It was auspicious, then, that her big break came in “Passing Strange,” in which she and the ensemble cast had the chance to develop multiple roles alongside creators Stew and Heidi Rodewald, and to flex acting muscles as well as singing chops.
“We all were encouraged to think of ourselves as artists in this way that I had forgotten to do, just because of the strictness of conservatory training,” said Ms. Jones. “It helped sort of shake me into my own voice — my own singing voice as well.”
In Mr. Fish’s “Oklahoma!,” which has been reorchestrated for a small chamber country band and staged with near-immersive immediacy, she has similar room to make her mark. “He wants the scenes to bleed into one another,” Ms. Jones said of the director’s approach. “We’re not ignoring that we’re all in this room together, and I think it changes the vibe.”
Mr. Fish said it was her “depth, strength, and groundedness” that got her the role in “Oklahoma!,” and that since then he’s been impressed not only by her facility with “the acrobatics of the part” but by the things she’s taught him about a show he practically knows by heart.
“There’s a speech in Act One where the peddler says, ‘How about you, Miss Laurey? Must be wanting something,’” Mr. Fish said. Laurey’s reply, in part, goes, “Want things I’ve heard of and never had before … Things so nice, if they ever did happen to you, your heart would quit beatin’. You’d fall down dead!” Mr. Fish said he hadn’t clocked the delicate freight of this exchange till Ms. Jones got her skilled hands on it.
“All of the main themes of the show are there, and I learned this by watching her do it,” Mr. Fish marveled. “If you come down too heavy on it, it doesn’t work, but if you ignore the depth and humanity, it’s just frill. It’s a moment where the show is both floating and going deep. She’s able to do all of that.”
