Oklahoma!
June 15–24, 2012
Carpenter Performance Hall
Irving Arts Center
Based on the play GREEN GROW THE LILACS by Lynn Riggs
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book by Oscar Hammerstein II
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Original Dances by Agnes de Mille
When a young cowpoke strolled onto the stage of the St. James Theatre on March 31, 1943, the American musical comedy was changed forever. For the first time, story, song and dance were integrated and the modern American musical was born. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s first collaboration, OKLAHOMA!, was a musical adaptation of Lynn Riggs’ play GREEN GROW THE LILACS. Lyric Stage’s production of OKLAHOMA! featured a full 33-piece orchestra playing Robert Russell Bennett’s newly restored original Broadway orchestrations.
Cheryl Denson directed and Lyric Stage music director Jay Dias conducted the 33-piece Lyric Stage orchestra. Agnes de Mille’s original dances were the inspiration for choreographer Ann Nieman. The youthful cast included Bryant Martin (Curly), Savannah Frazier (Laurey), Sean McGee (Will Parker), Erica Harte (Ado Annie), Kyle Christopher Schnack (Jud), Deborah Brown (Aunt Eller), Brad Jackson (Ali Hakim), James Williams (Andrew Carnes), Mallory Brophy, Alex Bush, Hayden Clifton, Tyler Donohue, Danielle Estes, Emily Ford, Anthony Fortino, Damon Foster, Doug Fowler, Zach Gamet, Martin Guerra, Maranda Harrison, Whitney Hennen, Doug Henry, Kyle Hughes, Elise Lavallee, Colleen LeBleu, Reid Malone, Annie Merritt, Delynda Moravec, Mackenzie Orr, Michael Pricer, Mandy Rausch, Daniel Saroni and Lana Whittington.
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s first collaboration remains, in many ways, their most innovative, having set the standards and established the rules of musical theatre still being followed today. Set in a Western Indian territory just after the turn of the century, the high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the colorful background against which Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a winsome farm girl, play out their love story. Although the road to true love never runs smooth, with these two headstrong romantics holding the reins, love’s journey is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road. That they will succeed in making a new life together we have no doubt, and that this new life will begin in a brand-new state provides the ultimate climax to the triumphant OKLAHOMA!
An excerpt from Musical Stages by Richard Rodgers
Our first meeting on the project that eventually became known as OKLAHOMA! took place at my home in Connecticut. We sat under the huge oak tree and tossed ideas around. What kind of songs were we going to write? Where would they go? Who would sing them? What special texture and mood should the show have?
We had many such sessions until we became thoroughly familiar not only with every aspect of the play but with each other’s outlook and approach as well. Fortunately we were in agreement on all major issues, so that when we finally did begin putting words and notes on paper—which didn’t occur until we’d gone through weeks of discussions—we each were able to move ahead at a steady pace.
The first problem was, appropriately, how to open the show. We didn’t want to begin with anything obvious, such as a barn dance with everyone a-whoopin and a-hollerin.’ After much thought and talk we simply went to the way Lynn Riggs had opened his play, with a woman seated alone on the stage churning butter. For the lyric of the first song, Oscar developed his theme from the description that Riggs had written as an introduction to the scene:
It is a radiant summer morning several years ago, the kind of morning which, enveloping the shape of earth—men, cattle in a meadow, blades of young corn, streams—makes them seem to exist now for the first time, their images giving off a visible golden emanation that is partly true and partly a trick of imagination focusing to keep alive a loveliness that may pass away…
This was all Oscar’s poetic imagination needed to produce his lines about cattle standing like statues, the corn as high as an elephant’s eye, and the bright golden haze on the meadow. When I read them for the first time I could see those cattle and that corn and bright golden haze vividly. How prophetic were Oscar’s words I’ve got a beautiful feelin’/Everything’s goin’ my way.
By opening the show with the woman alone onstage and the cowboy beginning his song offstage, we did more than set a mood; we were, in fact, warning the audience, ‘Watch out! This is a different kind of musical.’
OKLAHOMA! History
OKLAHOMA! launched a new era in the American musical. It also began the most successful songwriting partnership in Broadway history.
