Review: "Oklahoma!" at Dexter's Encore Theatre

It’s awfully tough to evoke the vast openness of the American plains on a small stage - especially when there are nearly 20 people on it - but that’s precisely what Dexter’s Encore Theatre aims to do with its new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical “Oklahoma!”

Director Barbara Cullen wished to emphasize the hard work and day-to-day struggle inherent in territory life in 1906, both through staging choices and costumes, and the results are mixed. Colleen Meyer’s costumes are unusually subdued in terms of color, which is fine; but for people who lived off the land, on the dusty plains, their clothes looked remarkably new and spotless on opening night.

And while having Aunt Eller (Becky Hess) churn butter as the show opens adheres to Cullen’s vision, it sure makes for a sluggish start. Yes, Curly (Rusty Mewha) soon enters singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” but the number feels, and looks, stiff, despite Mewha’s strong, clear vocals.

As Laurey, a stubborn, independent-minded farm girl who’s caught Curly’s eye, U-M musical theater grad Liz Griffith gets to show off some pretty impressive pipes herself. But there’s curiously little spark on stage between her and Mewha.

Consequently, “Kansas City” offered the show’s first signs of life on opening night; but even then, there were issues. The stage is low enough, relative to the audience’s seats, that as I sat in the sixth row, I strained to see Cullen’s heel-kicking, downstage choreography; pretty much all I saw were the actors’ upper bodies, where not much was happening because the performers’ thumbs were firmly hooked onto their belt loops.

Nonetheless, the energy and fun of the number is contagious, and thereafter, Broadway veteran Sarah Litzsinger (as Ado Annie) positively lights up the stage with “I Cain’t Say No.” Litzsinger is generally marvelous in her role, and as Annie’s would-be fiancée, Will Parker, Sebastian Gerstner plays off her with skill and enthusiasm, while Steve DeBruyne steals several scenes as the smooth-talking traveling salesman, Ali Hakim.

But special mention goes to Gavriel Savit, whose Jud Fry is the dark, troubled heart of Encore’s “Oklahoma!” Instead of a monster, Jud becomes, in Savit’s hands, a frustrated, lonely, sad man with whom we empathize, particularly after Savit’s stirring, powerful performance of “Lonely Room.”

The show’s orchestra struggled at times on opening night - with only six players, individual parts are far more exposed than usual. And Encore’s mission to seamlessly pair seasoned, professional performers with amateurs occasionally falters mid-number, when the gap suddenly feels glaringly apparent.

But the production’s best moments are memorable ones; and unlike Ado Annie, I generally don’t think in terms of “All Er Nothin’” when it comes to theater.