Where have I been?

Matthew Neff | Jul 26, 2008 | 0

Courtesy Mike Palumbo

So  haven't written in a while. Like most people that involved in theater I went away this summer to New Orleans to choreograph "Oklahoma!" for Tulane University's Summer Lyric Theatre.

I go into tech rehearsal tomorrow but thought I would share an article that came out today with everyone. Once I am back in NYC, unpacked and enjoy a night sleeping in my own bed I will give everyone details about the production.

Click on "Read More" to see the article.

Tulane Summer Lyric kicks up things with American musical classic 'Oklahoma!'
by David Cuthbert, Theater writer, The Times-Picayune July 25, 2008

"Oklahoma!" is many things.

It is the landmark musical that was the first collaboration of Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein, who would become a theatrical institution, writing 10 more musicals for the stage, screen and television. Like the Hammerstein/Jerome Kern "Showboat" before it, the songs for "Oklahoma!" deepened characterization and story. But in "Oklahoma!" Agnes DeMille's balletic Broadway dances followed suit.

Later, in attempting to pinpoint what made "Oklahoma!" a phenomenon, composer Rodgers said, "All the individual parts complement each other." Lyricist Hammerstein said it wasn't something tangible, but the show's "spirit." Broadway historian Ethan Mordden summed up the partnership of the two men in Variety vernacular as "Smart Weds Heart."

Above all, "Oklahoma!" is true Americana, embodying the determination and exuberance of a pioneer people in a great work of popular art that did some pioneering of its own -- and continues to do so.

"I always like to do a classic as part of our season," said Michael Howard, Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre's artistic director, "and I have always been in love with 'Oklahoma!' Not just because it's so basic to the American musical, but because it's so basically American. This is our heritage. There's a reality to it: the everyday lives of the people who helped settle the country.

"In 'Oklahoma!" Aunt Eller says that what gets you through to the good things in life is the ability to be 'hearty,' a very positive, common-sense word."

Broadway veteran Ed Kresley, who has choreographed and directed for Summer Lyric for the past six seasons, is directing "Oklahoma!" and agrees. "What got 'Oklahoma' noticed in the first place was that it was a serious musical that came to Broadway in 1943, when lightweight, wartime entertainments were the norm."

Indeed, there is showman Mike Todd's famous dismissal of "Oklahoma!" when he caught it in New Haven, Conn.: "No gags, no gals, no chance."

Right from the start, Rodgers & Hammerstein's musicals had a dark element to contrast with the sunniness of their basic optimism. This socially aware undercurrent gave shows such as "Oklahoma!" "Carousel" and "South Pacific" a power few musicals at the time had.

The show's most recent major revival, the London/Broadway production directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Susan Stroman, gave gravity and roughness its due. Matthew Neff, who is choreographing Summer Lyric's staging, was the dance captain of that production's first national tour. He found Stroman's choreography "fun" and "cute," but adds, "It wasn't fulfilling choreography to perform."

His Summer Lyric dance work, Neff said, "won't be Stroman, won't be DeMille, it will be quirkier and more surprising," adding, "Why do a show if you can't bring something of yourself to it?" He is happy that he and Kresley have "a wonderful cast," and Ian Carney (from Broadway's MOVIN OUT) -- "Pal Joey" earlier in the season -- and his wife, Eleanor Bernard, will dance the principal parts in Laurey's Dream Ballet, "which I wanted to change, and I've got the dancers to do it, if we get it finished in time."(Summer Lyric shows have 10 rehearsal days before the orchestra comes in.) A student of Kresley's for three years at Marymount College in New York, Neff has danced in a number of Summer Lyric shows Kresley has choreographed, "whenever we needed extra boys" (translation: good dancers).

"Matthew is a real rebel who has his own ideas about dance," Kresley said. "This is his vision of 'Oklahoma!' " Neff said he sees the show as Americana, too, but in a different way. "This is my America," he said, "America right now, where people are putting up a good front, but behind closed doors, things aren't going so well."

Neff is forming his own dance company, Neff Novel Dance, in New York. "I want to let dance drive the story," he said. "The dance will be very contemporary, very eclectic."

A very young-looking 28, "I played a 12-year-old kid on the road in 'Oklahoma!' " Neff said. "But since I was dance captain, I was backstage barking at the big cowboy dancers, telling them what to do. It's the same thing here at Summer Lyric. I love telling dancers, 'Jump!' "

And he's doing just that. "Matthew is a bold, brilliant workhorse," Howard said. "I don't think some of these kids have worked this hard in their lives."

Beverly Trask, who is playing Aunt Eller, is one of New Orleans' best actresses. But she is also a choreographer, a longtime member of the Tulane-Newcomb dance/theater faculty. "I'm very impressed with Matthew's work," she said. "He's doing very detailed, innovative dance in a swift, decisive fashion."

"I can be a bit of a slave driver in rehearsals," Neff acknowledges. "But as a dancer, I know I hated sitting through rehearsals where my time was wasted. I figure the faster I get it choreographed and cleaned, the faster I can enjoy New Orleans."

"OKLAHOMA!"
What: Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre presents the Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein musical, directed by Ed Kresley and choreographed by Matthew Neff.
With: Melissa Marshall, Stephen Lukas, Beverly Trask, Lee Farrar Bailey, Chase Kamata, Brian Bell and Lorenzo Gonzalez.
Where: Dixon Hall, Newcomb Quad, Tulane University Uptown campus.
When: Opens Thursday at 8 p.m. with performances Aug. 1 and 2 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 3 at 2 p.m. (matinee sold out).
Tickets: $32 and $25.
Call: 504.865.5269.

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