In 1942, Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart were at the top of their field, writing musical comedies universally praised for their wit, sophistication and innovation. A decade earlier Oscar Hammerstein II had been at the top of his field, writing operettas that consistently challenged and reshaped the art form; his SHOW BOAT, written with Jerome Kern in 1927, is considered a landmark of the American stage.
Independent of each other, both Rodgers and Hammerstein were attracted to Lynn Riggs’ folk play of life in his native Oklahoma entitled GREEN GROW THE LILACS. When Jerome Kern declined Hammerstein’s invitation to write the musical adaptation with him, and when Hart bowed out of his commitment to musicalize the work with Rodgers, it was only inevitable that the ensuing musical play would become the first work by the team of Rodgers & Hammerstein.
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, choreographed by a then unknown ballet choreographer named Agnes de Mille, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical version of LILACS, entitled AWAY WE GO, was given its world premiere engagement at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in March of 1943. Only a few changes were made on the road, but they were significant. One number, “Boys and Girls Like You and Me,” was cut, and a number about the land originally planned as a duet for Laurey and Curly became instead a showstopping chorale called “Oklahoma.” So successful was this number during the musical’s pre-Broadway engagement in Boston that the decision was made to add an exclamation point to the title, and make it the name of the show.
OKLAHOMA! opened at the St. James Theatre on Broadway on March 31, 1943. At that time, the longest running show in Broadway history had run for three years. OKLAHOMA! surpassed that record by two more years, running for a marathon 2,212 performances. The national tour cris-crossed the United States of America for an unprecedented 10 and a half years, visiting every single state, and playing before a combined audience of more than 10 million people. In 1947, OKLAHOMA! opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, where it ran for 1,548 performances, the longest run of any show up to that time in the 267-year history of the theatre. In 1953, the Oklahoma State Legislature named “Oklahoma” the official state song. In 1955, the motion picture version of OKLAHOMA!, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones and produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein, was released to great success. Major revivals were seen on Broadway, in London’s West End and across Australia in the early ‘80s.
To date [2012], more than 600 productions of OKLAHOMA! are licensed a year in the U.S. and Canada alone. Productions of OKLAHOMA! have been seen throughout Great Britain, Australia, Japan, and in Berlin, Johannesburg, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Rekjavik, Tel Aviv, Budapest, Belgrade, Paris and beyond.
Erica Harte as Annie
Savannah Frazier, Bryant Martin: Laurie & Curly
Oklahoma!: Joy Tipping review
Broadway-in-Irving
I had the intense pleasure this weekend of seeing the second-to-last performance of Oklahoma! at Lyric Stage, which I have now officially (at least in my mind) nicknamed B.I.I., for Broadway-in-Irving. I have never seen a show there that I didn’t think could be lifted wholesale and transferred to the Great White Way for a long, successful and probably Tony Award-winning run. When people hear “Irving” they probably think “community theater,” and while I love me some good community theater, Lyric Stage is a different animal altogether. Its productions rise to the level of uber-professional.
So if you missed Oklahoma!, you should feel sad about that. Those of us who saw it will undoubtedly soon be bragging “I knew them when… ” about the young actor-singer-dancers playing Curly (Bryant Martin), Laurey (Savannah Frazier), Jud (Kyle Cotton) and Ado Annie (Erica Harte). The rest of the cast were no slouches, either.
One of the things that makes Lyric’s performances so special is the company’s commitment to staging them with full orchestras and original orchestrations. Despite having seen Oklahoma! at least 10 previous times (and having been in a production when I was in high school), I got to hear for the first time two songs from the original score that are hardly ever included in the show now: Ali Hakim’s hilarious “It’s a Scandal, It’s a Outrage,” and Jud’s mournfully sad “Lonely Room.”
OK. Stop feeling bad about missing Oklahoma! — I’ve chastised you enough — and get in on next season ahead of time. Lyric does its shows for two weekends only, and they sell out fast. There are no bad seats in the lovely Carpenter Performance Hall at the Irving Arts Center, and season tickets can be had for $105-$165 — one of the best bargains in town for anyone who cherishes musical theater.
