OKLAHOMA! – 2019 Broadway Cast (Decca – B0030375-02)
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Have to admit: when I was asked to review yet another recording of Oklahoma! I thought – please NO! Heard them all and every single one sounds like a clone of the previous one – not my most favourite musical at the best of times but – please no more Oklahoma! recordings…
Anyway, I put the CD on and – wait… what on earth is this? I LOVE it! Why has no one ever thought of this before? Oklahoma! is set in the land of country music and hoe-downs and yet it is always highly orchestrated with full orchestra. Here we have a wonderful concept: the orchestrations are as you would find at the local barn dance, played by a seven-piece hootenanny-style band and it is stunning. This is entirely due to the brilliant orchestrator and musical arranger Daniel Kruger. The songs are stripped back and they are all the better for it – they actually sound fresh.
The cast is superb without exception. They too are a revelation – Curly (Damon Daunno) isn’t the big-voiced baritone belter you expect from the character. He is a young man full of sexual excitement with a wonderful country twang to his voice. Laurey (Rebecca Naomi Jones) isn’t the pure soprano ingenue but there is grit inside the characterisation – this is a young girl who knows more about the world than previous incarnations. Ali Stroker’s Ado Annie – well, no one would like to mess her around for sure.
With all the songs given this fresh lick of paint it is absurd to try and pick out some for special mention but I can assure you that this Oklahoma! will certainly open your eyes and, if like me, you were getting a bit weary of Oklahoma! recordings – this will come as such a breath of fresh air. If I could give it more than five stars I certainly would.
Nick Wakeham
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