IF you buy a vintage Rolls Royce motor car in good condition, you do not immediately take it to the nearest garage and have the engine re-tuned, and completely overhaul the paintwork and interior …. perhaps even going to the extent of replacing the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy statue on the front of the bonnet! It is to these sort of extremes that some directors and companies go when presented with a true classic now in its eighth decade, believing that you have to ‘do something with it’ to make it palatable to a modern audience.

Fortunately for audiences who make their way to Bath’s Theatre Royal this week, director Helen Halliday and the members of BODS who have been cast in Oklahoma! have no such thoughts. They have complete belief in the first Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece to grace the musical stage, and they treat it with the reverence and respect that such a classic deserves.

But don’t run away with the idea that this a museum piece and has no significance in a modern world. The fast -changing world of Oklahoma Territory in 1906, a year before it became the 46th state of the USA, with farmers and cowmen still battling for supremacy, and the triangular love story between clean-cut cowboy Curly Maclean, spirited farm girl Laurey Williams and sinister farm hand Jud Fry, gives the story a strong underlying dramatic theme to match the lightweight comedy facade.

Matthew Graham as Curly, Lydia McCotter as Laurey and Andrew Grimes as Jud, skillfully mix the romance of People Will Say We’re in Love with the drama and ironic comedy of Poor Jud is Dead, and serve up the drama in equal quantities. On the other side of the coin, Sabrina Messer is a deliciously innocent, distinctly loveable Ado Annie, milking every last drop of comedy out of her relationships with Ed Corbishley’s open- hearted cowboy Will Parker and Tom Burge’s slippery peddler man, Ali Hakim. They also take the comedy right into the heart of their vocals, in Annie’s lovely pouting I Can’t Say No, Will’s Kansas City and Al’s It’s a Scandal! It’s an Outrage!

While Dave Key-Pugh [Andrew Carnes], Annabel Latham [Gertie Cummings], Robin Noad [Ike Skidmore] and George Miles [Cord Elam] help to establish the two sides of the farmer and cowboy society, Barbara Ingledew, with a beautifully crafted portrayal, creates an Aunt Eller who bestrides both sides like a true statesman among the run-of-the-mill, less far-seeing, politicians.

Choreographer Harriet Lowe makes good use of the ensemble, never cluttering up the stage with extra bodies just to fill spaces, and MD James Finbow’s work in the rehearsal room reaps it’s reward in full-bodied ensemble numbers climaxing in the iconic title song Oklahoma! When the show set out on it’s pre Broadway tour, it was called Away We Go!, with no signs of that title song in the score. It was only when someone pointed out that there was no direct reference to where the show was set that the song appeared, just prior to the Broadway opening, and the title changed to Oklahoma!.

Whether it would have achieved such legendary success under its original title is arguable, but one thing is certain – that, full of wonderful melodies when sung and played with the sincerity and love of the show that BODS brought to this production, Oklahoma! is a true classic example of musical comedy at it’s best.

GRP

Photographs by Stewart McPherson