Summerstock
We went to see Oliver (the musical) on opening night at Summerstock 2010 at the outdoor amphitheatre at Mitch Park in Edmond.
At about the 4th number it starts to get interesting. We thought the female street urchins were talented.
Bring blanket or chair. Concessions are cheap, but it’s junk, and nothing’s open nearby at intermissions but a 7-Eleven, so bring your bananas and granola, box wine or beer, and it’s a show. If you don’t want outbursts to interrupt the play, sit away from families with children. Young couples are usually quieter. If you’re on a blanket, stake out a spot higher than stage level (or you won’t see over the chairs). Avoid the aisles, because people do use them to come and go, not waiting between numbers, unlike a theatre performance. There were no mosquitos – June bugs were plentiful but not a big deal (I liked simulating one at the back of the wife’s neck).
The performance was too familiar to the wife (me too) – that’s not their fault – we just know the story so well that there are no surprises.
One thing I’ve observed at nearly every play so far is that actors should practice more clarity doing their lines. The tendency to rush or breathe through syllables, popular in a texting culture, makes some things incomprehensible, especially for someone with an Oklahoma accent attempting a British one. We saw the same thing with Jekyl and Hyde. Enunciate the syllables, for goodness sake, or you’re throwing out half of what the writer created, and generating a lot of truly broken English.
