This ain't your parents "Oklahoma" musical
February 1, 2024 2:48 PM Subscribe
A brilliant new adaptation of the classic musical, "Oklahoma" Ado Annie sings "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say No". This is a clip from the Olivier awards show in London.So different from the musical I saw in the 60's. Celeste Holm portrayed Ado in the original show on Broadway.
I agree, chaiminda, because wow, what a missed opportunity in
When a person tries to kiss a girl
I know she oughta give his face a smack
but somehow when someone kisses me
I somehow sorta wanna kiss him back...
Two pronoun changes and Ado Annie is bi/pan. Which makes all kinds of sense to me!
posted by humbug at 3:09 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]
When a person tries to kiss a girl
I know she oughta give his face a smack
but somehow when someone kisses me
I somehow sorta wanna kiss him back...
Two pronoun changes and Ado Annie is bi/pan. Which makes all kinds of sense to me!
posted by humbug at 3:09 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]
I've always felt like the great songs in Oklahoma are let down by the (lack of) story.
I mean, it's a romance melodrama set in a small town? That's the source material for a lot of musicals in this era. You can go back to the sort of "original musical" Show Boat which is also a relationship melodrama set in a small town. One of my most favorite musicals ever The Music Man is a relationship melodrama [sort of] set in a small town.
I really don't find Oklahoma to contain much less story, ounce for ounce, than many other even straight plays of that era. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is a relationship melodrama set in a small town.
Anyway, this production is a crossing-the-pond production of the Tony-award revival from Broadway. Just in case you're wondering, that IS Rory from Doctor Who, Arthur Darvill, singing the lead for Oklahoma. He did that on Broadway, too.
posted by hippybear at 3:23 PM on February 1 [12 favorites]
I mean, it's a romance melodrama set in a small town? That's the source material for a lot of musicals in this era. You can go back to the sort of "original musical" Show Boat which is also a relationship melodrama set in a small town. One of my most favorite musicals ever The Music Man is a relationship melodrama [sort of] set in a small town.
I really don't find Oklahoma to contain much less story, ounce for ounce, than many other even straight plays of that era. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is a relationship melodrama set in a small town.
Anyway, this production is a crossing-the-pond production of the Tony-award revival from Broadway. Just in case you're wondering, that IS Rory from Doctor Who, Arthur Darvill, singing the lead for Oklahoma. He did that on Broadway, too.
posted by hippybear at 3:23 PM on February 1 [12 favorites]
This is the London transfer of the 2019 Broadway revival, yes?
I know that version was...polarizing...but I thought it was tremendously entertaining and really grappled with the violence underpinning the story.
And man that cast was dreamy.
posted by bcwinters at 3:27 PM on February 1 [4 favorites]
I know that version was...polarizing...but I thought it was tremendously entertaining and really grappled with the violence underpinning the story.
And man that cast was dreamy.
posted by bcwinters at 3:27 PM on February 1 [4 favorites]
OOOOOOOOOOOOh-
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:28 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:28 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
I guess you might say that the lack of story plays well with the vibe of this production. You feel on edge through the whole thing because the cast is exuding this kind of listless boredom with an undercurrent of sexual frustration that could exploded into violence (or really anything else) at any moment. It's a weird feeling, because the musical performances are still amazing, but you feel like you're watching a horror film the whole time and are just waiting for the thing to explode.
I saw this cast in London and sat in the front row. Those tickets were much cheaper than ones a few rows back for some reason. There was evidently a warning that there may be some audience participation if you were sitting in those seats. That turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
On preview, humbug, on the one hand that would totally work with this production, but i think at least part of what it's exploring is the violence inherent in neat heterosexual romances (who gets left out, what gets covered up to make those stories end happily), so maybe they kept all the relationships straight for that reason.
posted by nangua at 3:32 PM on February 1 [9 favorites]
I saw this cast in London and sat in the front row. Those tickets were much cheaper than ones a few rows back for some reason. There was evidently a warning that there may be some audience participation if you were sitting in those seats. That turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
On preview, humbug, on the one hand that would totally work with this production, but i think at least part of what it's exploring is the violence inherent in neat heterosexual romances (who gets left out, what gets covered up to make those stories end happily), so maybe they kept all the relationships straight for that reason.
posted by nangua at 3:32 PM on February 1 [9 favorites]
Two pronoun changes and Ado Annie is bi/pan. Which makes all kinds of sense to me!
