A Reimagined and Modernized Classic

Oklahoma! – Broadway in Chicago

To devoted theatergoers, there’s nothing quite so thrilling as seeing a work of art that both moves you and is filled with beautiful, carefully-crafted songs being perfectly played and sung. A case in point: audience members hearing those first strains of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin,’” simply, but skillfully, strummed on an acoustic guitar, and sublimely sung with heartfelt emotion by Sean Grandillo, as cowboy, Curly McLain. It sets the tone for this stripped-down, contemporary version of this classic musical. Besides entertaining us, and because less is certainly more in this National Tour, this musical production might even remind audiences of what has been missing in other fuller, more gussied-up productions of the show.

But trust me on this. Please. For theatre patrons who know and love this archetypal musical, and have enjoyed a production or two in the past that filled the stage with an enormous cast, a full orchestra and colorful, lavish costumes and scenery, this new production will feel revolutionary. The production may surprise or even shock you. Experiencing Daniel Fish’s gloriously reimagined, unaffected modernized version of “Oklahoma,” with a preconceived notion of how this musical should always look and sound, is like revisiting your treasured childhood home today. You expect to find it just the way you remember it but discover that everything has changed. In other words, this isn’t your grandma’s “Oklahoma,” and sometimes change pays off and can be for the better.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Daniel Fish is the brilliant New York-based director who mastered the 2019 arena production of this freshly reimagined, Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival. He’s also the wizard behind this astonishingly beautiful and moving proscenium-style National Tour, that’s in Chicago for a couple weeks. He breathes new life into a play that some call an old chestnut, but it’s a show that’s credited with reinventing the modern musical. In Fish’s skilled hands, this production both looks and sounds like a brand new show, while still telling the same, familiar story that audiences fell in love with almost 80 years ago. It’s just a little sexier and considerably darker. 

When Richard Rodgers first teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein III to musicalize Lynn Riggs’ dramatic homage to her home state, the result was a better-crafted play featuring a score of gorgeous, memorable songs that were not only entertaining but actually furthered the plot. Until that time, musicals were offshoots of burlesque and vaudeville—light entertainments, filled with big song-and-dance production numbers and cheap jokes. “Oklahoma” centered around two pairs of young lovers whose stories are told against the background of Oklahoma’s impending statehood. Plenty of comedy could still be found, but there was also drama that evoked real emotional response. The songs became musical extensions of the play’s dialogue (“People Will Say We’re in Love,” “All or Nothin’”) or provided a character with melodic monologues (“Out of My Dreams,” “Lonely Room”). Even the show’s choreography, especially Agnes De Mille’s famous “Dream Ballet,” contributed to the story instead of merely showcasing a performer’s talents.

An oft-heard criticism is that this production’s leading actors are older than the adolescent characters they play, but not in this production. The fresh, primarily youthful cast all seem perfect and Mr. Fish has certainly employed the very best for his touring production. In his revitalized version of the musical, almost every moment of the play is about Laurie Williams, so the actress who plays her has got to be great. And she is. Portrayed by breathtakingly beautiful Sasha Hutchings, Laurie is a strong, lithe, sensual and complex young woman, filled with subtle quandaries, enormous charisma and a helping of sex appeal. Ms Hutchings absolutely glows in this leading role. So magnetic is this actress, that when she’s onstage, which is most of the show, you can’t look anywhere else. Her musical talent and perfect diction is matched only by her deep emotional connection to the part and an undeniable star quality as an actress. 

Sasha Hutchings is superbly matched by boyishly handsome Sean Grandillo, as Curly McLain. He makes an extremely likable and charming young cowboy, yet sometimes comes off as a bit arrogant and cocky. This gives him a little of that “bad boy” tarnish that women are supposedly drawn to. This multitalented actor has both a glorious voice and is a talented musician. He opens the show, accompanying himself on guitar, with two of the musical’s hits. Grandillo’s rendition of “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” and then, almost immediately, “The Surrey With the Fringe On Top,” let us know immediately that we’re in for a grand night for singing. The couple team up perfectly for “People Will Say We’re in Love,” while Mr. Grandillo’s splendid voice soars in such numbers as “Pore Jud is Daid” and the rousing title song.
An unsung heroine of this story is Aunt Eller. She’s often played by an actor of a certain age, usually a grandmotherly type of woman. But not Barbara Walsh. No stranger to the musical theatre, Barbara Walsh is a multiple Tony and Drama Desk-nominated veteran of so many wonderful Broadway shows. She’s terrific as a dryly humorous mother figure for every character in this story. With her unbridled energy, wry commentary and gentle prodding Ms Walsh keeps the plot moving. 