Oklahoma!: Elaine Liner review
How the West is Sung
The singing, dancing cowboys in Lyric Stage's Oklahoma! compete for your attention this week with the singing, dancing seventh president in Theatre Three's Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson. With Jersey Boys and its singing, almost-dancing quartet of lovable mooks back in town for a month-long run at the Winspear, there may not be a better chance this year to experience the broad scope of American musical theater.
This version of Oklahoma! is closer to the original than the 1955 movie or any of the various New York revivals or touring productions of the last half century. Lyric's musical director, Jay Dias, has gone back to the original orchestrations by arranger Robert Russell Bennett, restoring numbers in Oklahoma! that typically are cut to shorten or simplify the score. What a happy surprise to hear the songs "It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!" and "Lonely Room" back where Rodgers and Hammerstein intended, providing jolts of comedy and pathos in what otherwise is a corny-as-Kansas folk operetta about young people loving and lusting in the Oklahoma Territory of the early 1900s.
Producer Steven Jones and director Cheryl Denson have keen eyes for casting hot new talent in the shows they do together at Lyric. For Oklahoma! they went young for the leads, finding fresh-faced kids, some local, some from New York auditions. When Bryant Martin, as leading man Curly, strolls on at the top of the first act, crooning "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," he's the ideal dreamboat, the one every R&H musical deserves. His love object, straight-talking farm girl Laurey, is played by Savannah Frazier with a tomboyish bite. They act their duets as musical foreplay, teasing and taunting, innocently but with a strong undercurrent of let’s-neck-in-the-root-cellar-after-sundown.
The villainous intruder in their love story is brooding farmhand Jud Fry, who has to be sexy enough to get Laurey's attention but scary enough to make her lock her doors at night. Most productions cast Jud too old, too fat, too ugly or just too creepy to be believed. Lyric's Jud, UT-Austin grad student Kyle Cotton, is a handsome dude who acts the bejeebers out of the part, giving Jud aspects of Asperger's (he never looks anyone in the eye) that make the character intensely interesting.
Cotton's take on Jud Fry paints shadows that complement all the other characters' sunny colors. We have to worry that Laurey might choose the wrong man because he's such a turn-on — and that's where the tension lies. Curly must work to win Laurey's love, even if it means selling his horse and saddle to beat Jud's all-in bid for Laurey's picnic hamper at the box social. ("Box socials," young 'uns, were the early American version of meet-ups.)
If Laurey and Curly are the good kids in Oklahoma!, Ado Annie (Erica Harte) and Will Parker (Sean McGee) are the couple most likely to get caught with their bloomers down in the hayloft. He's already been to Kansas City to see ladies undress in a "burley-queue." She's fooling around with Middle Eastern peddler Ali Hakim (Brad M. Jackson, making the part a sharply comic tour de force). Annie and Will's numbers, "I Cain't Say No" and "All Er Nuthin'," are goofy nonsense but Harte and McGee are adorable doing them.
It's all just lovely, with a bright golden haze over every scene. They didn't try to reinvent Oklahoma! here. Lyric Stage just rediscovered how great it was in the first place.
Oklahoma!: Alexandra Bonifield review
Oklahoma! glows bright @ Lyric Stage
That’s not just a bright golden haze, it’s an effervescent glow spilling out of Carpenter Hall at Irving Arts Center, generated by Lyric Stage’s spectacular production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic “Oklahoma!” running through June 24. It’s one of the best regional productions of Summer 2012 and a Best of the Best in a fine line of triumphs for nonprofit Lyric Stage. The combination of Cheryl Denson’s stage direction, Jay Dias’ musical direction and orchestral conducting, Ann Nieman’s choreography, Michael Schweikardt’s scenic design and Drenda Lewis’ simple, accurate period costumes along with a versatile, dynamic cast with stunning eye appeal and tuneful voices makes this production a sheer delight to experience and remember. It honors the tradition of this groundbreaking “book musical” icon while keeping it snapping along crisply, exploring its psychological depths for contemporary relevance in unexpected ways.
