| JUDGING JUD | ||
Over a recent weekend I found myself watching the PBS “Great Performance” broadcast of “Oklahoma.” Within minutes I was back in the Ritz theatre in Sylva (1954) ............and kicked back for a nostalgia trip. Then, a weird thing happened. I found myself waiting for Jud Fry, the unsanitary villain. In the original version, Rod Steiger gave a memorable performance as the sullen, lonely man who lives in Shirley Jones’ tool shed. For some reason, I remember that I was drawn to him........when the final bars of “Oklahoma!” played and the handsome Curley and the vibrant Shirley departed into the sunset in a “horseless carriage,” I found myself grieving for the poor, dead, Jud Fry. Now, half a century later, I am watching a modern London-based version of this Rogers and Hammerstein landmark, and I am waiting for Jud Fry. Will this new actor arouse my sympathy like Rod Steiger? Will Jud emerge as a tragic hero just as he did in 1954? .......... Well, the wisdom gained by the passage of time may be of dubious merit, but suddenly I found myself asking a half-dozen questions about Jud Fry. Why was he living in that tool shed? Why did he persist in staying on Laurey’s ranch as her work hand? Obviously, he is hopelessly in love with his vibrant, virginal employer, and although she finds his presence repulsive, he stubbornly persists. It is that persistence that brings him to disaster. After Laurey fires him, his life is suddenly without meaning. When he enters Curley and Laurey’s wedding celebration, he has decided to strike back at a world filled with graceful, clean and clever people — a world that has rejected him......... Most importantly, I wonder why Rogers and Hammerstein put lonely Jud Fry in “Oklahoma!” at all. Was he originally meant to be a sympathetic character? If his sole purpose is to serve as the “dramatic foil” to the handsome, irrepressible Curley, why give him that poignant song “Lonely Room”? Why not make him an unrepentant villain with a black heart and a wicked laugh, the kind of antagonist that meets death with a sneer and a wink? Instead, he is a lonely misfit in a cast filled with wholesomeness and charm. As for the “new” Jud Fry, well, he is magnificent. He is an English (?!!!) actor named Shuler Hensley, and he gave the role a simmering hostility that conveyed a fierce defiance of a world controlled by “the pretty people.” His lonely room is bleak and shoddy, the walls papered with French “postcards” and scantily clad women, a décor that offends Laurey and amuses Curley. When Jud notes their reaction, he appears contrite. When a peddler offers him a new stock of erotica, Jud declines, saying, “No, I’m through with pictures.” So, when Jud provokes a fight with Curley, he dies of a self-inflicted knife wound and is quickly transported off-stage so that a bogus trial can be conducted and Curley and Laurey can exit to the accompaniment of a thunderous finale. For me, even after 50 years, I feel a strange reluctance to accept the triumph of “prettiness.” It is possible that for some of us, the unsung hero of Oklahoma has been shuffled off to an obscure grave, and the villains of this musical are actually the king and queen of the prom. Long live Jud Fry, the man who challenged the status quo. |
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