Oklahoma!, the first musical by the legendary team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), has been a crowd pleaser since its 1943 debut. And no wonder; the score is filled with songs that quickly became standards — “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” “I Cain’t Say No,” and “People Will Say We’re in Love,” not to mention the exuberant title song. The 5th Avenue Theatre’s production of the show opened on February 9, and runs through March 4.
The storyline is admittedly slight: a romantic triangle in the rural setting of the Oklahoma territory in the early 1900s, with the innocent Laurey (Alexandra Zorn) caught between the good-natured Curly (Eric Ankrim) and the disturbed and dangerous Jud (Kyle Scatliffe). It’s the kind of story where you know whatever troubles come along, you’re guaranteed to have a happy ending.
The singers are in good voice, and the innovative “dream ballet” at the end of Act One is strong (choreography is by Donald Byrd, artistic director of Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theater company). As written, Oklahoma! epitomizes the well-crafted musical. But the 5th Avenue can’t resist adding some modern touches, which don’t always come off. Having the cowboy dancers indulge in pelvic thrusting doesn’t make them look sexier, it makes them look silly. More problematic is the racial integration of the cast, specifically the character of Jud. There are essay's in the show's program addressing this aspect of the production, stating that the Oklahoma territory did in fact have a substantial black population. But did blacks and whites mix and mingle in as free and friendly a fashion as shown here? As the historical record shows — no.
This especially undercuts the wisdom of casting an African-American as Jud. Jud’s character doesn’t just pine from a distance for Laurey; he openly lusts after her, to the point where Laurey is so frightened of him that she locks her door at night (he’s what today we would call a “stalker”). In a preview of the show in the Seattle Times, Misha Berson posed the question to show’s director, Peter Rothstein: “Would a black man have dared pursue a white woman in that racially polarized era? Making that believable, Rothstein agrees, is essential to his task.” And frankly, Rothstein doesn’t make it believable. Not in an America where black men were murdered for their perceived “inappropriate” behavior toward white women. Would Jud have even been allowed to escort Laurey to the local dance? To do so would more likely have meant that Jud was taking his own life in his hands.
Rothstein further stated in Berson’s article, “If I can make the audience root for Laurey and Curly, and still feel compassion for Jud, that to me is a compelling evening of theater.” But Jud is such a menacing brute, it’s hard to have any compassion for him. Conversely, Ankrim’s Curly overplays the cornpone, making his sudden leap to maturity in the wake of tragedy a bit jarring. The same could be said of the show’s ending; it seems unlikely that after witnessing a brutal fight to the death anyone would be snap so abruptly back to the optimistic spirits of the “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” reprise.
But it’s the songs that have made Oklahoma! a classic. And it's one that will get your toes tapping every time you hear about that corn that’s as high as an elephant’s eye, when the wind come sweeping down the plain.
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