Cast excels, show rolls with surrey’s ‘2 bright sidelights winkin’ and blinkin’....’

FRANKLIN — After seeing a spirited production of the magnificent musical “Oklahoma!” on July 5 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, my enthusiasm for this Broadway classic, which is one of the best (and a genuine masterpiece that I have seen more than a half-dozen times over the years), was tempered by a realization that today’s music, in contrast, is a downright embarrassment.

Given that there are more trained musicians alive today than the combined total in all of previous human history, I often wonder: So where is today’s Beethoven or Bach? 

Along the same lines (and more comparable to “Oklahoma!”), one might ask: Where are today’s brilliant Broadway composers rising to the same stratospheric heights for wit, style and creativity as, say, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Cole Porter or Jerome Kern?

Instead of Porter’s clever, sophisticated and timeless lyrics in such songs as “Anything Goes” — “Good authors too who once knew better words / Now only use four-letter words / Writing prose, anything goes....” — today we can boast the trite street refrain of the group 2 in a Room’s “Wiggle It (Just a Little Bit)” — over and over and over....

At this very moment, Pharrell Williams has an insipid mega-hit with “Happy” — a song so sickeningly sweet, it surely will give diabetes to those few Americans who hear it ... and don’t have the disease (yet).

On “Wiggle,” composer George Morel couldn’t have spent more than two minutes working on the lyrics. I’m surprised he didn’t just name the song “Awesome!” to encapsulate the extent of the adjectives in the vocabulary of our dumbed-down, techno-crazed, multi-tasking American populace.

Almost on a par with “Wiggle” are the several songs out now with the lyrics mainly composed of “Put Your Hands Up,” or some slight derivation. Could it be that, despite programming computers to write many of today’s songs, composers are shortcutting the process by just thinking up some hip phrase for the lyrics, combining them with simple, catchy riffs  — and running it all into the dirt, only to pick up millions of dollars in music sales.

In vivid contrast to today’s musical dreck, there’s the infectiously charming “Oklahoma!,” which received a well-deserved standing ovation from an appreciative audience at the conclusion of the two-hour, 15-minute performance, with an intermission.

The show, which ended its six-performance SMCPA run on July 6, was directed and choreographed by Broadway veteran Robert Ray for The Alliance Theatre, based in Atlanta, which gave the performance in Franklin. The SMCPA auditorium, which seats 1,500, appeared to be about two-thirds full.

“Oklahoma!” marked the first collaboration of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist-librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. Theater historian Ethan Mordden credits “Oklahoma!” as the first American musical with an ethnic sound, words and music entirely in the folk idiom. It also constituted a pioneering effort to integrate the action in a musical with the songs to advance the plot to elicit emotional reactions, rather than just laughs.

The show opened on Broadway in 1943 and became a long-running box-office smash that continues to be revived periodically on the Great White Way. “Oklahoma!” was released as a highly successful film in 1955, featuring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones in the lead roles.

In the Franklin performance, the sets were simple, but striking and appropriate, capturing the “genu-wine” cornfields, as well as the breathtaking blue skies and green prairies.

Brad Thomason played Curly, the handsome and gallant cowboy hero of the tale; while Camilla Zaepfel was Laurey, bursting with beauty, sweetness and spirit — and courted by Curly.

“People Will Say We’re In Love” was their best number together, but my personal favorite was a rousing “Surrey With a Fringe on Top,” showing that, as advertised, “love’s journey is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road,” especially when the reins are in the hands of these two headstrong romantics.

Another unforgettable song performance was Curly’s “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” and, of course, the grand title song, “Oklahoma!”

Perhaps the best single group number of the night was “The Farmer and the Cowman,” depicting the highly spirited rivalry between the farmers and the cowboys in what were known as the range wars. The song goes:

“The farmer and the cowman should be friends,

Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends.

One man likes to push a plough, the other likes to chase a cow,

But that’s no reason why they cain’t be friends.

Territory folks should stick together,

Territory folks should all be pals.

Cowboys dance with farmer’s daughters,

Farmers dance with the ranchers’ gals....”

Susan Atkinson, playing Aunt Eller, appeared to win over the crowd fast, even though — as a slight criticism — she had more of a Southern accent than the 1906 Oklahoma territory dialect I have heard from characters in her role before. (Still, the settlers came from everywhere, so it’s plausible that Aunt Eller could have been a Southerner.) She played the character who was the glue that held together the colorful men and women, amid the turmoil of courting, heartbreak and squabbles — and she added a dollop of compassion to her otherwise rabidly rustic role. 

Jody Woodruff’s lanky Will Parker was a model of athleticism, good with a lasso but, alas, a dim-witted beau, playing opposite to the flirtatious and occasionally pretentious Ado Annie, played by Jesslyn Rollins. Arguably, Rollins — in her first show — turned in the top performance of the night with her acting and singing. Her rendition of “I Cain’t Say No” was one of the night’s highlights. (She plays the “yes” girl to hilarious effect.)

Almost as good was Woodruff’s delightful rendition of “Kansas City” — and the choreography was top-notch.The song begins:

“Ev’rythin’s up to date in Kansas City

They’ve gone about as fur as they c’n go!

They went and built a skyscraper seven stories high,

About as high as a buildin’ oughta grow.

Ev’rythin’s like a dream in Kansas City,

It’s better than a magic lantern show!

Y’ c’n turn the radiator on whenever you want some heat.

With ev’ry kind o’ comfort ev’ry house is all complete.

You c’n walk to privies in the rain and never wet your feet....”

Compared with other productions of the show I’ve seen, Vance West’s Jud Fry was believably degenerate and pitiful and surprised me with his powerhouse voice, while Truman Griffith’s Ali Hakim, as the peddler, registered an unusually strong, funny performance.

Finally, the “Out of My Dreams” ballet/dream sequence — when Laurey falls asleep after buying some smelling salts from Ali to help her choose between Jud and Curly — was memorable, surreal and sparkled.

Also, much to their credit, the women’s voices — overall — were a bit stronger than those of the men in this rendition of “Oklahoma!” 

The show started with an appropriate bang, firing away with one smashing song after another — and should have also ended on a high note, but instead it seemed to wrap up with somewhat less steam — maybe the cast was worn out.

Still, this spirited show was a blast — and terrifically depicted the true grit of the characters that made this the great country that it was ... back then.