Customer Reviews

Oklahoma

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is excellent as a whole but Hugh Jackman deserves special mention. Both his booming voice and cheerful, vigorous performance make an excellent Curly. He masterfully combines dialogue with music and is truly a delight to listen. 5* for this Oklahoma! cast recording and 5* additionally for Jackman's superb performance.

Maybe it's because the original recording is so old, but the London West End revival is wonderful. Pieces of dialogue have been included with the songs that actually make it better (IE - during "Surrey With The Fringe"). And Hugh Jackman is excellent as an Oklahoma hick. If you think the original soundtrack sounds dated, I strongly suggest you give this version a listen.

For fans of OKLAHOMA and/or this London revival especially, this recording is a must. The cast is excellent and in top-notch vocal form. For X-Men fans, it may come as a bit of a surprise that the actor famous for playing Wolverine, the ripped Hugh Jackman, was actually a song and dance man before he came to Hollywood. He shows off his musical theatre chops here, and is in great voice. His Curly is cocky, careless, flirty, and surprisingly sensitive to his own emotions, while Josefina Gabrielle's Laurey is earthy, tom-boyish and surprisingly strong whereas the character usually comes across as two-dimensional; not so here. Gabrielle often gets flack for not being Shirley Jones a la the film version, but I enjoy Gabrielle's voice more in this role. Her rendition of "Many a New Day" and "Out of My Dreams" are amazing, esp. her delivery of the last couple of measures in "Out of My Dreams" - clear and silvery as a bell. She falters only slightly on "People Will Say We're In Love" with moving from her chest voice to her head voice, but almost every actress has that slight break when sliding up quickly like that, except for the great Marin Mazzie. Although you can't see it on the recording, but can in the filmed version of this production, Gabrielle is the first Laurey to do her own dancing in The Dream Ballet, making her the most well-rounded and only triple-threat actress to play the role. As Ado Annie, Vicki Simon gives the best vocal rendering of "I Can't Say No" and gives us an Oklahoma accent that isn't over-the-top; her comic timing is also great. Shuler Hensley, this production's Jud, is the best actor to step into the role. He isn't so much the villain of the piece as a broken man driven to madness out of loneliness, and his rendition of the oft-cut "Lonely Room" is one of the recording's highlights. I also cannot offer enough praise to the ensemble of this show - they blend perfectly to give us one big, booming, beautiful voice, as all the best ensembles do. All in all, a great and highly recommended recording of Trevor Nunn's ground-breaking opening-up of this R&H classic.

This is a great way to relive the stage play/DVD of Oklahoma!. The songs are mostly identical to the ones from the DVD. There are a few differences, but they are so minor. I only noticed them because I loved the DVD. I have several of the songs on my MP3 player and it's always fun when they come up in the rotation (I always shuffle my songs so I never know what's coming next. Makes listening an adventure.) Definately recommend the soundtrack CD, especially if you liked the DVD release.

In an age where relatively few Broadway-type shows are being released on CD, this recording of the London revival of Oklahoma! is a welcome treat. Hugh Jackman is in great voice and very effective as Curley, even though his Australian accent does come through occasionally. Maureen Lipman's voice is exquisite in the role of Laurey. The entire cast authentically represents the portrayals of the early west settlers, including the roles of Ado Annie, Aunt Eller, and Jud Fry. Orchestra and chorus perform with authority and grace. This is an energetic and first class production of the 1998 London revival.

This is a reissue of the excellent 1998 London Revival Cast Recording of Oklahoma!.

All the songs are here, clear and crisp. Included is a booklet that gives some history on the show, but no lyrics.

Of course the cast is amazing with Hugh Jackman (Curly), Maureen Lipman (Aunt Eller), Josefina Gabrielle (Laurey), Shuler Hensley (Jud), etc. Songs like "Pore Jud Is Daid," "Cowman and the Farmer," and "I Cain't Say No" are sung with a lot energy and humor. While "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," "People Will Say We're in Love," and "Out of My Dreams" are just plain lovely.

This is my favorite recording of Oklahoma! and it gets played a lot. I highly recommend it and the DVD of the same London show.

This version of Oklahoma is quite different from the Gordon McCrea/Shirley Jones version we are used to seeing. As such, it is great to have both versions. This one contains songs I had never heard. The DVD is a taped play and, at first, it threw me to have the midwest accents done by an Australian, but I got over it quickly. I enjoyed it so much that I bought both the CD and the DVD.