Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! opened on Broadway more than seventy years ago, but the iconic Rogers and Hammerstein musical still holds weight with theatergoers of all ages.

The script is dated and simplistic, the music repetitive and hokey, and the characters one-dimensional - and at times, almost inconceivably bland - by our modern standard.  Still, Oklahoma! is buoyed by something that supersedes any of these weaknesses and lifts the oft-told tale up even today as it has for more than half a century.  The well-known characters of Laurey, Curly, Ado Annie, Will, Aunt Eller, and the dark and menacing Jud Fry continue to hold enough genuine feeling on the page to convince theater companies to once again bring them to life in hopes that their audiences will react with the same positive connection to them as they have so many times before.  The most recent company to reanimate this musical battle for love, statehood, and economic accord is the Ventura based Comedy Tonight Productions.

The historical conflict that existed between the western territory cowboys who wanted open range and grazing rights and the ever-growing number of homesteading farmers who flooded the Oklahoma grasslands in the days before statehood serves as the loose background for the play.  In truth, however, it is the common love story between the reluctant to settle down Curly and the civilized and modern Laurey that is at the musical’s heart.  It is their relationship that gives the show its universality and relegates the time, surroundings, and subplots to merely a means to an end, which proves to be a blessing and the key to Oklahoma!’s longevity. Comedy Tonight Production’s successfully delivers that primarily due to the five lead performances.

In this production, staged at the Poinsettia Pavilion in the city of Ventura, Curly (Noah Skultety) and Laurey (Dawn Notagiacomo) appropriately convey the needed romance and further bring out some pleasant, subtle tones of the relationship that allow the show to flourish as the audience-pleasing piece that it should be.  Additional well-played performances by Tamarah Ashton-Coombs as Aunt Eller, Jeff Berg as Will, Becca Lawson as Annie, and most notably by Damian Gravino in the role of Jud Fry add to the enjoyment.  The choreography by Rudy Larrazolo is effective and executed respectably well by the young dancers in the cast.  The costumes covey well the time and feel of the show, and support the capable and more seasoned actors in the leading roles. Additional credit should be given to the cast as a whole for giving the performance what it needs to entertain audiences who come knowing exactly what they want from the show.

The Poinsettia Pavilion while charming as a community hall is, without a doubt, an odd venue for a big musical standard like Oklahoma!. With no in house lighting or sound capabilities and a seating configuration similar to that of a converted high school cafeteria, the cast was faced with certain insurmountable obstacles.  The general lack of direction for the work, woeful fight choreography, and an uneven musical feel further hampered the presentation and most likely limited the cast’s ability to reach their full potential.  However, the age-old tale of a man coming of age and settling down for the love of a good woman remains intact, and audiences will find gratification and satisfaction in the story and the characters as well as the familiar music and some very fine performances.

The selection of Oklahoma! may be a bit of a toothless choice for a thriving and artistic city such as the beautiful Ventura California.  However, as an educational and community based endeavor the show is a nice fit providing one has the talent to deliver upon the audiences long standing expectations.  This cast does exactly that.