(seen at the performance on 19th June 2025)
With dance man Drew McOnie in charge, it is to be expected we will see more terpsichorean magic under his management. Very welcome it will be too, if it continues like this.
For four nights only, McOnie has commissioned three choreographers to create new works around Rogers and Hammerstein classic shows “Carousel,” “Allegro” and “Oklahoma.”
The result is a fascinating evening, seemingly with a linking theme of work – management and control – filling the huge Open Air stage with colour and some breathtaking moves.
First up, Kate Prince’s “Carousel” explodes from the auditorium. How happy are the brightly dressed carnival crew? They gurn their joy at us, but enmeshed by the ropes of the ingenious carousel, under cruel owner Tommy Franzen, they move only on his strings.
There is rebellion – one man stands up to him. Is it his son, or is it simply an independent thinker? No matter, the battle lines are drawn, and the rebel gains little support from the rest.
Surprise twist... the battle is won... but at what cost? The closing sequence is as bleak as the opening, and equally effective.
Julia Cheng offers some relief with her “Allegro” concept. Yann Seabra gives us a “Jazz Age” set of monochrome outfits, as Stuart Thomas’s amiable hobo allows his ensemble to consider the less structured world.
Harder to follow, perhaps, than the other two works on the bill, the changes in emotional tone are larger but written less clearly.
Choreography ranges from a “Keystone Kops” style chase to the touching placement of a memorial plaque on a park bench. Does freedom come at a price? It possibly does.
Final act, “Oklahoma” gets off to an hilarious start with Christopher Akrill establishing himself as leader overall – by taking over Alex Parker’s Sinfonia Smith Square orchestra... badly.
Shelley Maxwell’s work takes us deep into corporate America. In timely commentary, Akrill’s clown is in charge, nobody knows the rules and somebody (the most obvious immigrant – Vanessa Vince-Pang) is getting bullied for being an easy target.
The boss gets increasingly manic, the audience laughter is nervous, the dancers movements even more so.
Everybody gets nothing in a crazy “musical chairs.” Everybody gets prizes, the bullied is horribly over-praised... then shunned. This is satire on the current political state of the USA, writ large.
Poetic justice is served, and the curtain falls on a note of optimism, rather like in the source show, that despite temporary insanity, there's plenty of hope that things will one day be great again.
A chance for many young dancers to shine, and for the Park to take an entirely different direction, proving it is a useful dance space. If the orchestral sound really is not up to Royal Opera House standards, that is down to the limitations of outdoor acoustics.
It’s a small detraction from a delightful evening. There are plenty of other musical theatre composers with multiple scores – Sondheim, Lloyd Webber, Kander and Ebb, Lerner and Lowe. That’s four opportunities at least, to do something like this again over the coming half decade, perhaps.
Meanwhile, catch this if you can. To borrow from another Rodgers & Hammerstein lyric, it really is “some enchanted evening.”
4 stars.