Review by Connor Mullins.
The AHS Theatre department deserves all the credit for this incredible musical they performed January 23-25.
“Oklahoma” was by far my favorite musical out of all of my four years of high school. The performances by the cast were stellar. Madi Sipe shined as Ado Annie and has an incredibly bright future ahead of her in theatre. Caleb Queen put together an absolutely phenomenal performance in his role as Jud Fry, and he will be missed once he graduates this year. Natalie Porter, Jordan Mathis, Brent Bardin, Kira Tanner, Lindsay Rogers, and the rest of the cast wowed their audiences for their dazzling performances in their roles.
Mr. Martin and Mrs. Fisher worked incredibly hard to create this musical, and all I can say is “wow”. This musical exceeded my expectations. The smokehouse scene between Jud (Caleb Queen) and Curly (Jordan Mathis) was one of the many highlights of this musical.
Laurey’s (Kira Tanner and Lindsay Rogers) character development in this musical was particularly interesting. As Laurey and Curly’s relationship intensifies, the couples’ treatment of Jud Fry illustrates an element of hatred and drama that results in catastrophic consequences in one of the final scenes.
Ado Annie (Madi Sipe) and her scene between Ali Hakim (Travis Eason) and Andrew Carnes (Hunter Lee) offers comedic relief in the first half of the musical that really captures the audience and offers insight into Ado Annie’s scandalousness that is dictated throughout the play.
The dancing in this musical was remarkable. The featured dances of Brooke Garduno, Ryley Lawler, Julia Melson, Jayden Delgado, and Karissa Ward during the end of the first half of the musical was one of the many qualities of this musical.
The music played by the orchestra conducted by Dr. Jonathan Kraemer was also incredibly well done. The music really brings the play to life and adds extra insight and flare to each character and their development throughout the play.
The only thing about this musical that bothered me was the fact that there were mic issues at every performance. On opening night, two of the main characters had mic issues and had to sing and speak over the orchestra and the audience had a hard time hearing them. The second performance had more of the same issues with mics. The Saturday performances had multiple actors blow out mics, but you can’t really prevent that when your character is supposed to scream and yell. Overall though, the actors were outstanding and created a unique performance that exemplified the great quality of our theatre department.
Mr. Martin and Mrs. Fisher, you won me over with this musical. To the cast and everyone involved, keep it up with the Oklahoma “Hellos” and the Persian “Goodbyes.”
