Oklahoma! Tours to Northwest VenuesDate: 4 March 2010
West End and international musical theatre star Marti Webb and runner-up in BBC’s Your Country Needs You, Mark Evans, are leading the cast in the tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
The popular musical is being produced by Martin Dodd for UK Productions and directed by Julian Woolford, with choreography by Chris Hocking and musical supervision by Gareth Williams.
With music by Richard Rodgers and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Oklahoma! smashed all Broadway box office records when it opened in 1943.
It was the first collaboration between Rodgers and Hammerstein, the legendary team who went on to create Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music.
Set on America’s Western Frontier, against a background of conflict between farmers and cattlemen, Oklahoma! integrates song, dance and story to tell the tale of farm girl Laurey and the two rivals for her affections, happy go-lucky cowboy Curly, played by Evans, and the sinister farmhand Jud.
Webb, who plays the part of Aunt Eller in this production, is one of the UK’s most popular leading ladies, whose extensive West End credits include Blood Brothers, Tell Me on a Sunday, Song & Dance, Evita, Cats and Thoroughly Modern Millie, to name a few.
As well as the famous opening song 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', the musical score will feature 'The Surrey with the Fringe on Top', 'People Will Say We're in Love', 'Many a New Day', and 'I Cain't Say No'.
Following its opening in Bournemouth, this new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! appears at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre on Tuesday 30 March and runs until Saturday 3 April.
The extensive UK tour heads to the Grand Theatre in Blackpool, during the summer, before making a further appearance in the Northwest at Manchester’s Opera House on 11 October.
- by Michael Hunt
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