CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (London Stage Revival)

starring: Hugh Jackman, Josefina Gabrielle, Shuler Hensley, Jimmy Johnston, Maureen Lipman
directed by: Trevor Nunn

Release Date November 18, 2003
For those who are familiar mainly with the innocent, lavish film version of Rogers and Hammerstein's musical OKLAHOMA!, this 1998 West End revival starring Hugh Jackman, Josefina Gabrielle and Shuler Hensley may come as a bit of a shock. There is not a hint of syrupy sweetness or camp to be found in Trevor Nunn and Susan Stroman's masterful reinterpretation of the material. Here, the characters are earthy, dirty, sweaty, and delighfully natural, and the actor's portraying them are all suberb (with one exception which I will address below).
Hugh Jackman's Curly is cocky and handsome as the role calls for, yes, but he also gives the character a sense of romantic awkwardness and a heart that makes his romance with Laurey heart-wrenchingly ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Burn the Floor

starring: Fergus Logan, Matthew Cutler, Nicole Cutler
directed by: David Mallet, Anthony Van Laast

Release Date April 04, 2000
The dancing or dancers are by no means 2 stars! They are very talented dancers, but the "visionary", if you want to call him or her that, did not do the dancing or dancers justice. I think they were going for an innovative approach that just came off as flashy and gimmicky. The costumes, lighting, and make-up detracts from the dancers and over-all just doesn't flatter them. I mean, they dancers wore metallic jeans and combat boots with black lipstick and eye make-up during a samba and for their paso doble the men wore metal shin guards while a women danced around in a huge head-piece. All this really took away from the dancing, the dancers looked so made up at times that I didn't even bother to look at the dancing. I know that the show was trying to be ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Oklahoma! [Region 2]

starring: Hugh Jackman, Josefina Gabrielle, Shuler Hensley, Jimmy Johnston, Maureen Lipman
directed by: Trevor Nunn

Release Date
For those who are familiar mainly with the innocent, lavish film version of Rogers and Hammerstein's musical OKLAHOMA!, this 1998 West End revival starring Hugh Jackman, Josefina Gabrielle and Shuler Hensley may come as a bit of a shock. There is not a hint of syrupy sweetness or camp to be found in Trevor Nunn and Susan Stroman's masterful reinterpretation of the material. Here, the characters are earthy, dirty, sweaty, and delighfully natural, and the actor's portraying them are all suberb (with one exception which I will address below).
Hugh Jackman's Curly is cocky and handsome as the role calls for, yes, but he also gives the character a sense of romantic awkwardness and a heart that makes his romance with Laurey heart-wrenchingly believable. ... Read More: