Lead actors make touring ‘Oklahoma!’ a treat

One’s heart races when the cast of “Oklahoma!” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center pours forth the title number: “We know we belong to the land/And the land we belong to is grand!” That still-stirring couplet underpins the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical, which transformed the form forever after its 1943 Broadway premiere during World War II.

Hammerstein’s libretto taps Lynn Riggs’ “Green Grow the Lilacs” triangle of cocksure cowboy, willful homesteader and psychotic farmhand. Really, though, “Oklahoma!” concerns the birth of a community of the self-governed. This was emphasized by director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Susan Stroman in their smash 1998 London revision starring Hugh Jackman. (The 2002 Broadway edition fared less well.)

The non-Equity national tour playing Segerstrom Hall through Sunday often justifies the re-creators’ chutzpah. A toy train circles the edge of a sky-blue show drop. Backlighting reveals a tiny farm, then earth mother Aunt Eller (Pat Sibley), who crank-churns butter amid a wood-hewn landscape and a cyclorama of cumulus clouds and psychological hues.

As ever, the a cappella beginning of “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ ” introduces our hero, Curly (the marvelous Brandon Andrus). Heroine Laurey (Amanda Rose, delightfully spiky) enters in tomboy’s overalls, mapping a fresh path through familiar territory.

This Frederic Remington glaze infuses the ever-irresistible “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” staged around a rusted tractor. The exposed sexuality intensifies as farmhand Jud Fry (Tom Lucca) snags petulant Laurey for his box social date, though she clearly prefers Curly. And so on, propelled by a trademark Nunn turntable and one of the greatest scores in Broadway history, valiantly delivered by a youthful cast.

The central trio sells it. Andrus is a major discovery, his Brendan Fraser aspect matched by a pop-tinged baritone of melting quality. Rose makes an intriguing Laurey, convincing through her petite soprano and dance technique. Lucca sometimes overdoes it, but his powerful belt and creepy energy grabs the house.

Sibley suggests Molly Ivins’ Bartlesville cousin. Daniel Robinson’s Will Parker is a fancy dancing fool, show-stopping in “Kansas City.” Although Sarah Shahinian’s Ado Annie plays “I Cain’t Say No” as conventional goof instead of perfectly serious (and therefore hilarious) confession of a terrible problem, her sagebrush soubrette turn is tickling. Colin Trahan heroically does his best to de-stereotype Persian peddler Ali Hakim, and their colleagues have agreeable, albeit unseasoned zeal.

Barring turntable noises, designer Anthony Ward’s sets and costumes are impressive, and Ted Mather freely adapts David Hersey’s rich lighting.

However, director Fred Hanson misses laughs and permits arid patches, despite deleting Ali Hakim’s number and cutting “Out of My Dreams” down to one verse.

This diminishes Rodgers’ loveliest melody and ill presages the celebrated dream ballet, “Laurey Makes Up Her Mind.”

When Stroman’s choreography (re-created by Ginger Thatcher) clicks, as in the rowdy, super-topical “The Farmer and the Cowman,” there is relevant magic. However, apart from the novelty of all three principals dancing their roles, the tricked-up ballet cannot supplant Agnes de Mille’s original, even as alternative.

Nor do the synthesizer-sweetened touring charts explode, though musical director John Mezzio’s pit does yeoman work. Yet if ever an indestructible musical existed, it is “Oklahoma!” Perhaps it’s not a brand-new state, but given current national crises, its optimism warrants attendance.

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‘Oklahoma!’

Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Ends: Sunday

Price: $23.25 to $58.25

Info: (714) 740-7878, (213) 365-3500 or www.ocpac.org

Running time: 2 hours, 55 minutes