Signature unleashes energetic version of musical

Marilyn LaRocque

Thursday, April 4, 2002 | 8:29 a.m.

From the minute Curly (played by Justin Johnson) strolls down the theater aisle singing "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," to the final rousing chorus of the title song, Signature Productions' "Oklahoma!" entertains and charms at a professional level scarcely expected from a cast of nonpaid performers.

Fresh-faced, clean-scrubbed, talented singers and dancers, who are also fine actors, give the Rodgers and Hammerstein blockbuster a fast-paced performance. Adding to the appeal are innovative choreography, imaginative scenery and pretty costumes.

Director Debora Boyd has skillfully guided her cast to a relaxed, natural acting style, and they come across as real friends and neighbors in the Oklahoma Territory.

She pays meticulous attention to detail, with Aunt Eller (Barbara Costa) churning butter in time to the music, and Laurey (Katie Kern) giving a rug a healthy shake timed to envelop Curly in a cloud of dust.

Musical Director Shauna Oblad has made sure every word of every song is clearly sung so the audience understands all the lyrics and laughs at the right places.

The result is a buoyant production with a well-balanced cast that excels.

Gun Spinning World Champion of 2002 Delaney J. Gillilan gets the production off to a quick start with a gun-twirling, rope-whirling solo in front of the curtain.

As Curly, Johnson delivers an earnest, boyish performance; but it's his voice that really stands out. Strong and ideally suited to stage musicals, it has both power and innocence. When he sings "Surrey With the Fringe on Top," you keep expecting the horses to clip-clop onstage.

Kern's professional experience as an opening act for the Dixie Chicks and Martina McBride, as well as others, shines through her performance as Laurey. She is both petulant and straightforward, as her role requires, and is another stellar vocalist.

Jace Chan, who, with his wife, Julie, created the choreography of the show, was recruited into the role of Will Parker only two weeks before the curtain went up when the original actor went to Los Angeles in connection with the Oscars.

Chan has the knack for the much put-upon boyfriend of fickle Ado Annie (Nikkole Liesse), and his dancing is a show-stopper. He leads the cast in a free-wheeling routine of "Kansas City" that combines high-spirited clogging, thigh-slapping, cartwheels and portions of the original Agnes de Mille dance.

Throughout the show, the dancing is phenomenal. In fact, everyone onstage can sing and dance with the best of them. Principal dancers Emily Ellis, Heidi Kern and Nikki Avery are astounding. Their high kicks and splits in the bordello scene of the Laurey dream sequence were spectacular.

Liesse, as Ado Annie, flirts unabashedly with Will, with appropriately smarmy itinerant peddler Ali Hakim (Steve McMillan) and with the audience as she sings her explanation of why she "Cain't Say No" and, with Will, duets on "All Er Nothing."

Given the role he plays, that of the malcontented farmhand Jud Frey, Mike McCartney is an appealing star. Tall and muscular, with a resonant baritone, he could easily be a leading man, and, in fact, he has starred as Emile DeBec in "South Pacific." He and Curly combined for a heartily applauded tongue-in-cheek rendition of "Poor Jud Is Dead." When Jud fell on his knife and died in a fight with Curly over Laurey, the audience responded with a sympathetic "awwww."

Barbara Costa was marvelous as Aunt Eller, blending the right amounts of favorite aunt and confidant of Laurey with homespun realism, a firm singing voice and heel-kicking dancing. As Ado Annie's long-suffering, shotgun-toting father, Andrew, Karl Larsen futilely tried to keep his capricious daughter in line.

Throughout the play, the colorful costumes designed by Shelley Callister and executed by Emerson Costumes of Las Vegas perfectly interpreted the period. Particularly fetching were the beribboned petticoats, pantaloons and corsets of the dance performed by the young women before the box social.

"Oklahoma!" continues at Summerlin Library and Performing Arts Center through April 20.