When Rodriguez starred in the Arena Stage's 2010 revival of ''Oklahoma!,'' he won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.
Directed by Molly Smith, it wasn't your grandmother's ''Oklahoma!'' either. It was done in the round, with a terrifically talented and diverse, multiethnic cast. Besides a Latino Curly, it featured an African-American Laurey (Eleasha Gamble) and Aunt Eller (E. Faye Butler), and an Ali Hakim, played by Nehal Joshi (of Indian descent). The production was such a critical and box office hit that it was brought back the next year, and there was buzz that it'd move to Broadway (possibly to Circle in the Square, but to me, it's a scandal, it's an outrage that it didn't happen).
As for Rodriguez, he's often busy in regional theater, but a laudable leading man like him belongs back on Broadway. |
