I was never a huge fan of the musical, Oklahoma! I've seen it on stage twice (once, a production with Jamie Farr as Ali Hakim) and I've given the movie a fair shot. I thought it was good but not great, and always wondered just what it was audiences saw in the material that allowed the original production to run more than five years on Broadway. Well, I think I know…and all it took was seeing the video of the recent production mounted by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. It's currently running on PBS channels as an installment in their Great Performances series, and it's also available as a not-too-expensive DVD that includes a "making of" documentary. I just watched the show on TV and ordered the DVD. You can order the DVD from Amazon by clicking right about here.
The production starred Hugh Jackman, who gets mega-star billing. He's terrific in the show but so is everyone. I was especially impressed with how the show was filmed…and it seems to be filmed, not taped. This means, among other things, that the lighting is more evocative and it doesn't feel like you're watching a TV show. Ordinarily, preserving a musical means either rethinking it as a movie with no audience and a lot of different sets and camera angles…or just photographing what was on stage via cameras situated amidst the audience. This version of Oklahoma! has it both ways: You occasionally see the audience and they occasionally applaud a particularly spectacular number. But for most of the show, the camera is free to roam about the proceedings, move with the players and be wherever a good film director would put it. The result is that it's a stage musical when it needs to be, a movie when that is more effective…and a general success. Richard Rodgers' music has often felt cold and impersonal to me, but context is everything and here, the context is perfect. The "dream ballet" always struck me as an intrusion designed to take us out of the story. Here, it fits right in, in part because they don't substitute the lead actors with trained dancers, which is customary with stage productions. I can't wait to get the DVD and see the featurette on how this production was assembled.
Having seen a lot of my favorite stage productions eviscerated when someone refashioned them for film, I'm probably more enthused about the approach than I am about finally liking Oklahoma! Boy, can I think of a lot of shows that I wish had been committed to film in such a faithful yet creative manner. Some call the Rodgers-Hammerstein show the most American of American musicals, and it's often said that the musical comedy is one of the most significant American art forms. Looks like it took a bunch of Brits to show us how to do both right.
Here's a page with information on this production and some clips. And here, once again, is a link to order the DVD. Consult your listings to see when your local PBS affiliate will be airing the special four-hour-with-tedious-pledge-breaks version.