THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270035
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
LAST WEEK, New York actress Melissa Blake sat barefoot on a bench by a barn in Virginia Beach, wearing bloomers, a big wig and gobs of makeup that looked garish in the bright afternoon sun.
It was rehearsal time for ``Oklahoma!'' at the suburban shopping strip offices of Commonwealth Musical Stage. ``Oklahoma!'' opens Friday for an eight-show run at Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater, with Blake in the lead as Laurey, cowpoke Curly's hard-to-get sweet-heart.
If Laurey's Aunt Eller saw her sitting by the barn wearing all that makeup, she'd have scrubbed her face with lye soap, sure as shootin'.
``I'm not your usual Laurey,'' said the starry-eyed Blake, her apple-round face lit up by a flirtatious grin. Unlike the delicate soprano Shirley Jones, who portrayed Laurey in the 1955 film, Blake said she's ``more grounded, more real. Also, I'm a belter.''
She's feisty too. Her favorite scene was not one of the classic romantic moments she shares with Curly, scenes with swoon-worthy tunes like ``People Will Say We're in Love'' and ``The Surrey With the Fringe on Top.''
Instead, Blake - whose early tomboy ambitions leaned more toward being a superhero than an ingenue - yearns for those times when she comes out swinging at Gertie, her cackling nemesis.
``It isn't violent,'' she cautioned. ``It's just a look, a moment.''
One of America's most significant musicals opens the fifth anniversary season for Commonwealth, a company that has taken giant steps since its modest start in 1991 with a $1,000 donation. Founder Jeff Meredith, now the producing director, has led CMS through a series of milestones. The company has achieved Equity status, beefed up its professional staff and increased the number of performances per show. This year, the company has a budget of about $500,000.
The theater company operates out of a storefront in Virginia Beach. The perfect little red barn where the actress was taking a break actually belongs to an adjacent antique shop.
The startling appearance of the barn, surrounded by Virginia Beach's suburban sprawl, echoed the sets for the ``Oklahoma!'' film. That movie homestead existed only on an MGM soundstage in Hollywood. Heck, even the film's outdoor scenes were shot in southern Arizona - a fer cry from the Oklahoma plains.
Remember that healthy crop of corn Curly rides by at the film's opening while singing ``Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' ''? That crop was raised with a ridiculous amount of effort on uncultivated land near the Mexican border. That the corn grew ``as high as an elephant's eye'' was pretty amazing, considering that no natural water supply existed in that region.
Out in CMS' Virginia Beach back yard, there was no soundstage to keep out the larger world that has emerged since the stage musical premiered on Broadway 52 years ago. Interrupting Blake's pre-rehearsal reverie were the low-flying Blue Angels, who appeared to miss the barn by mere yards as they roared overhead, practicing for an air show.
``AAAAAAHHHHHH!'' she screamed, then dashed inside like she was afeared for her life.
Oklahoma!'' marked the first teaming of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. The piece took Manhattan by storm with its revolutionary all-American, rambunctious attitude and songs that truly furthered the plot.
Still, few predicted it would be a hit. During a pilot production in New Haven, Conn., legendary producer Mike Todd proclaimed that it would surely flop. His review: ``No legs, no jokes, no chance.''
Once it opened at Broadway's St. James Theater, ``Oklahoma!'' ran a record-setting five years.
A decade later, Todd's own revolutionary wide-screen film process, called Todd-AO, was used in the shooting of ``Oklahoma!'' The Cinerama version became the most prevalent one, though the Todd-AO version was released on video in 1993 - one of numerous ``Oklahoma!'' 50th anniversary commemorative projects. Even an ``Oklahoma!'' postage stamp was issued that year.
``I went through Oklahoma City once, on a tour of `Jekyll and Hyde,' '' Blake reminisced. ``As a matter of fact, Shirley Jones was in town on a concert tour.''
Now Blake has taken on a role that is closely associated with Jones and is a Jekyll-and-Hyde reversal of her usual comic character parts.
In fact, she originally called Jeff Meredith, the show's director, about playing Ado Annie, the comical gal who ``Cain't Say No.''
``So when he told me he had already cast Ado Annie, I asked what was left,'' Blake said. ``I wasn't thinking of myself. I was thinking of my friends.
``But then the more he told me about what he was looking for in Laurey, I thought, `That's me.' ''
Roger Befeler, the 24-year-old who plays Curly, is beginning to be cast regularly as romantic leading men.
He has the ideal Curly look - tall, slim, with a healthy mane of straight blond hair and a goofy grin revealing impossibly white, perfect teeth.
``He's just little mister all-American boy, this knight in shining armor,'' Blake said of Befeler. ``And he's got this gorgeous voice - warm and earthy, like a leading man. I don't mind him singing to me at all.''
Seated in the rehearsal hall, Befeler's face had an authentic cowboy ruddiness, and it didn't look like makeup. It was, in fact, sunburn.
``We had a day off yesterday, so we were out playing in the waves. Reminds me of California,'' he said, sighing. ``I miss it.''
Befeler was raised in Boulder, Colo.; studied acting at the University of California at Los Angeles; and then moved to New York to be near his actress fiancee, Kim Huber, who just landed the lead role of Belle in the national tour of ``Beauty and the Beast.''
He crafted his vision of Curly partly from his memory of the park rangers and river guides he encountered while growing up in the Colorado mountains.
Befeler sees ``Oklahoma!'' as ``a show about community. The second act is really about how people come together.''
The way Befeler sees it, the on-stage community values are happening backstage too.
He is among a Manhattan contingent mixing it up on stage with dozens of local actors, singers, dancers, accompanied by the full Virginia Beach Symphony Orchestra. Seasoned professionals are working alongside relative novices.
``And yet, you see all these people coming together to put together this big artistic thing,'' Befeler said.
This ``Oklahoma!'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Melissa Blake will star as Laurey and Roger Befeler as Curly in
``Oklahoma!'' at the Pavilion.
Photo
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff
Amy Hansted stars as Ado Annie and Brett Cramp as Will Parker in
``Oklahoma!'' The musical opens Friday at the Pavilion.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY MUSICAL COMEDY
THEATER by CNB