And critics might say they’re in love. This naturalistic re-imagining of Oklahoma! may be less its traditional Broadway polish, but that’s one of the reasons the critics call it “wide-awake, jolting and altogether wonderful.” Set in the center of a mid-western arena, where guns adorn the walls and chili bubbles on the stage, the production immerses audiences in the world of the characters. And those characters we all know so well are then presented as familiar and real – which is, ironically, a bit surprising. The resulting experience has critics assessing the people and themes of Oklahoma! in a fresh light and musing curiously how a standard from the ’40s is somehow the coolest thing on Broadway in 2019.
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF OKLAHOMA!
How is it that the coolest new show on Broadway in 2019 is a 1943 musical usually regarded as a very square slice of American pie? The answer arrives before the first song is over in Daniel Fish’s wide-awake, jolting and altogether wonderful production of “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!,” which opened on…
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DEADLINE REVIEW OF OKLAHOMA!
Presented Off Broadway at Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse last fall, Fish’s stunning revival, with its country & western musical stylings, rockabilly cats, chili at intermission and blood on the tracks, has found its perfect Broadway home at the in-the-round Circle. With the house lights turned up through most of the…
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VARIETY REVIEW OF OKLAHOMA!
In Broadway’s new “Oklahoma!,” the audience is just a pounding heartbeat away from Daniel Fish’s revisionist treatment of this iconic American musical. There’s still “a bright golden haze on the meadow” in the 1943 classic by Rodgers and Hammerstein — but here there are also fully stocked gun racks up on the walls…
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HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW OF OKLAHOMA!
There’s no denying the abundant pleasures to be had from a sumptuous large-scale revival of a classic American musical with a top-flight cast. But a bold reimagining of a familiar work from the canon can deliver an altogether different and far more startling thrill, bringing out unexpected textures and exposing…
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THE DAILY BEAST REVIEW OF OKLAHOMA!
When the lights go out during Bard Summerscape’s astonishing production of Oklahoma!, which opens Sunday night on Broadway (Circle in the Square, to Sept. 1), your body tenses. This first blackout happens during the first confrontation between Curly McLain (Damon Daunno) and Jud Fry (Patrick Vaill), and soon the Circle in…
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