1943 Production of OKLAHOMA! replicated at North Carolina School of the Arts — Page 2

How's there Jud?

I don't know about the Jud or Annie -- but their Will Parker, Charles Osborne, is a product of the performing arts high school here in Charlotte. He was fabulous in the three high school productions I saw him in: Ragtime - Younger Brother; Les Miserables - Valjean; Pippin - Leading Player.

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Wow so it might get a public showing on video? This is VERY exciting!

Why on EARTH hasn't anyone done this before?! I'd love to see this!!!

Below is a report from Bruce Pomahac's blog at the R&H organization. Bruce was in charge of restoring the 1943 orchestrations- a job that took over a year...

UNCSA re-creates the original Broadway OKLAHOMA!
Posted May 03, 2011
By: Bruce Pomahac

Last week I was lucky enough to be at the Roger L. Stevens Center in Winston-Salem for the premiere of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA! This was a carefully wrought and hugely successful recreation of the original 1943 Broadway production, the first time in almost seventy years that the original scenic and costume designs, the Broadway orchestrations and Agnes de mille’s seismically significant choreography all combined to give OKLAHOMA! a radiance and a power most of us have only been able to read about. But this was not an old-fashioned take on a classic musical. The cast, directed by Terrence Mann, the orchestra, conducted by the brilliant John Mauceri and the dancers, recreating the original steps under the direction and supervision of original cast member, Gemze de Lappe, brought a new exuberance to a show I didn’t know could feel as young and as revolutionary as this OKLAHOMA! does.



I know I’m gushing, but you had to be there. From the moment the Overture began the entire audience was in musical theatre heaven. I believe this is what can happen when the creative team and the performers trust the original material enough to allow it to do its job. Only then can the old and the new assimilate each other in a way that makes a classic seem brand new all over again and relevant in ways we no longer thought might be possible. And if there was any way to make the opening night any more joyful than it already was, the cast was joined onstage at the Finale by both Joan Roberts, the original Broadway Laurie and Celeste Holm, the original Broadway Ado Annie. For all of us there, it was one of the most historical and exciting moments we’ve ever spent in a theatre.



This successful production is the first to use our restored edition of the original script and orchestration. (These will be available to our customers in 2012.) OKLAHOMA! has been a part of our national heritage for decades. But to see and hear it as it is being presented in UNCSA’s thrilling new recreation is to see and hear it for the very first time. Yeow!!!

It's such a massive undertaking. Plus there still exists a prejudice I think in the theatre community by those who see such recreations as going against the very purpose of theatre--particularly when the common wisdom with a show like Oklahoma is that it's taken a new production to truly find the drama in the piece, something which I'm glad has been clearly disproved, as such endeavours usually do.

Thats an interesting point Eric- I think for so many years or decades most revivals were at least based on the original productions that by the time the 80s came around, everyone was really happy to see the old classics reimagined. But

I think a lot of the early revivals which were based on the original elements, but were diminished copies did some damage to the legacies of those original stagings. Still I think it's a case by case evaluation- though perhaps equally fascinating, probably not every production given a complete recreation would be as fresh or as exciting as what has apparently been pulled off here. I think OKLAHOMA has become a property fallen lay to such 'literal' treatment in recent productions that seeing the bold color and abstract designs of the original is especially eye opening.

That's a great point--and yes it definitely is a case by case situation (I wonder what the view would be of a similar take on Carousel, to use an obvious example). I mentioned on the first page how this reminded me of the St Petersburg recreation of the original production of Sleeping Beauty in that much common held wisdom--that the original production would seem strikingly old fashioned, that the costumes and design were garish and had been improved in later productions, etc--were nearly all proven wrong. Critics spoke with amazement about how so much about this original production just felt undeniably *right*

I definitely think thatr the way important Broadway shows are revived to explore new aspects in them is more than valid, and while I tend to be a traditonalist and prefer the "original" I would never want recreations to take over as the way to do revivals. But there's definitely room for both approaches, and often I think going back to the original can often illuminate things about the original work that have been forgotten or taken for granted over time.

Oklahoma is an interesting case too because often, I think, people don't really think of musicals as a director's medium until later on with directors like Prince, Bennett, Fosse and Robbins. There seems to be a belief that earlier pieces had the director as the least important figure in the creation and success--even when he was a fairly well respected figure like Mamoulian (sp?) This of course can also be said about the designers, and choreographer (although DeMille's role in Oklahoma's success has never really been devalued or underplayed, it's true).

