There’s a bright golden haze on the Hale Centre Theatre stage and Adam Dietlein is only too happy to be singing about it.

“Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’ ” is one of “Oklahoma!”‘s most iconic songs, the Bountiful actor says, a familiar tune to which many can relate.

“I think more than one of us has woken up in the morning, and woken up on the right side of the bed, and sung ‘Oh what a beautiful mornin,’ ” Dietlein says.

But this Curly says his favorite musical number in the West Valley show is the title song “Oklahoma!,” an almost patriotic sort of song about people making a living on the unsettled frontier and looking forward to the future.

“The show’s in full swing at that time; it’s after the marriage (of Curly and Laurey) so Curly’s happy,” Dietlein says. Not to mention the number is written right in his range, he says, so, “I can just go out without thinking of ‘I need to hit this high A.’ I can just go out and sing it with heart.”

Singing hallmark songs with heart is only part of the appeal of playing cowboy Curly McLain in Hale Centre Theatre’s production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which runs through Oct. 3.

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There’s also the fun of getting to dress up like a real cowboy, Dietlein says, as well as delving into his character’s personality.

“Curly is kind of a jokester; he’s kind of a prankster,” says the actor, who just returned from playing Gaston in a year-long tour of “Beauty and The Beast” in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. “He loves teasing people, especially Laurey, the girl he grew up with.”

When it comes to musicals, “Oklahoma!” is one of the war horses — a show that has been around for decades and been performed by theaters time and time again.

Yet Dietlein and Ashley Carlson, a Bountiful actress starring as female lead Laurey Williams, both say the Hale Theatre production directed by David Tinney brings some new twists to the 1943 classic.

Carlson says the 1950s film version of “Oklahoma!,” starring Shirley Jones, was very grand and picturesque but all the beautiful panoramas tended to overwhelm the actual tale.

“There’s so much more to the story of ‘Oklahoma! … I wanted to actually live the story for real,” she says.

Unlike Jones, who always wore pretty dresses in the movie, Carlson says, “I start in pants and a gingham shirt. I work on my own farm — I own it. … I do wear a dress later in the show, so there’s a nice twist on it.”

Jud Fry, the lonely and disturbed farmhand who becomes obsessed with Laurey, is portrayed in this musical as a Native American who has faced a lot of prejudice from folks in the Oklahoma territory because he is different than they are, Carlson says.

“He still does some awful things,” she says, “but you are torn between feeling sorry for him and disliking him.”

Hale Centre Theatre

Dietlein says the director excels at bringing out new meanings in the play’s familiar dialogue and song lyrics.

“David Tinney finds these gems and makes them sparkle in this production,” he says.

The messages of the musical remain relevant, Dietlein says, such as a line from Laurey’s Aunt Eller about how, “You can’t enjoy the sweet and tender in life lessen you’re tough.”

“As you know and I know, life throws you curve balls and you do need to be tough to come out on top,” he says.

“Oklahoma!”‘s themes of love, greed, hate and jealousy are all things audiences can identify with, Carlson adds, along with the notion of finding inner strength when you feel like you want to give up.

“That’s why ‘Oklahoma!’ still lives on, along with a lot of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musicals,” says the actress, a musical theater instructor at Westminster College who will choreograph an upcoming production of “Mary Poppins” at Bonneville High School in Washington Terrace.

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Previously seen at Hale Centre Theatre in “The Foreigner” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” Carlson says audiences also enjoy the developing relationship between Laurey and Curly.

“Curly and Laurey are constant game players. … We certainly try to one-up the other person and take the ball back into our court,” she says.

Dietlin — last seen at Hale Centre Theatre as Javert in “Les Miserables” in 2014 — says this is his first time to take on the role of Curly.

“Naturally I’d be playing the role because I have curly hair; that’s the only reason they cast me,” quips the actor, who stars in the Monday, Wednesday and Friday cast.

It’s Carlson’s second stint as Laurey; at age 12, she portrayed the heroine in a San Diego youth theater production.

“That was my first stage kiss I ever had to do,” says Carlson, part of the “Oklahoma!” Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday cast, and she says she learned some valuable lessons in perfecting that art.

The director told her she kissed like a “Simpsons” character, she says, “because I would try to stick my lips out as far as I could possibly go because I didn’t want to get close to (Curly).”

If you’re going to kiss him, she recalls the director telling her, you’ve got to get close to him.

Contact reporter Becky Cairns at 801-625-4276 or bcairns@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @bccairns or like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SEbeckycairns.

PREVIEW

WHAT: “Oklahoma!”

WHEN: Various dates and times, Monday-Saturday, through Oct. 3

WHERE: Hale Centre Theatre, 3333 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City

TICKETS: $16-$30. Information, 801-984-9000, www.hct.org