This is not your homespun Oklahoma! Come ready for a radical new musical

Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune writes:

Oklahoma!, the seminal Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical from 1943, has a reputation as a hearty work of Americana, a yippy-yi-ki-yea tribute to Sooner values and the promise of statehood in the saddle, a stand-in for burgeoning American exceptionalism. People think of Oklahoma! as the closest Broadway ever got to a college football match of a musical, albeit where the farmer and the cowman end up as friends. Kinda. Oughta… Given all that, director Daniel Fish’s radical 2018 Broadway revival (or, more honestly, adaptation) is not so much an imposition on the material as you might think. Still, you should know that this production mostly does not deliver a feel-good experience, especially in its most radical last few minutes… If you know this show backwards, you’ll be, at minimum, fascinated.

Read more here.

Image: 2019 Broadway Production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! (Little Fang)