Portland Center Stage

Marty Hughley | The Oregonian [Review 29 Sep 2011]

According to the book “The Hammersteins: a Musical Theatre Family,” Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II included an exclamation point in the title of their 1943 musical “Oklahoma!” as a subtle way to distance it from the grim associations the word had taken on a few years earlier because of “The Grapes of Wrath.”

The Portland Center Stage production that opened Friday night confirmed it yet again: Spelling “Oklahoma!” without that suggestion of exultation just wouldn’t be right.

Barry Johnson | Oregon Arts Watch [Review 29 Sep 2011]

I do a strange little dance around revivals. I’m usually quite certain that I’m not interested in the revivals of major stage musicals when they are announced. But then I see them, and I realize that I was wrong. I don’t remember them very well it turns out, and I have the “wrong” idea about them, because when I saw the first time, everything was different: I was different, the times were different, the production was different.

So let it be with Portland Center Stage’s “Oklahoma!”. When I first heard about it, I stifled a mental yawn. Really? “Oklahoma!”? Why? Jolly artificial cowboys courtin’ and sparkin’? Surely, I would have better things to do.

But then I learned that Center Stage artistic director Chris Coleman was setting it in an African-American town in the Oklahoma Territory, and that piqued my interest a little bit. The history of the West rarely acknowledges the contributions, the lives, of African Americans, and Oklahoma had lots of all-Black towns. That was more interesting to me than Trevor Nunn’s beautiful technicolor 1999 revival, even with the excellent Hugh Jackman as Curly.

Christi Krug | Kindling [Review 29 Sep 2011]

All American boy, all American girl, all American town. What comes to mind? I love what Portland Center Stage director Chris Coleman has done with “Oklahoma!” blasting old tropes by setting this musical in a historical all-Black town, showcasing the all-Americanness of these first Oklahomans.

What a cast! Rodney Hicks as Curly has a rich, warm, vibrant voice that could melt butter on cornbread. Brianna Horne with her big-eyed, long-faced beauty is a tough and tender Laurey, country bumpkin and princess at once. And who wouldn’t be charmed by Marisha Wallace’s Ado Annie, ditzy and adorable, singing her heart out?

Ben Waterhouse | Willamette Week [Review 28 Sep 2011]

What kind of protagonist goes around suggesting people commit suicide? What kind of love story ends in a murder trial? For a regular fixture of high-school stages, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration is a pretty bleak show. Its nominal hero, Curly, is a bully, and its female lead, Laurey, is a snob. Its big dance sequence is all menace. Its moral is that looking at dirty pictures leads to murder. Given the evidence—“Poor Jud Is Dead,” the climactic flesh-auction and the townsfolk’s blissful dismissal of Jud’s death—one gets the impression that Oklahoma is not OK.

Ron Hockman | CultureMob [Review 26 Sep 2011]

The source of that “bright golden haze” emanating from the Gerding Theater, illuminating the Portland skyline, is the marvelous Portland Center Stage production of Oklahoma! PCS promised theater-goers a “boot-stompin’ good time!” and they more than live up to their promise. Classic songs, exuberant dancing, eye-popping sets, and a talented, gifted cast make this Oklahoma! more than OK—it is downright rollicking good old-fashioned fun. And it’s a love story to boot.