How to rewrite Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical without changing a word? It turns out all you need do is make us really watch, and really listen. In immersing the audience in the action (with some spectators sat at stage-side tables) and highlighting tricky scenes and characters that are often hastily brushed over, directors Daniel Fish and Jordan Fein have created a modern, sexy and unsettling show. And as for the music? The score sounds so revitalised it might’ve been written yesterday.
With the lights on full glare and the modern-dressed ensemble cast sat on stage throughout, there’s the livewire feeling of a read-through, as if the actors are approaching the book and music for the very first time. Nothing is sacred. Everything is up for grabs.
The physicality and proximity of this production make us think about the show differently. During the big ensemble numbers, it’s possible to turn your head and tune into a different song line. It’s our choice, it seems, whom we listen to. At the end of the showpiece numbers, you can hear the actors panting. Everything that is beautiful comes at a cost.
Arthur Darvill and Anoushka Lucas are both talented musicians and it’s when they sing that their characters – young Laurey Williams and cowboy Curly McLain – come alive. But it’s the supporting roles that make the strongest impression. Marisha Wallace electrifies as the frisky Ado Annie, who she transforms with her huge voice and commanding presence from a comedy sidekick into something much more savvy and meaningful.
Patrick Vaill compels as outsider Jud Fry – more melancholy than menacing. Pore Jud is Daid is performed in pitch black with Vaill’s face filmed, projected and magnified across the back wall. It’s a haunting sight, and as his huge eyes flicker and wince there’s something in his filmed despair that very subtly brings to mind cyberbullying.
It doesn’t all work and there are moments, particularly during the second half and its rejigged and highly stylised ending, when the innovations risk causing distraction. But this is still a brave and invigorating show that effortlessly unearths the ugliness that has always glimmered beneath Oklahoma!’s beautiful morning.
At the Young Vic, London, until 25 June