Not exactly what you're proposing, but Oregon Shakespeare Festival did a queer version of Oklahoma with Ado Andy instead (among other changes) in 2018 that I'm still kicking myself for not seeing. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/09/10/oklahoma-same-sex-couples
posted by Tesseractive at 3:36 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]
Not exactly what you're proposing, but Oregon Shakespeare Festival did a queer version of Oklahoma with Ado Andy instead (among other changes) in 2018 that I'm still kicking myself for not seeing. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/09/10/oklahoma-same-sex-couples
posted by Tesseractive at 3:36 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]
I don't mind the re-do or staging or any of that, but what the heck was going on with that accent, lol, it got really strained in there a few times. I guess this is the London cast...?
posted by emjaybee at 3:40 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
posted by emjaybee at 3:40 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
Show Boat is totally self-referential about being romance melodrama. The main cast of a romance melodrama work on a show boat that mostly produces... romance melodramas. I love that about it.
I wonder how many other early-to-mid-century musicals could do well with an update like this. I mean, Carousel is hopeless, there is NO WAY to rescue that show from its misogyny, but (in deference to hippybear) maybe I could hate The Music Man a little less than I do?
(CUT "MARIAN THE LIBRARIAN," JUST CUT IT, AND I WOULD HATE THE SHOW A LOT LESS. Terrible song that has dragged down my profession with its garbage-ass stereotypes ever since.)
Or maybe somebody could fix the weird, icky, ineffective second act of Sunday in the Park with George? Cutting or rewriting "Children and Art" would go some distance. I honestly don't understand how a show with such a brilliant first act could throw it all away in the second.
posted by humbug at 3:45 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
I wonder how many other early-to-mid-century musicals could do well with an update like this. I mean, Carousel is hopeless, there is NO WAY to rescue that show from its misogyny, but (in deference to hippybear) maybe I could hate The Music Man a little less than I do?
(CUT "MARIAN THE LIBRARIAN," JUST CUT IT, AND I WOULD HATE THE SHOW A LOT LESS. Terrible song that has dragged down my profession with its garbage-ass stereotypes ever since.)
Or maybe somebody could fix the weird, icky, ineffective second act of Sunday in the Park with George? Cutting or rewriting "Children and Art" would go some distance. I honestly don't understand how a show with such a brilliant first act could throw it all away in the second.
posted by humbug at 3:45 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
I honestly don't understand how a show with such a brilliant first act could throw it all away in the second.
The ultimate metaphor of Seurat as an artist.
posted by hippybear at 3:46 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]
The ultimate metaphor of Seurat as an artist.
posted by hippybear at 3:46 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]
I guess I don't feel like either of the romances are very interesting, and the conflict (Jud's a jerk and everyone hates him) is pretty one-note. I also really, really love the music (not so true of The Music Man, which has a few stinkers) and I am always bored by the parts in between.
posted by chaiminda at 3:49 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
posted by chaiminda at 3:49 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
-KLAHOMA where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain 🎶
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:58 PM on February 1 [17 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:58 PM on February 1 [17 favorites]
Terrible song that has dragged down my profession with its garbage-ass stereotypes ever since.
Honestly, I understand that, and it's horrible that a song like that is taken seriously. But as with much of anything, if you say anything out loud it will be taken seriously. This is why you always state things in the positive or knock on wood if you have to say the negative because the house spirits will ignore the negating words and only hear the unwished for as a wish.
But Marion The Librarian was written as a song song by a manipulative salesman who is trying to manipulate his mark into his clutches. He's deploying negative stereotypes against her right in front of her in order to get her to overreact and accede to his wishes and fall into his clutches.
