See what critics stated of the tour:

“This isn’t your grandparents’ OKLAHOMA. Throughout intermission, I heard one girl ask one other, “Is that this the Oklahoma you bear in mind?” and it is definitely not. When you’ve ever discovered the Rodgers and Hammerstein basic musical boring or problematic, then that is the revival for you as a result of it turns the whole present on its head and reinvents it with out ever altering a phrase. ” – Nicole Ackman, BroadwayWorld DPAC

” … unflinchingly probes the musical’s darker themes of jealousy, energy, and violence. Although interspersed with raucous humor and toe-tapping dance numbers, it’s the heavier material that lingers after the curtain name.” – Emily McClanathan, Theaterly.com

“Director Daniel Fish has mined the Rodgers and Hammerstein basic for all of the darkness he might unearth. The result’s an often-compelling staging, although one which’s sure to alienate some theater-goers. ” – Paul Hyde, Greenville Journal

“Historically, the present ends with a rousing rendition of the title tune. Right here, the bride and groom are all in white however coated with blood, and when the entire solid sings “Oklahoma!” it’s now with a ferocity born not of delight and pleasure, however of desperation and despair. It provides the manufacturing a finale that completely fits this radical replay. ” – Toby Zinman, Philadelphia for TheaterMania.com

At its core, OKLAHOMA! has at all times been a narrative a few group coming collectively, and this manufacturing makes use of scenic and lighting design to evoke a way of togetherness. Auditorium lights are left on for sure components of the present, making a shared expertise amongst audiences and actors. There are additionally moments of complete darkness, the place all lights within the theatre are turned off, permitting audiences to focus intensely on dialogue on stage.   

Upon getting into the theatre, you’re welcomed right into a communal area that evokes life in a rural group. A sparse, plywood set is lit brightly, scattered with wood tables and chairs and a pale wall mural of a farmscape projected on to the again wall. Colourful mylar fringe hangs on the prime of the set. A band is seen heart stage.  

Maybe most stunning to audiences will likely be gun racks on every of the facet partitions of the set, holding 114 weapons.

“At its beginning, the present was to its America what Hamilton has been to ours: each an sudden record-smashing box-office phenomenon and a reassuring portrait of our previous that lifted up theatergoers at a time of nice nervousness in regards to the nation’s future. Its Broadway opening happened lower than 16 months after the assault on Pearl Harbor, when America was delivery its sons off to struggle and nonetheless digging out of the Nice Despair. Like Hamilton, too, Oklahoma! was deemed artistically revolutionary for its time.”  -New York Journal  

OKLAHOMA! has lengthy been celebrated as an iconic piece of musical theatre, uniting audiences with the thought of an ideal America, basking within the vivid golden haze on the meadow. However seen anew within the context of a rustic nonetheless fighting racial, financial and gender fairness, sharply divided by political views, and rising from an isolating pandemic and racial reckoning, this manufacturing pushes again on the notion of an ideal nation—as an alternative suggesting the concept America continues to be very a lot a piece in progress.  

The solid is made up of actors of various races, backgrounds, sexualities, gender identities, religions in an organization of storytellers reflecting the wealthy range of America. They’re costumed in fashionable clothes—t-shirts, blue denims, trucker hats—and accompanied by a seven-piece Bluegrass band, full with banjo and metal drum.  The Grammy-nominated rating re-orchestrates a few of the most basic songs in American theatre historical past. The ensuing sound is a refreshing, fashionable tackle a rating that is still stuffed with earworms you’ll be buzzing within the days to come back.  Preview the Grammy-nominated solid recording and recent new sound of OKLAHOMA! right here.

Probably the most stunning ingredient of this manufacturing to many viewers members would be the deliberately staggering show of weapons on stage and in use throughout the manufacturing.   

A press release on the nation’s rising gun violence epidemic, Director Daniel Fish was deliberate and  particular in regards to the variety of weapons introduced on stage, and look and sound of every. Weapons are fired 4 instances throughout the present, and the startling sound of the gunshot is amplified every time.  

The weapons used on stage are prop weapons and no reside ammunition is ever stored on website or on stage. The touring firm has been skilled in gun security with consultants.  

OKLAHOMA! is proud to be the primary gun-neutral present on Broadway and Nationwide Tour. For each seen gun in OKLAHOMA!, each on stage and across the theatre, OKLAHOMA! will make a minimal donation of $100 per gun on behalf of the present to Gun Impartial’s 501c3 non-profit, a non-partisan initiative open to all storytellers, producers and financiers, calling for better social duty to offset and account for gun violence in leisure.

Famed fashionable dance choreographer Agnes de Mille’s “Dream Ballet” concluded Act One in earlier productions of OKLAHOMA! The dance is a crucial piece advancing the battle in Laurey’s story—a Freudian fever dream deciphering her internal battle between two suitors vying for her consideration and the prospect to escort her to the city field social.   

A signature second of any manufacturing of OKLAHOMA!, choreographer John Higgenbotham set his model of the Dream Ballet on one barefoot fashionable dancer carrying a sequined DREAM BABY DREAM t-shirt, an homage to de Mille’s authentic piece. The result’s a hanging, reimagined piece with a distinctly rocking fashionable take. On this manufacturing, it’s a stark starting to Act Two.   

Examine the 2 dances right here:

In OKLAHOMA! an Extravagantly Minimalist Dream Ballet  (that includes Gabrielle Hamilton, who dances the function on nationwide tour)    

Full Agnes de Mille “Dream Ballet”

A smashing OKLAHOMA! is reborn

OKLAHOMA! was by no means actually OK!

Two reveals dismantle the American fable

This manufacturing of OKLAHOMA! is advisable for kids ages 12 and up and comprises fog, loud gunshot results, moments of complete darkness and violence.