“Oklahoma!” didn’t have an auspicious genesis back in 1943. Approached by the Theatre Guild to turn Lynn Riggs’s brooding, unsuccessful 1931 stage play set in turn of the century Oklahoma Territory “Green Grow the Lilacs” into a musical, Richard Rodgers accepted the challenge; but his main collaborator Lorenz Hart tuned it down as it wouldn’t allow him to write the sophisticated, witty, contemporary lyrics he preferred. In the meantime, Oscar Hammerstein had approached Jerome Kern about creating a musical version of “Green Grow the Lilacs” and also got rebuffed. Hart suggested Rodgers team up with Hammerstein; the two found it a productive, creative working relationship. They threw out the diversionary, conventional musical comedy structure of the era and decided to focus on the work’s source material. They embarked on a risky, fresh approach where the songs and dancing developed the themes and revealed the plot, intensifying the performances and the depth of character. They decided to cast singers who could act, not the norm at the time, and find performers truly suited to the roles they created. (Groucho Marx as Ali Hakim?) And they cast unknowns, almost never done. The show limped into its out of town tryouts in New Haven as “Away We Go!” with scant expectations (Hammerstein’s six previous musical flops lowering that bar) for success. Producers frowned it had no star power, no jokes, no exposed girlie legs to charm the crowds. Before its Broadway opening, undaunted, the creative duo added the group finale song “Oklahoma!” and renamed the show after it. The musical debuted at the St. James Theatre on March 31, 1943. Audiences and critics were entranced and ate it up. Young, amazed Alfred Drake entered from upstage in his cowboy gear, crooning “Oh, What A Beautiful Morning” a cappella and had to exit immediately after to re-enter and perform it again, night after night. The lines for tickets stretched around the block, day after day. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote that the opening number “changed the history of musical theater forever.” It ran for 2,243 performances on Broadway for five years and two months, grossing an unheard of $7,000,000. It made star careers for its original cast members and won a special Pulitzer Prize. It shifted the theatre paradigm by birthing the Golden Age of American musical theatre.
If the ghosts of those original 1943 cast members could come join the Lyric Stage audiences at Carpenter Hall, they would surely thrill at this generation’s production, over a half century later.
Lanky, ebullient Bryant Martin swaggers onstage in his batwing chaps, toting a Western saddle like a postage stamp, wooing every romantic in the house with his soaring, simple delivery of the signature opening song. Eyes blazing with hope and goodwill, he’s optimistic, warm, naturally masculine; he’s at ease with himself and revels in the joys of a beautiful morning, hoping to see, and tease, and charm, his favorite girl. Saucy Savannah Frazier as Laurie makes Martin’s Curly earn every momentary admiring glance with innocent verve, her classic, rich soprano enlivening her solos with a pensive vitality and voicing an occasional sweet grace note trill in homage to the show’s 1940’s roots. She’s a very modern girl, but every inch a lady. Their exquisite duet blends beg for more verses or an encore at least.
Comic relief finds exuberant, perfectly matched expression in the non-stop mischief-makers Ado Annie and Will. Erica Harte, one of the region’s finest up and coming musical stars (“Spring Awakening”, “Next to Normal”), goes beyond conventional stereotype with an approach to Ado Annie that’s more vivacious flirt than haystack hustle. She adapts her versatile, mature singing voice to classic soubrette insouciance. Matching her note for note and hyperkinetic antic for antic, University of Oklahoma senior Sean McGee as Will employs nonstop the skills he’s learned at school that allow his considerable talent as a song and dance man to shine. What a perfect comic match.
Brad M. Jackson’s Ali Hakim provides needed diversionary, sympathetic entertainment (without ever embodying the once suggested Groucho); and Deborah Brown’s dry, grounded wit and common sense Ant Eller keeps the ensemble hijinks from Occupying Oklahoma. Sad and unbalanced, emotionally obsessive and vengeful, villain Jud Fry often gets portrayed as a clumsy, thickheaded savage. Kyle Cotton, under Cheryl Denson’s superlative direction, plays a seething psychopath along the lines of Timothy McVeigh. Nobody suspects how deeply troubled he is; nobody knows how much damage he intends to cause.