The true problem with the song is that it is written so wonderfully, fully in character of Harold Hill trying to manipulate Marion into accepting him and thus winning acceptance in the larger community, that it also manipulates the THEATER AUDIENCE with its statements about librarians. They are not meant to make the theater audience feel these things, but the Harold Hill / the song is far too effective at what it is trying to do, which is have Harold manipulate Marion with wrong-headed statements about librarians in order to get her to give in to his schemes.
This is why William Burroughs wrote screeds denouncing rock and roll concerts as being too powerful a tool of audience manipulation. This right here!
posted by hippybear at 4:07 PM on February 1 [10 favorites]
Honestly, I understand that, and it's horrible that a song like that is taken seriously. But as with much of anything, if you say anything out loud it will be taken seriously. This is why you always state things in the positive or knock on wood if you have to say the negative because the house spirits will ignore the negating words and only hear the unwished for as a wish.
But Marion The Librarian was written as a song song by a manipulative salesman who is trying to manipulate his mark into his clutches. He's deploying negative stereotypes against her right in front of her in order to get her to overreact and accede to his wishes and fall into his clutches.
The true problem with the song is that it is written so wonderfully, fully in character of Harold Hill trying to manipulate Marion into accepting him and thus winning acceptance in the larger community, that it also manipulates the THEATER AUDIENCE with its statements about librarians. They are not meant to make the theater audience feel these things, but the Harold Hill / the song is far too effective at what it is trying to do, which is have Harold manipulate Marion with wrong-headed statements about librarians in order to get her to give in to his schemes.
This is why William Burroughs wrote screeds denouncing rock and roll concerts as being too powerful a tool of audience manipulation. This right here!
posted by hippybear at 4:07 PM on February 1 [10 favorites]
[Now, don't come after me about Shipoopi. I cannot defend that song on any level.]
posted by hippybear at 4:09 PM on February 1 [7 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 4:09 PM on February 1 [7 favorites]
...the conflict (Jud's a jerk and everyone hates him) is pretty one-note
That's not the conflict in this version of Oklahoma. Without giving away the ending, I believe the dialogue of the last scene is substantially the same as other versions, but it is interpreted and performed to mean something completely different.
posted by nangua at 4:15 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]
That's not the conflict in this version of Oklahoma. Without giving away the ending, I believe the dialogue of the last scene is substantially the same as other versions, but it is interpreted and performed to mean something completely different.
posted by nangua at 4:15 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]
Re. The Music Man...While recovering from COVID last September, I watched high school productions of the show. I love the earnestness of the kids. "Say ice cream. But I don't sing. Ice cream.
Now lower. Ice cream. Now faster...so funny to watch him sneak away as they start becoming a barbershop quartet.
posted by Czjewel at 4:23 PM on February 1
Now lower. Ice cream. Now faster...so funny to watch him sneak away as they start becoming a barbershop quartet.
posted by Czjewel at 4:23 PM on February 1
My singing teacher and I were in Oklahoma this fall--she played Ado Annie--and post lesson today we engaged in a rant about how Golden Age musical plots are pretty much all bad.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:01 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:01 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
I was in the band, for Oklahoma. As a trombone player, this means my role was this:
oom-PA oom-PA oom-PA
Just the "PAs". Repeat for ~ two hours.
Despite this I still enjoy the music for Oklahoma, much more than many musicals which came later.
posted by lookoutbelow at 5:55 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]
oom-PA oom-PA oom-PA
Just the "PAs". Repeat for ~ two hours.
Despite this I still enjoy the music for Oklahoma, much more than many musicals which came later.
posted by lookoutbelow at 5:55 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]
I forgot the special exception, oom-PA-PA. And the trombone orchestral special, silence and counting dozens of bars of rests.
posted by lookoutbelow at 7:02 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]
posted by lookoutbelow at 7:02 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]
lookoutbelow -- Hello there. String bass, orchestra, eight years. With rare exception it's mostly plucking on the one and three.
posted by hippybear at 7:14 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 7:14 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]
That's why I quit playing bluegrass bass and switched to jazz - I felt like I was approaching my theoretical limit of half notes for one lifetime.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:26 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:26 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]
The alternate in orchestra is doing a lengthy bottom drone for eight measures at a time, then a different note for eight measures...
