The 2019 Tony Award winning revival of Rogers & Hammerstein’s groundbreaking musical, Oklahoma! comes to Shea’s

The Timeless Classic

Before the actors appear, a hint of menace greets the audience in the form of racks of firearms covering the walls on either side of the stage in the 2019 Tony Award winning revival of Rogers & Hammerstein’s 1943 groundbreaking musical, Oklahoma! now at Shea’s. It is considered the first musical to thoroughly integrate songs, story, and dance into the narrative – sort of the Hamilton of its time.

Those firearms on the wall act as a kind of warning that this is not the same musical your Grandparents saw way back when. While the original dialogue has been retained to the word, what was subtext has been brought front and center by Director Daniel Fish. This is a very sensual Oklahoma! that revels in its openness while exposing the underbelly of the great American dream, from both a personal and political reality.

Love on the Frontier

In the vast Oklahoma territory at the beginning of the 20^th Century, Cowboy Curly loves farm girl Laurey. She is confused about her sexual feelings for both the arrogant Curly and the mysterious, creepy hired hand Jud Fry. It is the morning of the box social and Laurey must choose which man will accompany her. In a fit of pique at Curly, she picks Jud. This leads to confrontations between the two men, one who would be the quarterback of the football team today and the other the weird guy who sits by himself hunched over at the lunch table secretly looking at dirty pictures. The other love triangle is between the rather dim and very funny, sexually active Ado Annie, her beau, the equally dim and funny farm boy Will, and an itinerant Persian peddler, Ali, who has a penchant for the ladies in the towns he visits. How this all plays out, along with the strife between ranchers and farmers and the decision on whether to become a state form the crux of the story.

The stage is set with picnic tables and chairs scattered about in what has the feel of a community center, with two small farmhouses in the distance on the sandy colored upstage wall. Brightly colored streamers hang from the ceiling, suggest something festive about to occur. The excellent musicians sit at the back of the stage, while the actors move from table to table, entering and exiting through various openings in the walls. This pared down approach, along with contemporary costuming, allows the deeper aspects of the book to be front and center.

An Amazing Production

Lighting Design by Scott Zielinski highlights the inner thoughts and darker sides of the characters by going completely black at times. This is particularly effective when Curly confronts Jud in his digs in the smokehouse and tries to convince him to kill himself. A huge video of Jud’s face as he listens to Curly is heart wrenching in the sadness and longing so clearly expressed by actor Christopher Bannow in a moving and frightening scene. Sean Grandillo as Curly perfectly expresses the menace beneath his cornpone cowboy exterior as he tries to convince the tortured Jud that he will be better off dead.

The acting is of high quality. Sasha Hutchings as Laurey has a beautiful voice and excellent acting chops. She is at once an innocent and a very shrewd young woman whose sexual games with the two men are the catalyst for the misery that ensues. Sis plays Ado Annie in a hilarious and sweet performance that is charming and goofy and full of good will. Hennessey Winkler is a hoot as Will, as is Benj Mirman as Ali. Hannah Solow’s laugh as Gertie will set your teeth on edge. Barbara Walsh as Aunt Eller, the woman who runs the town, is caustic as well as kind, and very aware of her own power. Mitch Tebo as Andrew has great comic timing.

Oh, and there is singing and dancing. Right. Almost forgot. The well-known songs and not-so-well-known songs are all there in all their glory. From Curly’s rousing Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ to Jud’s lament Lonely Room, the songs speak to the feelings and beliefs of the characters. The Surrey with the Fringe on Top is a very sexy version, and Ado Annie’s I Cain’t Say No, has the audience laughing out loud. The feelings between Curly and Laurey are expressed in the lovely People Will Say We’re in Love.

The Dream Ballet sequence is beautifully executed by Lead Dancer Gabrielle Hamilton in a mostly solo performance as she moves through the night in her Dream Baby Dream t-shirt to music that is loud and discordant, dreamy and sensual, expressing Laurey’s confusion and desires.

The foot-stompin’ Oklahoma! that closes the show is a paean to the grit and determination of the people that took the land from the Natives who were promised it and turned it into another version of the American Dream. The dark and the light are at the center of the American experience, and Daniel Fish’s vision of it is a clear expression of that conundrum, while being highly entertaining and thought-provoking.