Oklahoma!
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Oklahoma!
Funny and sexy, dark and terrifying, this is the OKLAHOMA! that was there all along.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (exclamation point and all) has a reputation as one of the corniest of the Golden Age musicals, thanks to the years of high school and community theater productions that have rendered it devoid of nuance. Daniel Fish's new version does the opposite, breaking down the show to its elements to reveal the troubling themes at the heart of the story. Performed in a brightly lit, sparse space with a small band in lieu of an orchestra, this Oklahoma! takes the quaint story of the cowboy Curly trying to win the affections of farm girl Laurey and makes it sexy and violent, even as it maintains the songwriters' humor and melodies. Here, there's something threatening when the cast sings "we know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand" because we understand that the America of the text is one where women's bodies are up for grabs and even our heroes are vicious opportunists.