Heading the cast are Damon Daunno, Allison Strong, Amber Gray and Mary Testa. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
By Robert Burke Warren Bard SummerScape’s upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved Oklahoma! offers some surprises, especially if you’ve already seen the musical in its typically broad theatrical glory. This version is an intimate, yet potent, rendering of the 1943 classic, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first — and some say best —collaboration. And attendees won’t just be watching the action, they’ll be in it. “We want to get the audience as close to the experience of the show as we can," says acclaimed director Daniel Fish. “We want them almost inside of it; inside the story, inside the music, inside the people." To accomplish this, Fish and set designer Laura Jellinek will seat audience members at picnic tables, as if they’re watching the everyday comings and goings of a circa 1900’s chili cook-off, barn dance, or community social (enacted by high caliber actor-singer-dancers, of course). And yes, food will be served between acts. “No audience member is ever farther than one row away from the actors," says Fish. “It’s not a participatory thing, but there’s a desire for the piece to sound and feel as immediate and as acoustic as possible." Rather than the customary full orchestra, the pit band — although there is no “pit," per se —will be an Americana six-piece ensemble of pedal steel, guitar, banjo, upright bass, fiddle, and mandolin, and instead of the standard huge cast, this production features only 10 people, among them Obie/Drama Desk award-winning Mary Testa as Aunt Eller, and rising stars Allison Strong (Bye Bye Birdie, Mamma Mia!) as Ado Annie, and Amber Gray (An Octoroon) as Laurey. Why the scaled back approach? Fish says the soul of the musical, the rich, layered tale of a community coming together in the Oklahoma territory at the beginning of the 20th century, resonates more in a chamber setting. “For me," says Fish, “Oklahoma! is about the relationship between the individual and the community: what people gain and what they sacrifice when they decide to form a community, whether the union of a married couple, a state, or a nation. It explores the need for that community to create an outsider, and the cost of doing so." Because so many of the Oklahoma!’s buoyant songs have become part of our cultural firmament – “Oh What A Beautiful Mornin’," “The Surrey With the Fringe On Top," and “Oklahoma!," for starters – it’s easy to forget that intense drama of which Fish speaks, the lust and violence on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s windswept plains, the conflicts and challenges the characters face, both interpersonally and as various groupings. The “villain," Jud, for instance, is drawn to evil actions primarily because the community rejects him, and Ali Hakim, the Persian peddler, emphasizes his outsider-ness as a means of remaining free from the bonds of community. These two are among the first of the complexly shaded characters that came to define Rodgers and Hammerstein’s work in subsequent classics like The King and I,The Sound of Music and Carousel. Another highly influential move by Rodgers and Hammerstein was the choice to create songs that advance the plot. Prior to 1943, musical theater included mostly “comic relief" songs, and while Oklahoma! offers plenty of comedy, that’s hardly the whole picture. When the musical debuted in 1943, these elements were quite revolutionary, as was the decision to write songs in the emerging idiom of American folk music. And while most Oklahoma! productions employ sweeping orchestrations alongside humble acoustic instruments, Fish’s version will rely only on the Americana ensemble, so close you can touch them. Fish calls them “a back porch band." “We’re approaching this as though it were a new work," Fish says. “We’re trying to imagine it free of expectation, free of any preconceived notions we have about the piece. It’s almost as if, ten thousand years from now, you find a time capsule with the score and book of Oklahoma!, and you go, ‘What is this? How do we do it?’" Come see for yourself at Bard. Cowboy hats optional. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY June 25th – July 19th
