Musicals have just never been my bag – the words of Noel
Coward always swirl around my brain – “Don’t put your daughter on the stage Mrs
Worthington!” Sure, I love LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE
DESERT and the current production of CHICAGO (at Burswood), is superb, however I take great pride in NEVER having seen SOUND OF MUSIC, although I
did buy the album for my mum. But back to Noel Coward … sort of. Mr John-Michael Swinbank had kindly invited a friend of mine to the
opening night of OKLAHOMA,
at His Majesty’s Theatre and I tagged along as her Handbag (Veronica’s, not JM’s!).

OKLAHOMA (Rodgers & Hammerstein), is the first
professional outing for a new theatre company, IAJ International, although
there are some well-known names behind the production – Ian Westrip as Musical
Director, Tim Cunniffe as Assistant Musical Director and John Senczuk as
Director / Designer. Andrew Wong is the Producer.

The stage was minimalist, with the 20 piece orchestra set
back to the left, several panels depicting rows of corn staggered on the right
of the stage and a large vertical Oklahoma
sign which became an integral part of the play. It all worked reasonably well,
although at first I found the low-slung spotlights distracting.

The performance started with a medley of the show’s tunes
and a slightly awkward walk on / walk off intro to the main characters. Drew
Weston faltered a little in his first few bars, then grew vocally stronger, as
his confidence grew and there were the usual First Night
glitches – a wrongly cued voiceover, a chair misplaced for a curtain screen and a
couple of the moves of the Oklahoma sign looked decidedly mistake- driven.

Although the orchestration was excellent, as was the
singing, the first act was beginning to bore me – lot’s of cheesy music and
grins, but no guts, I could feel myself beginning to nod-off. Then it all
changed.

Ben Hudson came on, as Jud Fry, the hired hand and the whole
play took a dark turn. I knew most of the music, but didn’t know the story.
Ben’s character seemed to lift the game for everyone and I found myself sitting
upright, listening to everything, genuinely laughing at the gags and thoroughly
enjoying the characterisations. This was bloody good stuff – I can’t believe
I’m saying it!

Penny Cook was excellent as Aunt Eller, as also was Meghan
O’Shea as Laurey and they were backed by a very strong, capable cast, however
the performances by Ian Toyne, as Ali Hakim, Marie Coles, as Ado Annie and Ben
Hudson were quite stunning.

By the second half, I was waiting for the action to start,
any thought of sleep had long since gone. I’ve written of the sparse set, however mention must be made of the fabulous dream sequence at the end of the first
half, it is very clever, quite chilling in places, with excellent choreography,
it was the moment I really began to think there was more to the musical than
met the eye. This really is great entertainment and I have no hesitation in
recommending it, even to non-musical theatre people like me.

It’s  fantastic to see a new pro theatre company
start in the west, their next production is THE BOY FRIEND, scheduled for 15 - 17 Jyly at the Bunbury Entertainment Centre and 21
-24 July at His Majesty’s and it will start Julie Anthony, with the same
Directing/ production team, on the basis of this production of OKLAHOMA, if
they can convert me, they’re on to something.

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