Traditionally, audiences don’t go to Oklahoma! to be unsettled. On the other hand you don’t go to the Young Vic to have your expectations cosily met by a singalong, with the dark bits tastefully brushed over.
‘Likely to infuriate as many people as it enchants’: OKLAHOMA! – Young Vic Theatre ★★★
Daniel Fish’s sexed-up, pared-down version of Oklahoma! at the Young Vic Theatre (co-directed for London by Jordan Fein) is less a revival and more a full blown deconstruction of the original material.
‘Something that disconcerts more than entertains’: OKLAHOMA! – Young Vic Theatre
The Young Vic presents a rather sexy version of Oklahoma! that replaces twee interpretations of cowboy country with a throbbing desire that inflicts the inhabitants of this rural town, and becomes a fascinating technical exercise in deconstructing a musical.
Deserving talent: When will disabled arts & artists make a substantial cross-over to the mainstream?
It’s peculiar that disabled arts and artists are yet to make a substantial cross-over, at least in British theatre. Yes, there was one happy incidence of this at the Donmar Warehouse, when gay disabled actor Daniel Monks starred in their production of Teenage Dick in 2019.
What musicals would you like to see in London? Love London Love Culture offers a selection
With uncertainty surrounding when theatres might be reopened, Love London Love Culture’s Emma Clarendon selects a few musicals that she would love to see revived in London.
‘Everything about this production is wonderful’: OKLAHOMA! – National Theatre (Online Review) ★★★★★
Broadway HD streamed Trevor Nunn’s production of Oklahoma! for free this weekend.
From Oklahoma! via Cats to Falsettos: My Stagey Week
It’s been another crazy busy Stagey week. I moved flats, travelled to Chichester, Kilworth, and Dartford, saw five shows, two cabarets, interviewed nine people and had a very early start on Sunday for a day’s filming.
‘Theatrical magic’: OKLAHOMA! – Chichester ★★★★
Jeremy Sams and his creative team have delivered theatrical magic in Oklahoma! at Chichester Festival Theatre.
‘Edgy & interesting’: OKLAHOMA! – Chichester ★★★★
If the overall effect of Oklahoma! at Chichester Festival Theatre is more of a puzzle-play than a lollipop romp, so much the better.
‘Engaging & very enjoyable production’: OKLAHOMA! – Chichester ★★★
This year Chichester Festival Theatre is taking on Oklahoma! with their usual mix of respect for the piece and urge to find a new viewpoint on it.
ON BROADWAY: Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! is a ‘cynical practical joke on theatregoers’
An Off-Broadway show with the nerve to charge Broadway prices, the “Bard Summerscape Production of” Oklahoma! plays out like a cynical practical joke on theatregoers. The egregious experiment is a blight on 75-plus years of American musical theatre.
NEWS: John Simm, Dervla Kirwan Hugh Bonneville, James Nesbitt & Sheila Hancock all feature in Chichester Festival Theatre’s new season
Chichester Festival Theatre’s Festival 2019 has been announced by artistic director Daniel Evans. It includes John Simm & Dervla Kirwan in Macbeth, Hugh Bonneville in Shadowlands & Tim Firth’s first solo musical starring James Nesbitt.
Mark Shenton previews what theatre he is looking forward to in 2019: From London to Broadway
We’ve said goodbye to 2018 — including a look back at some of the year’s highlights and lowlights. Now it’s time to look ahead to 2019 — and offer my picks of the year so far announced.
NEWS: Stage & screen star Hugh Jackman plans to bring his one-man stage show to the UK in 2019
Social media is buzzing with the news that Hugh Jackman is planning to take his one-man stage show out on tour and reports suggest the stage and screen star will perform four dates in the UK.
Mark Shenton views the week of news, openings & radical overhauls of Shakespeare in the West End, Broadway & beyond
Mark Shenton offers the week’s news, reviews, quotes and tweets in theatre from both sides of the Atlantic, including an interview with Sonia Friedman, reviews of Shakespeare in three different abbreviated versions, and a YouTube star appearing on Broadway.
FROM DOWN UNDER: Oklahoma! in Melbourne is ‘simply as good as it gets’
Oklahoma! has an energy that is set to catapult The Production Company onwards for their next 20 years. Lovers of traditional musical theatre must not miss the show at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne.
INTERVIEW: Shuler Hensley – An outstanding actor who brings humanity to dysfunctionality’
Shuler Hensley is an American actor who, outside of the theatre world and especially the musical theatre world, is little known in the UK. Currently, he can be found in the Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio in the modern tragedy The Whale,
OKLAHOMA! – Edinburgh
It was the first musical which Rodgers & Hammerstein created as a partnership and is packed with rather more than the usual quota of great and memorable numbers. Small wonder the hairs sit up on the back of the neck, right from the opening notes, as Curly (Kevin MacConnachie) enters with the refrain of Oh What A Beautiful Morning, to banter with Laurey’s Aunt Ella, churning butter on her front porch.
DEVILISH – Landor Theatre
The Landor Theatre has made an occasional departure from its repertoire of well-focused chamber-sized revivals to host an original creation called Devilish. Possibly with an exclamation mark. Like Oklahoma! Only not remotely like Oklahoma! Starting not even from a novel, an anecdote really, in which an angel descends from heaven and is shot down into the melee of modern Britain, Chris Burgess has fashioned the slenderest of stories and a battery of lyrics with easy-listening-to-soft-rock music by BB Cooper.
OKLAHOMA – Touring
Ah Oklahoma, another in that list of musicals who have been produced and cast so perfectly in the past (in this case the wonderful National Theatre production that gave Hugh Jackman his big break) that you begin to wonder why anyone would dare attempt it again. But clearly Music & Lyrics – the collaborative effort of a number of the UK’s finest regional receiving theatres – are braver souls than I.
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