‘Oklahoma!’ much more than OK> BCT performance fabulous; effects liven up Maine Masque’s ‘Tempest’

Often a sense of civic good-deed-doing chides you to buy a ticket to a community theater production of a musical. As if merciless, such shows can be ploddingingly fun and discouragingly cornball. The situation, ultimately, strong-arms any decent theatergoer into justifying a slew of gushy fibs to cast members — who are also co-workers, cousins, neighbors. There’s excitement at a certain level — like at a lively town meeting, I suspect, but you find yourself wondering in the second hour just why you showed up.

Fortunately, none of this applies to Bangor Community Theater, which opened and closed an operatically big production of “Oklahoma!” this weekend at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. It was anybody’s guess how this intermittent company would fit into the ritzy venue more typically employed by internationally known acts. But the fit was spectacularly bright. Or, as the Okies themselves might say, it was shur purty.

The secret to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” is heft. It was, after all, the first musical to push the story past one-liners and to blend the elements of song, dance and plot into a larger-than-life waltz with schmaltz. Therefore “Oklahoma!” needs brawny men, spacious voices, gutsy women, a giant pioneer spirit. Director Kevin C. Bate found all of this and a barnful more for BCT. He’s the newcomer to the weighty artistic team of music director John Haskell, choreographers Gene Syphers and Michelle Syphers, and the ever-clever Art Bousquet, who is dedicated to sets the way Michelangelo must have been to the Sistine Chapel.

But Bate orchestrated his directorial duties with wit, deliberateness and alacrity. When Stephen Gormley, as Curly, strolled onto stage for “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’,” there was a grand and nostalgic sense of time travel back to Indian Territory, back to farmers and cowmen, back to a uniquely American stubbornness in work, play and, it must be said, love.

The cast in this show was uniformly optimistic and giving and made you wonder if life’s path had but veered a bit to the left or the right, would some of these performers actually have wound up on Broadway instead of careers in teaching, building, nursing or law here in Bangor.

Stephen Gormley is clearly the leader of the pack with his bounding voice and oversized charm. He and Bronwyn Kortge, as Laurey, made a smashing leading couple. Their relationship would never pass the PC test these days, but they fought and fawned over each other with just the right amount of goo. As their doubles in a dream sequence, Stevie Dunham and Heinrick Snyder were sweetly graceful.

Even though Curly and Laurey are the leads, Stephanie Laite Lanham, as Aunt Eller, dominated the show with nervy invectives and honeyed understanding. Ashley Emerson was a firecracker in the role of Ado Annie, and Steve Estey, as her suitor Will Parker, was a delightful yahoo (who can sing like an angel). Peter Phair, as the dastardly Jud Fry, was bold and frightening and perfect in the role.

The notable performances were too many to mention here but there’s no question that Roland Dube, as Ali Hakim, was the popular favorite. Dube is best known to Gilbert and Sullivan crowds, but his sinewy talent is just at home in this genre, and his amusing — not to mention amused — style never went unaccompanied by laughter and applause.

Aunt Eller says you’ve got to be hardy to make it out in the territories. Sometimes this applies to musicals, too. Except this time, the cast was hardy and the audience was hardily entertained. For anyone who got spoiled watching BCT productions in the last few decades, this production of “Oklahoma!” was a return to the good old days of expert passion and top-notch talent.

I wish the same could be said for the Maine Masque production of “The Tempest,” which also opened this weekend in the University of Maine’s Hauck Auditorium and will run through next weekend. Here, director Tom Mikotowicz, whose productions are always packed with surprises, appears to have tapped into the TV culture of the baby boomer generation with a set like an old “Star Trek” show (complete with elevator-like sliding doors) and a Caliban (played creepily by Ric Sechrest) that looks like a genetic mix of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Yoda from “Star Wars.” (Not to detract from the production, but the advertising posters for the show are quite believably and smartly illustrated in a Gothic style.)

When the special effects weren’t corny (such as a staff topped with a lighted globe operated awkwardly by a tiny hand switch), they were engaging and exciting. The opening shipwreck scene couldn’t have been staged more dramatically with thunder and lightning and a woozy crew, whose voices were washed out by the raucous storm tormenting them. Additionally, Jane Snider’s costume for Ariel (a spritely performance by Cheryl Robitaille) had strips of illumination that lit up her movements, and although it was unflattering to its wearer, the bodysuit was charged with magic.

Otherwise, this was not a terrifically nuanced production. The secret to Shakespeare is probably heft, too, and frequently these young performers weren’t hippy enough for the royal britches they were trying to fill. Comic scenes between Stephano (Sean Fiddler), Trinculo (Andrew Hicks) and Caliban livened up the evening. There was also something darling between Miranda (Katie Thibodeau) and Ferdinand (Sean Edgecomb).

But generally, there was a sense that Prospero’s enchanted shores were a tad too distant for this cast — at least on opening night.