WHEN YOU CAIN’T SAY NO TO A COWMAN WITH A FRINGE ON TOP

When you receive an SOS based on well known musical theatre songs, it demands attention and a second look, because the promise of  a ‘Beautiful Mornin’ is not one to ignore.

Shenfield Operatic Society, the dynamic group devoted to never doing anything quietly, are in the final approach to performances of the outstanding Rogers and Hammerstein blockbuster, Oklahoma at the Queen’s Theatre in February.

With a huge cast of enthusiastic singers, the quality of their productions is never in any doubt and given the added ambience of the Billet Lane theatre, usually fill the auditorium every time.

Adding to the seats, they also fill the audience with raised glasses with their own brew; ‘Ale-Klahoma’, the bolt on marketing must-have, is a special brew by the  renown Brentwood Brewery Company, much loved by the Real Ale army of hop appreciation fans.

The formidable reputation of the singers is enhanced by hours of painful rehearsal and an open offer for new members to join their swelling ranks.

This production is supporting local charities, First Step based in Hornchurch  and Reach Hippotherapy Centre at Crown Farm Stables in Kelvedon Hatch, both organisations aim is to help  disabled children enjoy as many real-life experiences as possible.

The demanding musical Oklahoma was the first written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein and based on the 1931 stage play by Lynn Riggs,  Green Grow the Lilacs.

The players with children from Reach Hippotherapy at Crown Farm Stables in Kelvedon Hatch with Brentwood Mayor Mark Reed

Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farm girl Laurey Williams. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie.

 

 

 

The original Broadway production opened on March 1943 and was a box-office smash that ran for 2,212 performances, later enjoying award-winning revivals, national tours, foreign productions and an Academy Award-winning 1955 film adaptation.

With First Step Christmas Bazaar

Helping to build the legend, the music was outstanding with a formidable array of iconic songs including ‘Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’, ‘People Will Say We are In Love’, The Farmer and the Cowhand’, and ‘Oklahoma’.

 

The show will be at the Queen’s for  five performances from Wednesday February 10 to Saturday February 13, with a matinee performance on Saturday at 2.30 pm. All evening performances begin at 7.30 pm

For tickets contact the Society’s website on www.shenfieldoperaticsociety.co.uk or phone the theatre box office on 01708 443333 or Publicity Officer, Suzanne Gunn on 07734 817418.

For more information about First Step, www.firststep.org.uk. and Reach Hippotherapy, website www.reach-uk.org.