I go to this school and while I haven't had the chance to see the production just yet, I've heard it's phenomenal. From what I hear, they're filming it this weekend for the archives and they usually sell copies to the actors and crew involved, at least, that's what they did for our similar production of West Side Story three years ago.

I'm hoping the production is commercially available, though. It could give our school a nice boost.

Sorry to offend anyone, but I've never been a huge fan of the show. The music is great, but the story is a little too silly for me and the dream ballet just seems to go on and on. Still, I know how hard the students worked and it would be a shame for their work to only be seen for two weeks.

Hell, I even auditioned, but opted not to go to the dance audition. Ooops! I had been feeling sick that whole week and just barely made it in for the singing/acting auditions, but it seemed I had a damn good shot. I'm actually a film student and was called back over many of the theatre students. That made me feel like I had done something right. Just the idea of auditioning for a legend like Freedman was astounding and something I'll never forget.

If anyone's in the area, go see it! The theatre where it's playing is gorgeous, too!

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The two productions I saw--WEST SIDE STORY and BRIGADOON--recreated to a painstaking degree the original productions...blocking, choreography, etc. While the choreography always holds in there (It's DeMille and Robbins, fer cripes sake.), the productions themselves, as polished as they are, had a whiff of taxidermy about them. Of what benefit to the actor is it to go through someone elses blocking, someone elses choices? Of what gain is a student scene designer supposed to get from recreating someone elses sketches? "

That's the eternal argument against doing recreations--and one I think misses the point. Obviously this shouldn't be the only experience--but as the web videos of the making of it make clear, there is a ton of knowledge and experience to be learned in finding out how these original productions were done, working out how to recreate the designs, figuring out WHY things were blocked a certain way, etc. I doubt I'll change your opinion one bit, but I just don't buy the argument that somehow learning the original choreography isn't a worthwhile learning experience, for example. Especially since this production seems to have made great pains to not just imprint an existing production onto the students, but to let them discover and work out why things were done as they are.

By that argument it could be said that an actor shouldn't even bother going into an existing Broadway show or a tour because they're being told to do someone else's blocking (which I'd argue is the director's not the actor). While as a big dance fan I think I agree with you that the choreography is often more important and revelatory than other elements in these recreations, it could be argued that imposing old choreography on new dancers is just as wrong headed and lacking in benefit as figuring out with the actors why the original blocking was used. Or take it a step further--why sing the music that more often than not was changed to accomodate specific actors voices or written for them. Or howabout the dialogue? Why not change that for each production too? (Yes I'm exagerating, but...)

Updated On: 5/7/11 at 09:23 PM

Ado Annie, an unbelievable graduating senior, Jennifer Webb-a great comedy talent. Jud--Braxton Molinaro, graduating senior, dark, menacing. small with a wonderful big voice. I have never blogged before, but am amazed at all of the misinformation. UNCSA does not and cannot sell archival copies of anything. Archival means just that. Surely UNCSA does not have the rights to sell same to anyone. You guys would make terrible producers. OK! is being filmed by a Raleigh TV station for broadcast in NC--date to be determined--and the rights probably revert to R&H after a certain number of showings. Regarding WSS-- which I also saw--had Gerald Freedman directing who directed the book scenes in the original, and choreography recreated by someone approved by the Robbins estate- whose name escapes me. It was as close to the original dramatically/musically as you can get with no changes in script or lyrics-- also conducted by Mauceri who worked with Bernstein for 20 years or so. Costumes not original, but based on original colors and concept. Gemze DeLappe was at UNCSA for Brigadoon too. The design students on OK! have learned the craft of painting drops which is going to be lost soon to projections and computers. A classic is a classic. And Show Boat, OK!, Porgy, should not be lost to the ages by updating, re-writing, etc. As the great George Abbott said "trust the work." New productions-sure, recreations also valid. I hear the Rodgers family was there today and where knocked out by this production.

Someone mentioned it was filmed for Broadcast? Is that going to happen?

One of the scenes (the dress scene) had frequently been cut until the Nunn production. Also don't forget the tempi were infamously sped up for the cast album partly to fit more on each 78rpm.