Chicago Tribune: Many readers have written in with their thoughts about the radical touring production of the 2018 Broadway revival of “Oklahoma!,” playing at the CIBC Theater in Chicago through Sunday. As I wrote in my review, this version of the seminal Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical strays from the show’s reputation as a hearty work of Americana — anyone heading out to see it should know it mostly does not deliver a feel-good experience, especially in its most radical last few minutes.
2 comments:
To get the full context of this article I did have to do a little research into why everyone thought that this production of Oklahoma! was so bad. I’ve never seen any production of the show myself but many writers had not so nice things to say about this tour. I think the most interesting thing that the director, Daniel Fish, said was that he views everything as a new work. Even though Oklahoma! is a classic, he wanted to do something new with it, which is very hard with something so well known. Revivals are such a tricky thing in theatre, because it feels as though people don’t like them either way. If a director sticks too close to the original it becomes boring and if they stray too far then it doesn’t due credit to the iconicness of the show. But it seems that this version of Oklahoma! has really stirred up anger with its disregard of the beloved material.
I found it interesting that when director Daniel Fish moved the show from Bard College, to St. Ann's Warehouse, to Broadway and then on tour the focus was on remaking the show to fit into the new space rather than reproducing the original. This idea goes against the prevalent industry belief that you want every audience member to have the same experience. Also the author was incorrect, while on Broadway the stage was set up as a thrust, not theater in the round. Additionally, I find it fascinating that Fish was okay with whatever feelings the show evoked from the audience. He talked about how the show was made on and for the people making it, rather than focused on how the audience would feel. So often we are focused on how we can manipulate the audience to evoke the reaction we want instead of focusing on how we want to feel while making it.
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