums etc - just like a country band in the State. And it results in some arrangements you've never heard before, none more so in the Dream Ballet sequence opening the 2nd act (instead of traditionally ending the 1st). 

I don't really want to give away much, if any more, in fear of spoiling it for the people who have been able to get tickets. I have heard this run is almost if not fully sold out; but do try for returns. 

If you go to see it, best advice I can give you is to keep as open a mind as possible. Because as long as you do that, I am certain that this revival will surprise you.