Oklahoma! (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (862)
See it if If you want to see s modern rendition of Oklahoma. Not as good as the 90s version, casting is questionable here.
Don't see it if You like a classic changed to be modern. Or a classic that delves from past direction and writing.
See it if you like ctry-western music. Gr score re-created w blue-grass band. Standout perf by Daunno (Curly). No one else is close. Low prodn values.
Don't see it if you want "improved" play. Voices/acting uneven. Ballet is long/amateurish. More a concert than a play. Emotns/humor flattened. Wasted oppty. Read more
See it if you like the story and the music and open to seeing it in a fresh new way that is lively, sad and moving. Great band, spectacular young cast
Don't see it if you want the original with all the farm scenes - this unique set allows for a fresh interpretation that has great lights and sound + a treat
See it if you wish to see a classic musical very creatively reinterpreted. Semi operatic voices and full orchestra overhauled.
Don't see it if you like a traditional version of a classical musical. Read more
See it if you are curious about what's causing all the controversy. There is free chili and corn bread during the intermission.
Don't see it if you love the original traditional staging. The choices made for this production will not please you.
See it if the safe anodyne Oklahoma is replaced by a dangerous version that challenges our romanticized history of the growth of America
Don't see it if humor at times is cartoonishly broad; still, a revival not to be missed Read more
See it if you like updated on classic shows. Show is in the round so each seat is a good seat.
Don't see it if you think like the movie or past show not into modern updated. Read more
See it if A thrillling, provocative re-think of R & H's classic Americana musical Amazing stagecraft via simple tonal adjustment of original script
Don't see it if Purists/traditionalists beware! Has "indie" feel in directorial/conceptual approach Some business falls flat esp misconceived dream ballet
Critic Reviews (48)
"Fish’s wide-awake, jolting and altogether wonderful production...Such a metamorphosis has been realized with scarcely a changed word of Oscar Hammerstein II’s original book...A cozy old friend starts to seem like a figure of disturbing — and exciting — depth and complexity...It was an exciting work from the get-go, but it just keeps getting better. The performances are looser and bigger; they’re Broadway-size now, with all the infectious exuberance you expect from a great musical."
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"Fish’s fascinating and unsettling reimagination...has moved to Broadway, with its immediacy, strangeness and eerie sense of danger intact...Seeing the production a second time allows one to appreciate not only the striking darkness that Fish and company have teased out of the material, but also the light they shine on small details. It's thrilling to see a Broadway classic rise to the challenge of so modern a conception. ‘Oklahoma!’ it remains, but there's nothing corny about it."
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"On my second visit to its cornfields, I was struck not only by the production’s menace but by its joy. This 'Oklahoma!' is no stuffy academic revisionist exercise — it’s a theatrical blow-out...The production has gotten fuller, freer, and funnier in its Broadway transfer...I respect a musical that gives me extraordinary performances, gorgeously reimagined songs, a piercing allegory of the American experiment in all its vigor and its brutality, and a cast that knows what they’re working with."
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"A bold reimagining of a familiar work can deliver an altogether different and far more startling thrill, bringing out unexpected textures and exposing previously subterranean thematic seams...For audiences open to experiencing 'Oklahoma!' from a fresh perspective, director Daniel Fish's probing revamp will be a revelation...Even more impressive though is the fact that it remains such bracing entertainment, compromising neither the drama nor the comedy."
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"A crazily experimental theatrical experience...But this revival of ‘Oklahoma!’ happens to be terrific fun, too...The ensemble’s interactions are casual, loose, wiry, and scrappy, with an energetic sense of anticipation, and their singing, while full-throated, can also be raw...When director Fish’s inventively eccentric notions and Rodger and Hammerstein’s confident showmanship completely fuse, you stop fretting about incongruities — the effect is magical."
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"The audience is just a pounding heartbeat away...The wonder of this production is that so much of the joy and optimism of the original work still shines bright through the darkness...Fish exposes those sexual passions that are kept firmly repressed in traditional productions...The only failure with this let-it-all-hang-out directorial style is the Dream Ballet, which is supposed to hint delicately of the lovers’ yearnings but is here allowed to go on ad nauseam."
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"Hammerstein’s large-spirited, all-American optimism is dismissed with contemptuous irony as a tool of the patriarchy at its most violently oppressive..Is there anything good about this production? Absolutely. For openers, Ali Stroker...Mr. Fish’s 'Oklahoma!' is a travesty, a sneering burlesque of the most influential and beloved Broadway musical of the 20th century. If the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization had any self-respect, it would shut the whole thing down."
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"Cheapened and vulgarized...Designed to appeal to kids who have never heard of ‘Oklahoma!’ and ignorant ticket buyers who hate musicals in general and avoid anything categorized as ‘old-fashioned’ in particular...Everything that can go wrong in a lunkheaded misguided musical actually manages to do so...There is evidence that the cast can sing, but everything has been done by director Daniel Fish to disguise the fact."
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