The auditorium was filled with laughs last night for the opening night of Ridgefield High School's Visual and Performing Arts Department production of 'Oklahoma!'
The musical recounts the tale of a small community and a rivalry between the local farmers and cowhands interwoven with a love triangle in the Oklahoma Territory at the turn of the last century. The charming first collaboration by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, the 1943 musical was released as a movie in 1955.
Stephen Mark, as the romantic lead, cowhand Curly McLain, was a true standout; his effortlessly strong tenor filled the auditorium as his easy confidence kept all eyes on the stage. He won over crowd with the play's most famed numbers in the opening, "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" and "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" in front of a cheery yellow farmhouse and a blue sky projected onto a movie screen behind it.
The sweet courtship between Mark and Caroline Nesbit, as beautiful farm girl Laurey Williams, is barely different from today's teenage flirtations, replete with teasing and wide-eyed promises.
Nesbit's Williams was alternately sweet, naive and sulky. She takes the audience by surprise when her giant, operatic voice slams home "Many a New Day" in front of a chorus of smiling, dancing girls.
The old-fashioned dialogue charms. "In this part of the country that better be a proposal of marriage," exclaimed Dylan Hicks as Andrew Carnes, father of a flirtatious girl who was called "kitten" by the local Persian peddler.
The cowhands danced the "Kansas City" number well, if ever-so-slightly out-of-sync (as you might imagine real cowhands to be if they ever danced together). Their split jumps were especially impressive.
The charming, sweet goofiness of Dylan Manderlink's Ado Annie Carnes provided comic relief during the mostly earnest first act as a girl who gets her head easily turned by any man who "says purty things" to her.
Aunt Eller is well-played by Jamie Bradley and provides the stern, stoic, farmer foil to the naïve youngsters.
Act One ends with the epic "Dream Ballet," a dance-dream encompassing a sweet fantasy of a girl and boy that becomes a nightmare of a marriage ceremony to the wrong groom that morphs into a hellish cabaret of women in leotards and feathered headdresses dancing in front of a wall of flames and a shootout between the two would-be grooms.
The play's action was rapid since the cast and orchestra were well-rehearsed and there are no scenery changes until the end of the first act, when the farmhouse is replaced by Jud Fry's mall, dark smokehouse where the two men vying for Laurey face off.
The second act moves quickly, with two sets of lovers finally acting on their feelings for each other, even if the men from both couples have to lose their meager fortunes to do so.
There is an unexpected marriage, an unexpected death and unexpected jealousy. To find out the more... well, you have to attend.
The play will continue in the high school auditorium tonight at 7:30 p.m. and next Friday and Saturday night at the same time. Tickets are $10 at the door.