His voice booms and roils with desperate longing and barely contained rage, mesmerizing, almost an operatic performance in style and scope. Group numbers seem to stage themselves effortlessly and picture perfect, with Ann Nieman’s balletic choreography flowing seamlessly into Jay Dias’ fluently harmonized choral numbers. The innovative Agnes DeMille “dream ballet” (featuring Mallory Michaellann Brophy and Hayden Clifton as Laurie and Curly) blends the original staging with a spirited, more modern expression, as full of surreal lyricism and nightmarish tension as any modern dance creation. When the chorus and leads finally arrive at the climactic number “Oklahoma!”, delivered full energy, full front to the house, the audience can barely refrain from surging to its feet, clapping and singing along. Encores in 1943? Could happen just as easily with this Lyric Stage production.
A special note of praise for Drenda Lewis’ period costumes, particularly the men’s as cowboys and farmers. From the cut and drape of their pants and/or chaps to their ties and kerchiefs or suspenders to the creases in their hat crowns and brim rolls to the proper style of boots with appropriate heels, they fit the era and their jobs perfectly. These acting/dancing singers don’t look like waiters at a giant-sized New York City bar/restaurant with a gay cowboy theme. Thank you, Ms. Lewis.
Yes, there is a fabulous surrey with fringe on top! Don’t miss it. Lyric Stage’s “Oklahoma!” runs through June 24 at Carpenter Hall in Irving Arts Center.
Oklahoma!: Mark Lowry review
Lyric Stage’s rousing revival of ‘Oklahoma!’ If you think of Oklahoma! as one of those musicals you’re sick of seeing — because it’s often produced by every level of theater group, from high school to community to professional, and usually arrives with a “not bad” staging — then you’d better get over to Irving’s Lyric Stage. North Texas’ premier musical theater company has been doing full-orchestra revivals for five years now, and hands down, their best work has been from the R&H canon: Carousel (their first full-orchestra revival, in 2007), The King and I (2009) and now, the 1943 musical Oklahoma!, which changed the musical theater landscape.
[ Unfortunately the rest of this review is not available since its online source at DFW.com has been removed. ]
Oklahoma!: Martha Heimberg review
Well Hello, Oklahoma!
A jubilant and sexy revival of Oklahoma! proves to be still a thrill at Irving's Lyric Stage.
Lyric Stage does it again with Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! The musical that revolutionized musical theater 70 years ago proves its genius once more, embodied in the huge, jubilant, sexy production onstage at Irving Arts Center. The lovers sizzle, the singers are in top form, and the dancers click their heels high in the air. Even the psychotic villain evokes a dark, physical appeal. Add another exclamation point and roaring cheer for founding producer Steven Jones and his incredible creative team.
Director Cheryl Denson keeps finding star quality talent, showcased in this energetic and youthful cast of 33 actors, singers and dancers. Music director Jay Dias conducts the extraordinary 33-piece orchestra with zest and sensitivity, from the enticing overture to the rousing finale in this original Broadway orchestration, newly restored from Robert Russell Bennett's original. Choreographer Ann Nieman uses Agnes de Mille's original ballet as inspiration, and comes up with dance filled with grace and vigor. The dancers are particularly evocative in the dramatic Dream Ballet closing the first act.
The show, set at the turn of the century when the state was still Indian territory, is based on Lynn Rigg's play Green Grow the Lilacs. The story of young love blossoming in a young land is musically manifested in the joyous love songs and playful teasing. When the handsome cowboy Curly (Bryant Martin) walks on the stage singing "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" we feel his physical strength and natural optimism at once. Then pretty Laurey (Savannah Frazier) steps onto the porch, and her initial resistance to Curly's flirting becomes a magnet for him. Everything depends on the chemistry between these two—and we feel the heat building, smile after smile, song after song. A bold and manly Curly, Martin's rich tenor voice moves easily from a buoyant, imaginative rendition of "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" to a tender duet with Frazier in "People Will Say We're in Love." How can any woman resist this marvelous man?
Frazier, a slender brunette with a willowy appeal, grows even more attractive once she quits being a sourpuss and starts flirting back. Her Laurey is a strong, passionate woman, but not easily won. Her clear soprano voice blends enticingly with Martin's tenor in their duets, and she radiates independence and charm singing "Many a New Day" with the female ensemble. Laurey's down-to-earth Aunt Eller (Deborah Brown) tells Curly he'll win in the end. And we know Laurey really wants to go to the box lunch auction with Curly, even though she makes him wait for an answer.
