Review: You're Doin' Fine - OKLAHOMA! at Trinity Repertory Company

Trinity Repertory Company sings out its 52nd season with an entertaining, high-energy production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! The show is a fitting conclusion to Trinity's year-long "Rebels, Renegades, and Pioneers" theme as it celebrates the trailblazing spirit of the Oklahoma Territory's early settlers in story and song.

The characters and plot lines - Curly and Laurey's blossoming romance, sinister Jud Fry's determination to win Laurey's affections, the exasperating antics of boy-crazy Ado Annie, and the interactions of the farmers and cowpokes who share the land - are as familiar as the beloved songs that make this musical an American standard. But for Trinity's production, directors Richard Jenkins and Sharon Jenkins took inspiration from an antique photograph of Oklahoma settlers, using the bleak landscape it depicted to give their staging a true-to-life aspect.

Curly still sings about the beauties of an Oklahoma "mornin'" but visually the backdrop is quite spare. The "wavin' wheat" is nowhere in sight and dwellings are suggested by platforms and railings of rough-hewn lumber. Toni Spadafora's costumes speak further to the realities of the settlers' lives. The characters wear apparel stained by dirt and sweat, torn and ragged from hard toil on the land. When folks gather for a community dance or even a wedding celebration, their colorful Sunday best consists of simple, homespun garb. Gear including rawhide chaps, Stetson hats, and tooled-leather saddles is carefully tended but shows obvious signs of wear.

These day-to-day realities manifest themselves in the characters as well. Laurey, for instance, is a far more grounded young woman in this production. She does not enjoy the luxury of capering about in skirts and frilled bonnets; instead, she lugs around piles of firewood while dressed in trousers and a plain button-down shirt. Work equals survival in this land and, like any other farmhand on the family's homestead, her face and arms are smudged and dirty.

What makes the Jenkins' approach work so well is that the settlers are not bowed down to the harsh environment or lack of fine provisions. The toil and hardships are welcome, deep-rooted parts of frontier life, not disheartening or onerous to them. In this light, the characters' dedication to and love for the land manifests naturally in song and dance.

And Oklahoma! serves as a most welcome reminder that Trinity's acting company boasts a wealth of outstanding musical talent. May Charlie Thurston enjoy many, many opportunities to sing on Trinity's stage in the future. His delivery is phenomenal with beautiful clarity and tone, and he packs lots of personality into each of Curly's numbers. Rachael Warren's gifted performance as Laurey provides a master class in how to infuse songs with life and expression, not to mention utter musicality. Joe Wilson, Jr.'s deep, resonant voice makes Jud Fry's obsessive solo, "Lonely Room," one of the most memorable scenes in the entire production.

These three work wonderfully together in both song and spoken dialogue. Warren and Thurston have a charming rapport as Laurey and Curly, whether engaged in good-natured sparring or singing a romantic duet. The tongue-in-cheek "Pore Jud is Daid" number is played to comic perfection by Thurston and Wilson while still simmering with an undercurrent of menace. The threat underlying that scene builds a foundation for Jud's second-act meltdown, and Wilson's unnerving characterization makes Jud's confrontation with Laurey feel downright chilling.

Of course, Oklahoma! features plenty of lighter moments, not to mention vibrant song-and-dance numbers like "The Farmer and the Cowman" and "Kansas City." A cast of colorful characters populates the storyline, including Rebecca Gibel's vivacious (if raunchy) Ado Annie and Jude Sandy's devotedly dim Will Parker. The itinerant peddler Ali Hakim makes a splash thanks to Stephen Thorne's marvelous gift for comic timing. And Janice Duclos' excellent Aunt Eller advises the youngsters with common sense and a healthy dose of dry wit.

The show's biggest songs sound fantastic, with a tip of the hat to Michael Rice's musical direction and his top-notch band of players. Sharon Jenkins' choreography for the "Dream Ballet" impresses with excellent tension and timing, and its surreal images are enhanced by Eugene Lee's understated-yet-eerie lighting effects. Lee's minimal sets also make their mark, first by bringing the actors directly into the audience and second by weaving into the narrative in unexpected ways. Period-appropriate advertisements and posters do more than give a sense of place and time, and Lee's vision of Oklahoma on the cusp of American statehood is a stirring complement to the show's rousing title song.

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Oklahoma! plays Trinity Repertory Company through June 5, 2016. Ticket prices range from $25-71. Tickets are available online at www.trinityrep.com, by phone (401) 351-4242, or by visiting the box office at 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI.

Photo by Mark Turek

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