Oklahoma!

Daniel Fish’s OKLAHOMA! at The Young Vic was a total masterpiece. This experimental director and his creative team chose the most famous musical in American theatre history and, like car mechanics working on a high-performance sports car, took apart every element of the play, held each piece up to the light and put the play back together.

The wholesome Americana of the book stayed word-for-word, just as the gorgeous new orchestrations turned the sound of the musical into smoky bluegrass. Yet through Fish’s examination of each part - the nuance of character and what each represents; where and when to emphasize text and/or subtext; Laura Jellinek’s extraordinary blonde wood set lined with guns; Scott Zielinski’s dazzlingly parched and vivid lighting design - Fish x-rayed the original and brought it into the now. The costumes also lived in two worlds, as did the choreography.

Fish and choreographer John Higginbotham (a former dancer for Mark Morris Dance Company and an inspired choice of creative team member) exploded the famous Agnes DeMille dream ballet with a black solo dancer and a Jimi Hendrix-like electric guitar shredding the melody for all it was worth. The resulting play is about us. 

This production was one of three that I group together in the way they examine classics from the canon we think we know. Each share Fish’s microscopic attention to detail. The other two are David Cromer’s “Our Town” (Barrow Street Theatre NYC, Almeida Theatre London) and Ivo von Hove’s “A View From The Bridge” (Young Vic Theatre London, Broadway New York). I will never be able to see these three plays again and not think of these aforementioned perfect productions.

This production is a vanguard, clear-eyed, populist musical production steeped in a ‘downtown’ New York aesthetic that makes modern magic in an internationally successful production.

By pairing Rodgers & Hammerstein’s iconic work with uncommon, highly stylish, and rigorous creatives  like Fish – theatrical alchemy can – and will – occur.

An old story can feel as fresh and new and questing as the world we live in today. At least that’s the goal.