HAVING recently celebrated its 70th birthday, this show is regarded as being Rogers and Hammerstein’s ground-breaking musical.

The uneasy relationship between the cattlemen and the farming community comes to a head when shy cowboy Curly McLain (the confident Stephen Brill) and sinister ranch-hand Jud Fry (a powerful performance from Matt Wintle) find themselves competing for the hand of Laurey Williams.

Here, Sandra Parry was the pick of the female leads run close by the effortless Helen Gard as Laurey’s Aunt Eller.

Tracy Lintott was energetic as Ado Annie, chasing anything in trousers, including reluctant Persian Peddler Ali Hakim (Charlie Hellard).

A real highlight was the dream-sequence ballet, beautifully performed by the Vanessa Golborn School of Dance.

Set and lighting changes were occasionally clumsy and it was a particularly busy night for the prompt. John Purver’s orchestra did very well despite limited rehearsal time together, but overall, producer Chris Lillywhite did OK!