As one of the stars from television’s “Pose,” the actress known as Sis brings high humor and smooth, Gospel-infused vocals to her portrayal of the sex-starved Ado Annie. Songs like “I Cain’t Say No” and “All Er Nothin’” (sung with dancer, funny man and romantic partner, Hennessy Winkler, as the dimwitted Will Parker), along with her scenes with both Winkler, Hutchings and Hunter Hoffman (Understudying opening night as the comically conniving Persian peddler Ali Hakim), make Sis one of the show’s memorable standouts. Creating the role of Ado Annie in her own inimitable style, this is the role that won Broadway’s Ali Stroker the 2019 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

But perhaps the real breakout star of this production is the very talented Christopher Bannow. Armed with a gorgeous voice, an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a resume of impressive Broadway and London credits, Mr. Bannow holds the stage in a hypnotic trance, as the soft-spoken, deeply-conflicted Jud Fry. Typically in this show we see Jud as the villain, often played by an actor of much larger stature, bristling with menace and muscles. But here the diminutive Christopher Bannow portrays Jud as a soft-spoken, unassuming, quietly disturbed young man, with a hidden past and troubled soul. He’s a farmhand who keeps to himself, harboring a myriad of emotional problems that are only suggested at. This skilled young actor plays the subtext of his role so nicely, seldom raising his voice and always creating a silently disturbing threat behind his carefully nuanced words and guarded stares. So much tension and fear arise from Bannow’s last scene that the audience discovers that they’re unconsciously holding their breath during the final ten minutes.   

Agnes De Mille’s cutting edge choreography from the 1943 production has been replaced in this production by John Heginbotham’s new dances. The show’s 15-minute “Dream Ballet,” that used to close Act I, now opens the second act. However, contrary to every other production I’ve seen, the number is performed here by a single, talented soloist (Broadway’s Gabrielle Hamilton). It’s an impressive, if confusing, modern dance number that, in my opinion, is the only weak spot of this revival. On the other hand, Mr. Heginbotham’s choreography for Will Parker’s “Kansas City” and the entire cast’s “The Farmer and the Cowhand” are entertaining delights.

Laura Jellinek’s scenic design is plain and simple, resembling the interior of a giant, empty barn. With its paneled pine walls, folding chairs and long, collapsable dining tables, she’s created the look and feel of a Grange Hall or an Elks Club getting ready for a community supper. Stretched high above the stage are colored, fringed, mylar streamers. All along the walls hang strings of holiday lights and dozens of gun racks, all filled with ominous rifles. They remind us that now, as in 1906, this is how law enforcement’s administered. In fact, guns play a bit part in this version of the musical. Along the upstage wall is sketched a bucolic scene of flat farmland, a few distant barns and windmills and a handful of wispy clouds. Terese Wadden’s costumes are contemporary, tight-fitting blue jeans and denim suits, skirts and dresses. In Act II she contrasts the darkness of the play with lots of brightly colored gingham and dirndl square dance costumes. 

Do not miss to this exciting, emotionally affecting new take on an old classic. If you’ve never seen “Oklahoma” before, you’ll be in for an eye-opening new experience; if you already know this musical by heart, you’ll be astonished at how it springs to life in this new, emotionally reimagined production. Daniel Fish makes Rodgers & Hammerstein’s first hit musical feel fresh, original and au current. With Andy Collopy’s talented seven-piece stringed onstage ensemble (plus accordion) accompanying this brilliant, 12-member cast, the waving wheat sure smells sweet again as this company breathes life into this production. This, after all, might just have been the show that Rodgers & Hammerstein’s originally intended.      

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented January 11-23 by Broadway in Chicago at the CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., Chicago.

Tickets are available at all BIC box offices, at all Ticketmaster retail locations, by calling the Broadway in Chicago Ticket Line at 800-775-2000 or by going to www.BroadwayInChicago.com.

Further information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.