slightlymad22
I wasn't sure I'd like this, I love seeing live shows, love musicals and I love movies, but I was unsure about watching a movie of the stage show. I only watched it based on the fact that Hugh Jackman was in it.Plot In A Paragraph: Laurie (Josefina Gabrielle) and Curly (Hugh Jackman), like each other, they tease, flirt, goad each other, and go out of their way to avoid admitting their obvious mutual attraction. But hired hand Jud Fry (Shuler Hensley) has a much less wholesome desire for Laurie, and his obsession starts to boil over into a serious threat. Meanwhile Will Parker (Jimmy Johnston) tries to prove himself worthy of his sweetheart Ado Annie (Vikki Simon) before her father can marry her off.The cast was great especially Maureen Lipman, she was the best Aunt Eller I have ever seen, Josefina Gabrielle, Shuler Hensley, Jimmy Johnston and Vikki Simon all do it great job. However it was Hugh Jackman as Curly that really carried this for me.
Sara Wilson
I saw this without knowing who Hugh Jackman was, and I was blown away by his performance. He really shines as Curly and his presence is second to none. His singing is certainly some of the best in musical theater. It was only after seeing this that I found out that he was Wolverine, so I was able to just soak it all in. Maureen Lipman is a wonderful Aunt Eller. The actors do all their own dancing, even in the dream sequence. Jimmy Johnston is a very good Will Turner and does some amazing dancing. Vicki Simon is the perfect Ado Annie and extremely funny. It is filmed on a stage set designed to look like the set at the Royal National Theater. It also captures the spirit of the show beautifully. It is a positively classic. See it.
daniel_clancy2001
I just bought and watched the video of this because I will be in an amateur production soon of "Oklahoma!", and my song was cut out of the 1955 film. First of all, Maureen Lipman was excellent as Aunt Eller, Josefina Gabrielle was a good Laurey, Shuler Hensley was absolutely brilliant as Jud and Peter Pollycarpou was alright as Ali Hakim, although the character he performed was nothing like the character in the script. I thought that Jimmy Johnston and Vicki Simon gave good performances, but they were terribly miscast, making my favourite double-act quite irritating Hugh Jackman is a good actor. He can sing, but he knows it and seems desperate to outsing everyone else, making one dread (quite justifiably) the big title song at the end.What I liked about this production was the very lavish stage and Trevor Nunn's direction. What made me laugh is that the director is clearly trying to be as unlike the 1955 film as possible, and so are some of the cast. However, the other people are copying their 1955 contemporaries (why does Will never pronounce the "t" in "Kansas City"?), and whoever rewrote the script undoubtedly had the film in his mind. The director for the video is treating it as a film rather than a stage show, but the shot goes back to the audience occasionally, reminding us that it is a theatre.The first thing I did after watching the tape was to rewind it and watch it again so that says something. The tape isn't that bad, and is certainly acceptable, at the least. I rated it 8 put of 10. I'd probably give it 8.5.
the_musical_gal
I have never seen the old version of "Oklahoma" but I know a pretty good bit about it. I saw "Oklahoma" put on by a church in my town when I was about six, but I don't remember much about it.I really enjoyed this version, the British know how to do musicals! I loved how they made Laurey a tomboy in the beginning to show us how strong and willful she is. Josefina Gabrielle is like a younger, brunette Shirley Jones. She has a beautiful singing voice, she is a beautiful dancer, and a great actress. Did I mention that she's beautiful? I really liked how the actors did their own dancing in the Dream sequence.I thought Hugh Jackman was amazing. To think that this is the guy who plays Wolverine!!!! This man is is an amazing actor. He's good-looking (very), he can sing, he can dance, and he can really act. He does a very good southern accent. He's also a very believable romantic hero.Jud was great. That voice...oh my gosh! Such a rich voice, it's like "Lonely Room" was written for him. And Aunt Eller....oh I looove Aunt Eller. She steals the show. She's perfect.I have nothing bad to say about this show. It's well-done. I just wish Hollywood and Broadway could do more things like this. I got the DVD for Christmas, by the way.
AD
