Posted: 8/18/18 at 10:38am
Has anyone here seen the same-sex version of "Oklahoma" at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival? What did you think of it, and what changes did they need to make in the script and score? For instance, I don't see how "It's a Scandal, It's an Outrage" would fit this version.
Posted: 8/18/18 at 5:22pm
It's the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I saw the production and it is wonderful. For the most part, they changed a few pronouns. The one lyric change I remember is in "Kansas City." Instead of a gal in the burleeque, it's a boy. In "I Cain't Say No," the word girl has been replaced by boy. Also, Ado Andy's parent is Ma Carnes, played by a woman.
In this production, Ali Hakim is bi. The actor who plays Ali is an Iranian-American. One of the running bits is the pronunciation of his last name. "It's a Scandal, It's an Outrage" makes sense and it works. Gertie Cummings is a woman.
A few things were changed in the Dream Ballet to reflect the production. And Aunt Eller is played by a trans woman. She's wonderful.
During "The Farmer and The Cowman," fights break out, so the number becomes more than just a second act opener.
Even with these changes, it's still Oklahoma! The direction, designs, choreography, singing and acting are very good. The score was re-orchestrated for 8 musicians. The production is filled with joy and love. The night, I saw it, the audience loved it. During my four day stay at the OSF, I heard many favorable comments about the show.
The OSF is a real repertory theatre, so most of the Oklahoma cast are in other shows from Shakespeare to World Premieres.
Posted: 8/19/18 at 7:20am
Posted: 8/19/18 at 9:02am
Such an incredible concept for the show. I wish I could make it over to OSF this year, or that the production would move on!
Not sure if it's been mentioned in another thread, but here's a great NYTimes article on the OSF production, as well as the one coming to Brooklyn.
"In This ‘Oklahoma!,’ She Loves Her and He Loves Him"
Posted: 8/19/18 at 2:59pm
Here's the trailer for the production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0V9MzpGoas
Posted: 8/19/18 at 4:26pm
A Director pretty much covered it, though I would point out that in "It's A Scandal", they did change "just one hen" to "just one cock". But how could you blame them? Really, it's the best Oklahoma I've ever seen. The show usually - and this is not a criticism, it's something that happens to a lot of pioneering shows - plays a little cheesy, a little trite. But this production really found the emotional core. And it wasn't just the "gimmick" of playing with gender. They made it a fully integrated part of the story.
My only complaint is at the end...
During the fight, Jud attempts to kill himself with the Little Wonder and Curly tries to stop him, rather than him falling on his knife. This makes what was already a clear accident and case of self-defense even more so, and the whole kangaroo court trial is even more of a dragger than it usually is.
Also, Act One is long as hell, but that's not their fault, that's the script.
Posted: 8/20/18 at 3:57am
Posted: 8/26/18 at 12:26pm
Just saw this Friday night. Making the principal couples same-sex didn't come off so much as a gimmick, but more of an experiment. The characters didn't deal with issues modern day gay and lesbian couples often deal with, such as family/societal disapproval, internalized homophobia etc. They all lived in this alternate universe where a woman asking another woman to the box social was not out of the ordinary. Same for Will and Ado Andy (!)--all the other characters were very matter of fact about it. Jud, played as a man by and as a man as originally written, knew that Curly (a woman) was his main competition for Laurey, but that aspect of it was never commented upon. Same thing for race. The cast was multiracial, including both couples, and nobody batted an eye at that either (in turn of the century Oklahoma!). The setting was really a utopia we would all like to live in where there were no LGBT or racial "issues." That in itself was the most striking part of the production for me.
The audience ate the whole thing up. I've never seen such an enthusiastic response to Oklahoma!. The actors really sold it and looked like they were having a great time. And Oregon Shakespeare Festival makes a huge effort to have diverse casts (on Saturday I saw Sense and Sensibility and the three Dashwood sisters were all from different racial groups). If you get a chance to go to Ashland, go. Great town, great theater.
Posted: 8/26/18 at 6:24pm
How do they treat the chorus? Is it implied that the cowboys are all gay and the women are all lesbians? And what about the "Kansas City" lyric "as round above as (s)he was round below"? I guess that description could apply to a sexy man as well as to a woman, but it seems a stretch.
Posted: 8/27/18 at 12:31am
In the ensemble numbers there were same sex as well as opposite sex couples dancing. It really was this utopia in which there were homosexual and heterosexual couples, but no mention or even thought of "gay" or "lesbian." Characters just seemed to gravitate to whoever they wanted to and nobody else seemed to notice or care one way or another.
I'm not sure about the Kansas City lyric, but it was kind of funny that Will Parker came back home and sang about all the hot male burlesque performers he saw in in the city. They did change lyrics to let you know he was talking about men--but it was just a word or two like changing the word "girls" to "boys."
Posted: 8/27/18 at 1:59am
The multiracial cast in this production reflects multiracial Oklahoma in 1906.
There has been diverse casting at the OSF for years. It is not a huge effort. Of the 11 productions this season only two did not have a diverse cast. Destiny of Desire had an all Latinx cast and Snow In Midsummer has an all Asian cast because both were written to be performed that way.