Waiting is not a problem for Laurey's friend Ado Annie (Erica Harte), the girl who admits "I Cain't Say No" to any man that "talks purty." Harte, her big eyes rolling and helplessly swooning into all available arms, is totally adorable in the role. Sean McGee, a tall, athletic actor with a winning grin, is perfect as her long-suffering cowboy sweetheart Will Parker. All the scenes with Ali Hakim (Brad M. Jackson), the traveling "Persian" peddler trying to escape a shotgun wedding with Ado Annie, are hilarious. Whether he's peddling snake oil or smooching up the arms of his female customers, his comic timing and slightly terrified expression make everybody laugh.
But Oklahoma! has a dark side, too—and this production flashes with the sudden tension of violence and jealously in a fatal triangle at the center of the plot. The oddly threatening hired man Jud Fry (Kyle Cotton) has somehow persuaded Laurey to let him take her to the big party. Cotton's Jud is not the stumbling hulk often seen in this role, but a powerful, damaged man with great physical presence and a big baritone voice. You understand why Laurey might feel not just pity for such a man, but a kind of unwished for attraction, as well. When Curly visits Jud in his dirty smokehouse quarters, he approaches with caution. When the two sing "Poor Jud is Daid", you feel again Curly's great powers of persuasion in suggesting his rival hang himself, but also Jud's instant attraction to death in any form. This guy is at once creepy and compelling.
The restoration includes two songs often dropped from modern productions. "Lonely Room," sung by Cotton's Jud in a voice throbbing with the remorse of long humiliation, and giving greater depth to the angry, twisted nature of the show's dangerous villain. "It's a Scandal! It's an Outrage!" is a high-spirited song and dance number about female expectations, sung by Ali Hakim and the male ensemble.
The Dream Ballet sequence, featuring Mallory Michaellann Brophy and Hayden Clifton, is beautiful and haunting, as it moves from a dream of love to a prophetic nightmare of lust and revenge. Gorgeous stuff. All the big ensemble pieces, with 30 dancers and singers stretched across the stage, are just plain thrilling. You'll love the energetic and rambunctious "The Farmer and the Cowman" number, and I got goose bumps listening to the rich chorale complexities of the title song, affirming a new marriage, a new statehood—and the utter joy of singing and dancing. OK!
Michael Schweikardt's scenic design with its big farmhouse and tall windmill puts us there, but leaves plenty of room for plenty of action. Drenda Lewis's colorful, well-fitted costumes feature waves of rustling petticoats on the gals and leather chaps for all those handsome cowboys.
Oklahoma!: Lindsey Wilson review
Oh, What A Beautiful Oklahoma!
At Lyric Stage. With an incredible cast, flawless music direction courtesy of Jay Dias, and perfectly timed direction from Cheryl Denson, this Oklahoma! gets everything right… As the satisfyingly enjoyable closing production of Lyric Stage’s season, this is an Oklahoma! that seems to have sprung out of your dreams and into reality.
[ Unfortunately the rest of this review is not available since its online source at D Magazine has been removed. ]
Oklahoma!: Lawson Taitte review
Lyric Stage opens an ideal ‘Oklahoma!’
Nobody does Rodgers and Hammerstein like Lyric Stage. The Irving company opened Oklahoma! on Saturday. This new production equals — perhaps even surpasses — the superb versions of Carousel and The King and I of recent seasons. It’s a very full version, with one number from the original Broadway show that no one in the audience seemed ever to have heard onstage before…
Lyric Stage’s singular style is not merely that, unlike other theater groups, it employs a full orchestra. Conductor Jay Dias also makes sure that his players — not to mention the soloists and chorus onstage — pay close attention to the score’s dynamic markings. The title song, for instance, sounds infinitely more thrilling because of the way the volume swells and diminishes, then explodes.
Equally important, Dias and producer Steven Jones search hard to find casts who can actually sing the songs.
[ Unfortunately the rest of this review is not available since its online source at Dallas Morning News has been removed. ]