Proving ‘Oklahoma!’ Just Looks Country

How’s this for an idea? Get a bunch of country music singers--Linda Davis, Billy Dean, Crystal Bernard and Jim Lauderdale--together with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and have them do some music from “Oklahoma!”

Sounds good in principle. The Rodgers & Hammerstein masterpiece is a certifiable piece of rustic Americana. It may not exactly be Nashville, but it sure is close to country.

Close enough in principle, perhaps, but not always in performance Friday evening. The problems were apparent from the first few notes of Dean’s rendering of “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” in which he revealed a slippery pitch tendency to slide into a fairly large number of his notes. Linda Davis, joining him for “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” had similar difficulties. And despite the interpretive effectiveness of sliding in and out of notes in pop tunes, it simply doesn’t work with a score that is filled with far-ranging, light-opera-like melodies.

Both Dean and Davis have lovely voices, and each has an impressive list of pop-country accomplishments. But their enthusiasm and attractiveness aside, neither ever quite got a handle on the music.

Lauderdale and Bernard (in particular) were far better--in part, perhaps, because as Will Parker and Ado Annie they were assigned songs that were more briskly buoyant and less demanding of focused vocalizing. Bernard, who beautifully grasped both the music and the character of Ado Annie, was especially effective, very nearly stealing the entire presentation. And actress Betty Garrett, as Aunt Eller, added appropriate touches of whimsy in her brief segments.

The program, which drew a moderate crowd, opened with a set of overtures from Rodgers & Hammerstein shows--”Carousel,” “Allegro,” “South Pacific” and “The Sound of Music” among them--characteristically well-executed by conductor John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The program also was heard on Saturday and Sunday nights.