‘Oklahoma’ kid
Local theater is local and national tours are, by definition, not. Except in the person of Kasey RT Graham, 25, former local theater wunderkind. Graham is the musical director – i.e., the guy directing the pit orchestra – in the national tour of “Oklahoma!” which arrives at the Spokane Opera House on Thursday. In less than eight years, Graham has gone from being a Chase Youth Award winner for creativity at Central Valley High School to the man in charge of all things musical on a major coast-to-coast tour. And the future? “I’m going back out this fall as the musical director of ‘The Producers,’ the national tour,”
Graham said by phone from a tour date in Colorado Springs. “I absolutely love it. I’m going to ride this out as long as I enjoy it.”
Spokane theatergoers are used to seeing Graham in local orchestra pits. While at Whitworth College, this young prodigy directed or musical-directed several shows for the Spokane Children’s Theatre and the Spokane Civic Theatre.
Last summer, he musical-directed “Footloose” at the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre. He will return there, after the “Oklahoma!” tour ends, to musical-direct “Peter Pan” this summer.
Yet he’s been playing mostly in the big leagues after graduating from Whitworth. He moved to upstate New York in the summer of 2003 and then to New York City, where he did “a little performing, a little bit of musical-directing, and a little bit of directing.” In the summer of 2004, the tour producers liked his resume and hired him as associate music director on “Oklahoma!”
“I conducted about three or four shows a week and played keyboards about three or four shows a week,” said Graham.
He was promoted to musical director a year later.
He said his Spokane theatrical experience proved invaluable.
“It was amazing preparation,” said Graham. “I got the chance (in Spokane) to direct, to musical-direct and to run rehearsals. It helped me so much, to be able to step in and not feel like I didn’t know what I was doing.”
He doesn’t even mind being constantly on the road.
“The road is something you either love or hate,” said Graham. “And I love it. It’s a fantastic way to see the country.
“Last year’s schedule (doing large markets) was amazing, sitting down in L.A. for two weeks and San Francisco for two weeks. But it’s been even more enjoyable to be in these smaller cities that get only three shows a year, and they love it. It’s so rewarding.”
He has even softened his previously tough stand on the merits of “Oklahoma!” itself.
“It used to be my least favorite show,” said Graham. “It was always so hokey and produced so, like, schlocky. But this production (based on the recent Royal National Theatre/Broadway revival) definitely tries to make the show more accessible to a modern sensibility. They stripped away the frilly costumes and have gone more naturalistic, to what cowboys and cowgirls would actually wear in Oklahoma in the early 1900s.”
Graham said this non-Equity (nonunion) tour has an “extremely talented” young cast. He presides over an eight-person orchestra. One of the challenges is keeping the production true to the original, night after night.
“We’re constantly giving notes to both musicians and cast,” he said.
One other thing about going on tour – he never knows what the performing conditions will be like.
“The Colorado Springs theater had a pit that was 40 feet deep,” said Graham. “We were literally 40 feet away from the stage. The night before, we were in Pueblo, and the pit was four feet deep. Sometimes, the musicians don’t even fit in the pit. The percussion has to go into another room and we have to put a TV monitor and sound in there.”
At least he knows exactly what to expect out of the Spokane Opera House. And he’s pumped about returning to Spokane and being able to stay with his parents instead of in another hotel.
“My parents have a large group coming to the show, and I have a group of friends from college,” said Graham.
When Graham won that Chase Youth Award in 1998, he was asked to express what creativity meant to him. He wrote, “Creativity can visit Oz without ever leaving Kansas.”
He might as well have written: Without ever leaving “Oklahoma!”