Like, some bits of classical bass are thrilling! The "storm" bit of The William Tell Overture is some of the most athletic bass playing ever written, and is super fun to execute. But there's the bit before the storm -- boring, and the calm after the storm -- so boring you can't believe it, and then finally the Lone Ranger bit which is mostly percussive ta-da-dum ta-da-dum bow bouncing on the core notes, so basically plucking.
posted by hippybear at 7:30 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
Like, some bits of classical bass are thrilling! The "storm" bit of The William Tell Overture is some of the most athletic bass playing ever written, and is super fun to execute. But there's the bit before the storm -- boring, and the calm after the storm -- so boring you can't believe it, and then finally the Lone Ranger bit which is mostly percussive ta-da-dum ta-da-dum bow bouncing on the core notes, so basically plucking.
posted by hippybear at 7:30 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
Honestly if you want to have an exciting time playing bass or trombone or whatever, you want to either been jazz or doing old Carl Stalling Looney Tunes scores. Which are so chaotic I'm amazed human beings could even execute them!
posted by hippybear at 7:32 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 7:32 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]
I've never seen ruder audience behavior than when touring Oklahoma came through my town. People just walked out in the middle of songs. Didn't even wait for intermission.
I got $25 lottery seats and thought it was pretty great, actually. The original/movie version is very flat with one dimensional characters, so I had extremely low expectations for this one. The revival flips a lot of that around: by the end of the show, Curly is definitely the bad guy, but his popularity means the town rallies behind him in a kangaroo court that blames Jud for his own death. The B-plot of Ado Annie/Will/Traveling Salesman leans toward sexual and racial violence, with all of three as aggressors. There were also allusions to the fact that the state of Oklahoma (like most every other place in this country) is stolen Native land.
What I'm saying is, it was theatre that intentionally made the audience uncomfortable by pulling back the curtain on the American Dream. I can see how, if you'd paid $200+/seat for rah-rah Americana, you'd be disturbed. One of my colleagues still complains about it, years later. Walking out mid-song is rude af though.
It's interesting to compare the audience reaction to this vs say, Hamilton, which also treats a foundational US myth with irreverence. Hamilton is fundamentally optimistic about the promise of America, though, whereas the Oklahoma revival really really is not.
posted by basalganglia at 3:45 AM on February 2 [7 favorites]
I got $25 lottery seats and thought it was pretty great, actually. The original/movie version is very flat with one dimensional characters, so I had extremely low expectations for this one. The revival flips a lot of that around: by the end of the show, Curly is definitely the bad guy, but his popularity means the town rallies behind him in a kangaroo court that blames Jud for his own death. The B-plot of Ado Annie/Will/Traveling Salesman leans toward sexual and racial violence, with all of three as aggressors. There were also allusions to the fact that the state of Oklahoma (like most every other place in this country) is stolen Native land.
What I'm saying is, it was theatre that intentionally made the audience uncomfortable by pulling back the curtain on the American Dream. I can see how, if you'd paid $200+/seat for rah-rah Americana, you'd be disturbed. One of my colleagues still complains about it, years later. Walking out mid-song is rude af though.
It's interesting to compare the audience reaction to this vs say, Hamilton, which also treats a foundational US myth with irreverence. Hamilton is fundamentally optimistic about the promise of America, though, whereas the Oklahoma revival really really is not.
posted by basalganglia at 3:45 AM on February 2 [7 favorites]
This is why William Burroughs wrote screeds denouncing rock and roll concerts as being too powerful a tool of audience manipulation. This right here!
