Oklahoma! (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (871)
See it if You want to see just how much can be done with a musical without altering the text.
Don't see it if You want the original show. Very little of that remains. Read more
See it if you're willing to dig below the surface of what's usually a happy show.
Don't see it if you aren't willing to expand your horizons.
See it if a clever reimagining of a classic American musical with an outstanding cast.
Don't see it if if you are looking for something akin to the original.
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 the re-imagining of classic shows; you want to see an incredible cast bring a new vision to the stage.
Don't see it if You’re expecting to see the old Oklahoma (This is not it. Even though they didn’t change songs or the book, it feels totally different.) Read more
See it if you want an artsy, edgy, gutsy night at the theatre featuring an unbelievable cast and a new, relevant spin on an old classic.
Don't see it if you want the Oklahoma you know or if you're a "purist" and can't imagine enjoying a new interpretation.
See it if You want to see and old show reimagined for today’s audiences.
Don't see it if If you’re expecting to see a standard revival. Read more
See it if you want to see how the pros can transform a dated script/songbook into something relevant and edgy without changing a single word.
Don't see it if you are expecting anything similar to previous productions of Oklahoma. This could not be more delightful different.
Critic Reviews (48)
“Controversial revival...Without changing the dialogue or the classic score...Fish has given the show a grittier makeover...But the most important change in this telling of the story is that all the show’s underlying class, gender and sexual tensions are made explicit...The direction struck me as too self-conscious and, in places, even gimmicky. Some of the singing fails to do justice to Rodger's glorious melodies.”
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"A multi-talented, vibrant cast, some of whom shine with resplendence...Thought-provoking, intriguing but also convoluted...All involved did a superb job in effecting Fish’s vision. That the incongruities and convolutions in this version were startling to me is of little consequence...This version should be seen because of Fish’s conceptualizations and the creative designers’ and ensemble’s live performance spectacle which audience members will, at the last, appreciate."
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"A revival as bold, fresh, and revelatory as any I’ve ever been privileged to see...The key revelation of this production is not just its deft deconstruction of a canonical and totemic masterpiece of American musical theatre, but its adroit unearthing of the subtext that has always lurked beneath the surface of Hammerstein II’s brilliant book...Fish dares to interrogate deeper than perhaps any director before him...Fish could not have assembled a finer ensemble with which to reinterpret."
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"Fish’s daring, brilliant, utterly absorbing re-interpretation...It does this seriously and with fun, and with an overall smart snappiness in its tone and characters...They look inquiring, pained, split about what and who they want in their futures. The production is played, extremely skillfully, for laughs and the very opposite of laughs...Fish and his cast ask reasoned questions...those questions are answered with vivid, pugnacious confidence."
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"Fish has stripped down this chestnut of the American musical theater to its barest, rawest elements...Fish’s biggest innovation is to pull back the set pieces and put the turn-of-the-20th-century characters — and their many contradictions — center stage...Not all of Fish’s gambits entirely work...His most radical departure from Hammerstein’s script comes in the finale...The scene is a transfixing coup de theatre, but it doesn’t feel entirely earned."
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“The current ‘Oklahoma!’...is not all golden and not at all hazy. Violence and smoldering sexual desires are layered under the sunny lyrics of ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ unveiling a darkness...Fish’s audacious directing has not changed Hammerstein’s book or his vernacular lyrics...De Mille’s choreography...was re-imagined...from ballet to...an overlong portrayal of subconscious longings...The stunning shock of violence seems completely out of synch with the last song.”
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"Fish has found and brought to the fore the dark, dark colours underlying R&H’s buoyant tale...The orchestrations and arrangements...have a country-western twang or pop flavouring, but they still delight...Along with the festivities, though, there’s a hint of violence...Splendid cast...The move to Broadway has maintained the show’s intimacy, while somehow enriching the musicality, and added even a bit more ingrained depth to its characters...Dynamic theatre.”
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“Fish and his cast have supplied...a contemporaneously valid set of characters, which is remarkable, because he hasn’t changed a note of Rodgers’ beautiful score, nor has he changed any of Hammerstein’s poetically loving, wise and witty lyrics. What he’s done is order new orchestrations and arrangements...The first act is a joy from start to finish...The second act, opens with a bizarre solo dance...I found it unclear, astringent, and musically atonal...The rest of the second act played well.”
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