The Porthill Players

past productions - April 2008

Oklahoma!

held on the 8th - 12th April 2008
at the Stoke-on-Trent Repertory Theatre

Porthill Players - Oklahoma

a review of Oklahoma!

If you're ever asked by a pub quiz machine what 1943 musical begins with no-one on stage, the answer is Oklahoma! At the time, musicals were meant to begin with a spectacular all-dancing number, not with a bare stage and a man singing Oh What A Beautiful Morning from the wings before wandering on.

This Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was groundbreaking. It changed the genre. Before Oklahoma!, musicals strung unrelated songs together with a flimsy plot. It led the genre from musical comedy to musical theatre, with an actual story and song in service to it, and it included a 15-minute ballet sequence that would induce panic in even the most professional of directors.

It's a big show to live up to, but Porthill Players rose to the occasion magnificently last night.

At heart, this is an old-fashioned romantic comedy about a boy and a girl who are deeply in love but pretend they can't stand each other, like they used to back then. Curly, played by Mark Hilton, is a cowboy and fantasist who doesn't ever seem to be able to get around to asking farm girl Laurey, played by Catherine O'Reilly, out.

To make him jealous she asks her crazy stalker Jud to the box social, something country folk do for entertainment. Curly's bizarre reaction to this is to go see his love rival and tell him how great it would be if he was dead. There's a whole song about it.

The principals play their roles perfectly. Curly is sweet and infuriating, Laurey is too damn independent for her own good, and Jud is at once dangerous and sympathetic. Aunt Eller, the matriarch, was imperious and self-important but not without a sense of fun.

And unusually for an amateur show, even the minor characters were spot-on. The songs were great, the dancing was enthusiastic, and the ballet sequence went without a hitch. It was a joyful, exuberant show, and Porthill's Oklahoma! is well worth the trip."

Sentinel Newspaper
9 April 2008

Oklahoma! - 'Oh, what a beautiful show!'

Alihakim - Traveling Oddities

Cast of Oklahoma!

Curly McLain................Mark Hilton

Laurey Williams............Catherine Holt

Will Parker...................Carl Pilato

Ado Annie Carnes.........Debbie Cornock

Jud Fry.........................John Wicks

Ali Hakim.....................John Stone

Aunt Eller.....................Carol Andrews

Andrew Carnes.............Richard Masters

Gertie Cummings..........Jill Bowdery

Virginia.....................Debbie Barratt

Ellen......................Sarah Huckfield

Vivian....................Laura Mountford

Kate.............Helen Snelson-Pickford

Cord Elam........................Jeoff Hill

Farmer / Mike.............Andrew Tooth

Fred..............................Mark Hawley

Ike Skidmore.................Oliver Davies

Joe........................Trevor Mountford

Slim..........................Tim Wedgwood

Tom...............................Phillip Barratt

Sylvie...........................Amy Manns

Armina............................Ellie Wardle

Dancers:

Dawn Bailey, Sarah Brookes, Amy Jackson, Lydia Jervis, Kathrine M Lovatt, Siobhan Webb,
Emma Wingfield, Adam Browning

Ladies Company:

Samantha Ainsworth, Jodie Barratt, Katie L Beckett, Lorraine Bennion, Christine Birks, Carole Bissell, Janet Gillham, Muriel Middling, Glynis Mountford, Val Podmore, Megan Wardle, Shannon Webb

Gentlemans Company:

Derek Bennion, Terry Brooks, Frank Foy, Steven Gleaves, James Keen, Albert Whittaker