Arena Stage
Washington, D.C.
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Rogers and Hammerstein’s “melodic reminder of American resilience” may be ready for another Broadway revival, said Peter Marks in The Washington Post. Dusting off this unabashedly sentimental musical about “plain folks” in pre-statehood Oklahoma, Washington’s Arena Stage is celebrating its recent $135 million renovation with an energetic in-the-round staging that feels as fresh as the “newly glittering” complex. The story is still simplicity itself: It’s about a cowboy and a farmhand vying for a pretty girl’s affections. But Broadway producers are scouting director Molly Smith’s take on the 1943 warhorse because “superb choreography” and appealing performers make this a production that could cure anyone’s recession blues.
Even the grumpiest of theater purists are “likely to emerge with contented grins,” said Bob Mondello in the Washington City Paper. Many theatergoers initially objected to the production, believing that the Arena Stage “was founded as an antidote to precisely this sort of blithely commercial entertainment.” Yet those complaints have ceased. It helps that the members of the spirited cast perform “with the same conviction they’d bring to Chekhov.” Eleasha Gamble gives a captivatingly earthy twist to the ingénue part of Laurey, while Nicholas Rodriguez’s Curley “lights up the stage.” Aaron Ramey’s Jud, the villainous farmhand, is meanwhile so full-throated and menacing “you wish someone would build a production of Sweeney Todd around him.”
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