We got trouble! Right here on Metafilter! With a capital T and that rhymes with D and that stands for DTMFA!
posted by basalganglia at 4:49 AM on February 2 [6 favorites]
We got trouble! Right here on Metafilter! With a capital T and that rhymes with D and that stands for DTMFA!
posted by basalganglia at 4:49 AM on February 2 [6 favorites]
Well, I didn’t expect the vicar from Broadchurch to come out singing.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:59 AM on February 2 [2 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:59 AM on February 2 [2 favorites]
So yes, this London show (from March 2023) is a restaging of Daniel Fish's revival in 2019 on Broadway. Which makes it a different thing from the 2018 genderbent version performed in Ashland that Tesseractive mentions.
posted by Nelson at 6:37 AM on February 2
posted by Nelson at 6:37 AM on February 2
My kid does singing and dancing, and had "Many A New Day" as a repertoire piece, sung in kind of a brash "Gonna' wash that man right outta' my hair" kind of way. So Mrs. Hobo got us tickets to the London show (which, as Nelson points out, is basically the 2019 Broadway version).
I went in knowing nothing about the production, and came away absolutely buzzing.
The house lights were on the whole time, except when the stage went dark and we saw victims' frightened cornered faces through lo-fi B&W video projection. When the lights were up, you were faced with the reactions of everyone around you.
And wow, were people awked out by the show. It was a show that held the original musical up to the audience and asked "What? You like this shit? Did you ever actually read the lyrics? This you??" You had to sit there and think things like "Oh right, if this is during statehood, then that character was probably around during the Trail of Tears..." and "These men really are just abusers and incels and creeps, aren't they..."
Yeah, it deconstructs the play. It manages to let actors chew on scenery and slosh lines around in their mouths like poison.
I went in knowing nothing about the production, and came away absolutely buzzing.
The house lights were on the whole time, except when the stage went dark and we saw victims' frightened cornered faces through lo-fi B&W video projection. When the lights were up, you were faced with the reactions of everyone around you.
And wow, were people awked out by the show. It was a show that held the original musical up to the audience and asked "What? You like this shit? Did you ever actually read the lyrics? This you??" You had to sit there and think things like "Oh right, if this is during statehood, then that character was probably around during the Trail of Tears..." and "These men really are just abusers and incels and creeps, aren't they..."
Yeah, it deconstructs the play. It manages to let actors chew on scenery and slosh lines around in their mouths like poison.
I hated every minute, and I love it to death.posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 8:39 AM on February 2 [3 favorites]
Well, I didn’t expect the vicar from Broadchurch to come out singing.
Not to mention Rory and Rip Hunter! That was a fun surprise. Did a decent job of it, though, so kudos on pulling off this quintessentially USian tune. And wobbly accent aside, Georgina Onuorah did some powerful singing on that first tune.
That said, Rodgers/Hart >> Rodgers/Hammerstein.
posted by the sobsister at 10:10 AM on February 2 [1 favorite]
Not to mention Rory and Rip Hunter! That was a fun surprise. Did a decent job of it, though, so kudos on pulling off this quintessentially USian tune. And wobbly accent aside, Georgina Onuorah did some powerful singing on that first tune.
That said, Rodgers/Hart >> Rodgers/Hammerstein.
posted by the sobsister at 10:10 AM on February 2 [1 favorite]
I can't believe nobody has mentioned Ali Stroker's performance of this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxFS8okUqKk
She was the first actor using a wheelchair to win a Tony Award. Acceptance speech: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=594823321864702
Her performance was one of the best things on stage that season in New York.
(That Olivier performance was also very good, and I'm glad I got a chance to see it, so I'm thankful for the post. But the Broadway revival did something amazing too.)
posted by grae at 6:01 PM on February 3
She was the first actor using a wheelchair to win a Tony Award. Acceptance speech: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=594823321864702
Her performance was one of the best things on stage that season in New York.
(That Olivier performance was also very good, and I'm glad I got a chance to see it, so I'm thankful for the post. But the Broadway revival did something amazing too.)
posted by grae at 6:01 PM on February 3
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posted by chaiminda at 3:06 PM on February 1 [4 favorites]